CALGARY -- With just over week until the earliest possible opening date for Alberta’s salons and barbershops, owners are having to determine the best way to serve long wait lists of customers while still being safe.
Some shops are taking bookings for May 14 and are implementing extra cleaning measures, moving seats to adhere to physical distancing requirements and ordering masks for staff and clients.
"We'll be checking temperatures, we'll have masks for people who can't bring masks," says Lisa Friesen, the owner of Vivid Hair Design in northwest Calgary.
Friesen spent Wednesday making sure styling stations are at least two metres apart, moving some chairs to the basement to allow for physical distancing. Product was also removed from the shelves to make sure people aren't handling bottles and boxes.
"Two days before the clients come for their appointments, we'll be pre-screening. If anyone has symptoms, they'll need to be rebooking," Friesen says.
Others are deciding to hold off opening, opting instead to wait for more thorough guidelines from the provincial government.
“At this time, I do not feel it would be possible to safely reopen for May 14,” wrote Jereme Bokitch, owner of Hedkandi Salon and Johnny’s Barber + Shop in Calgary, in an email to customers.
“I know your hair is getting long and your greys may be showing (mine is too), but I ask that you please hang in there a little bit longer while we wait for further guidelines from Alberta Health Services."
Mayor Naheed Nenshi also called on the province to provide more information for business owners who are able to open up next Thursday.
“I’ve heard from many, many hairstylists that they’re not even sure where to begin with this conversation about what operating a hair salon safely looks like,” Nenshi said Tuesday.
“We need some answers from the provincial government so that businesses can make their decisions.”
An online petition calling for Alberta to remove hair salons and barbershops from stage one of the relaunch plan had garnered more than 4,400 signatures as of noon Wednesday.
“Our government has to understand that a decision to reopen salons first would put our communities and economy at greater risk than benefit,” the petition reads.
