Hair Salons are back styling and have had to adapt to COVID-19.
Hairapy in Lacombe has enhanced many of their in-place protocols and added even more in order to not only be compliant with provincial health guidelines, but also ensure the safety of their staff and clients.
Owner Salene Matheson said they adhering to strict sanitizing protocols.
“We clean all of our utensils, scissors and combs and we have removed all unnecessary items from the salon to minimize virus contact. The only things on our tables is our mirror. We have all of our hairdryers in sealed containers, so there is no way to transmit,” she said.
The salon has moved to staggered single booking and has also added screening measures to ensure clients are healthy coming into the door.
“When they come in, we have a screening process with some questions, a temperature check, hand sanitizer and everyone gets a mask. We wear masks all day long, they wear masks and there is a plexiglass barrier between our stations and the sink,” she said.
The salon is no longer using paper booking and is only blow drying after they wash the hair within the salon. Stylists also are wearing scrubs, which they leave at the salon to be washed daily.
Matheson said she and her staff feel safe in the salon due to the extra measures they have taken, but she didn’t appreciate the speed in which the Province rolled out guidelines for salons.
“They left it up to us because we did have strict guidelines to start and assumed we could go forward, but it is nice to have something to base this on. None of us have gone through a pandemic before and I don’t appreciate how they did that,” she said.
Despite the lack of early guidance, Matheson feels salons were rightly placed in phase 1.
“I am totally confident that we were ready to get back and start helping people again. We wanted to get back to what we know best,” she said
So far, clients have been positive according to Matheson and have been excited to return to their salon.
“We have been getting screams on the phone when they have heard we can get them in,” she said.
Matheson said getting people back into the salons was overdue for many people.
“Not just because of the vanity side of it but more of the emotional. We have walked people through the death of a child of the death of a husband — and also the birth of a child or their grandkids. We are part of the family and some of them we see more than their family does,” she said
She added, “I think it is important to stop the spread. I have a grandson and one of the girls here has a little girls. The last thing we would want to do would be to spread it to them. That is the same for our clients — we want them to feel safe and sound in here. If we can stop the spread and still do our jobs, the little sacrifices of wearing masks and doing extra cleaning is completely worth it.”
todd.vaughan@lacombeexpress.com
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