Beauty salons and barbershops are able to get back to cutting hair today with the lifting of the coronavirus restrictions.
Todd Anderson who owns the Mantrap Beauty Salon and the Le Mars Beauty College says there is a list of things the state requires for both businesses. The list starts with the six-foot distance between the stations where the hair is cut.
“We are going to have to do a lot of sanitizing between each customer, cleaning the shampoo bowls between each customer, sanitizing the chairs, the countertops — just stuff like that,” Anderson says. Anderson says the staff will be wearing masks. He recommends that customers also bring a mask — but says it may take some creativity to hold up the mask while the hair cutting is in progress.
Todd Anderson
“I’ve seen on some Facebook posts where there’s customers who have to hold the mask — because I know it is not going to be easy cutting hair around ears when they are wearing a mask — but I’ve seen some pictures where the customer is actually holding the maks while the stylist or student is cutting their hair. That’s what it looks like it is going to be,” Anderson says.
Anderson says his business hours will remain the same as they were prior to the start of coronavirus. Customers will have to sign up ahead of time to get in. “It’s got to be by appointment only,” according to Anderson, “and the customer is probably going to have to wait outside until we call them to come in because we can’t have that many people in each building. So, once a customer leaves, we will call a customer and waive them in and tell them that we are ready for them.”
The governor is allowing beauty and barbershops in all 99 counties to re-open with the restrictions recommended by the Iowa Department of Public Health.
(Story and photos by Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars)