TAMPA, Fla. — As restaurants and shops prepare to reopen on Monday, some hairstylists are wondering when it will be their turn.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is working toward that day.
He met with salon and barbershop owners Saturday afternoon in Orlando to discuss protocol and safety. It was a welcome sight for hairstylists.
“Honestly I’m ready to go. So I have my mask and everything to wear," said Ashley Nisheé, curl specialist and owner of Ashley Nisheé Hair Studio. She's been prepping her salon and tentatively putting appointments on her calendar for mid-May for anxious clients.
“Everybody is tired of their hair looking kind of crazy, so they’re like, ‘Ashley please tell me you’re taking people right now.’ I’m not. But let’s all cross our fingers and get you on the book.”
She's begun planning how to keep herself and clients safe.
“I did let all of my clients know that they are required to wear a mask coming in," Nisheé said. She has also started booking future appointments with a 30-minute gap in between to give herself ample time to clean and turn everything over. If someone gets there early, there will be no waiting in the salon.
“Wait in their cars until my next guest is gone, everything is able to be cleaned,” she said.
One thing that cannot be changed about the hairdresser experience is the lack of social distance between hairdressers and barbers and their clients. Even so, health care professionals might give them the green light with certain precautions.
“We talked about mandatory masking versus expecting people to do that. This might be an environment where you say clients need to wear masks. And they might need to know that when they schedule," said Dr. George Ralls of Orlando Health ORMC during the roundtable discussion with the governor.
For now, Nisheé is going to watch to see what happens as the state reopens.
“Open the restaurants, see what happens,” she said. “And then just let me know. Let me know when it’s time to go.”
What other people are reading right now:
- Gov. DeSantis says reopening can begin May 4, restaurants can open with restrictions
- Gov. DeSantis: 'Not a matter of if, but when' salons and barbershops reopen
- Florida Health quietly releases more specific data on nursing home deaths
- ‘We need it most’: Social Security recipients still waiting for stimulus checks
- $12 per hour raise? Mitt Romney proposes it for essential workers
- Hotlines, websites offer the latest on COVID-19
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