Kamloops locals are suffering from "quarantine hair" during the pandemic, and missing their stylists.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED
May 16, 2020 - 7:00 AM
Jen Stonehouse would normally get her hair coloured once a month but since B.C.'s state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic, she's been watching her patchy pink slowly lose a battle with the brown underneath.
"My roots are as long as my pinkie," the Kamloops resident says. She can't wait until B.C. health regulations let her get back into her stylist's chair. "I look forward to shedding my ash brown roots."
She knows how she wants her hair to look, but how she returns to her stylist is far less certain.
Phase two of B.C.'s re-opening includes personal services such as hair salons, however, a guaranteed date for these changes has not been set, nor has anyone established how it will happen.
Loyal Woodridge of Loyal Hair Therapy in Kelowna says salons haven't gotten a lot of direction, despite the announcement.
"I think a lot of industry was expecting it to be more... real specifics of opening, and it ended up being more of a preface," Wooldridge said.
When clients are finally back in the chair, Wooldridge hopes they will be patient and tolerant of big changes in the salon.
"We have to allow for more time for sanitation, we have to allow more time for physical distancing," he said. "I know that consumers are really excited to be back in the chair and getting their hair done, but we have to do it slowly, we have to do it carefully and we have to plan this out really well."
As specific guidelines for hair salons have yet to be released, Wooldridge is preparing for re-opening using a COVID-19 guide distributed to salons in Europe.
"(Customers) can expect pre-screening the day before they come into the salon, to ensure no one is coming into the space that has had any symptoms within the last 14 days," he said. "It’ll be very much like a dental office, so you can’t be bringing in extra people with you."
Wooldridge has installed plexiglass shields between each station in the salon, but he's still waiting for a delivery of personal protective equipment for his staff.
"That will definitely be the next concern that we have," he said. "That’s probably part of the frustration that salons face, is by not having those concrete guidelines they don’t necessarily know what to order."
Wooldridge is cautiously anticipating re-opening at the beginning of June. In the meantime, he will be awaiting more direction on protocol from WorkSafe B.C., and rigorously training staff.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has said May 19 is a "potential date for re-opening," and that guidance for personal service industries will be coming out soon.
"Each individual owner needs to look at their own circumstance and see whether, and how they can meet the guidance before they’re able to open," she said. "So it’s going to be a progression over a period of time, depending on individual situations."
Henry added that she will amend the order for salons to close based on whether each business is able to meet guidelines.
That can't come soon enough for Dawn Schreiner of Kamloops who already got a quarantine cut that was a little shorter than she was hoping for.
Her partner cut her bangs for her, and she's been wearing a hat ever since.
Dawn Schreiner got her bangs a little shorter than she bargained for.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Dawn Schreiner
"My guy feels pretty bad about my COVID-gone-wrong haircut," she said. "I'm hoping my hairdresser can fix it, what's left of it."
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