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Salons Readying to Re-open, Again, After Delay

Among the businesses slotted to re-open in Connecticut on May 20 were hair salons and barbershops. And then, Governor Ned Lamont announced May 18 that their opening would be delayed until June.

According to the announcement, after hearing concerns from salon and barbershop owners that they needed more time to ready their businesses to open safely, Lamont and Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo aligned the timing of salon openings in both states. The May 20 start of Phase I of Connecticut’s re-opening proceeded as planned.

For local salon owners like Megan Girolamo of Blow Dry by the Beach in Old Saybrook, the “delay is certainly upsetting,” she said by email.

“For several weeks we have exhausted all efforts ensuring we have all needed personal protective equipment (PPE), and all changes to our salon were made in a timely matter to ensure a safe and methodical reopen,” she said.

For Girolamo and the three other owners of the salon, it has been “all hands...on deck planning to open up and making sure to do so in a safe manner for everybody,” she said in an earlier phone interview.

Physical changes involved placing temporary acrylic barriers between styling stations and at the front desk, as well as installing six-foot markers to ensure customers were aware of social distancing requirements.

The salon is also transitioning from its focus on blow drying and styling; according to guidance from the governor’s office, blow drying should be used only as necessary. Girolamo will now offer cut and color, though the salon’s regular makeup and spray tanning services have been put on pause.

In adherence to the guidelines, Blow Dry by the Beach will reduce occupancy to 50 percent of capacity. Three of six chairs will be used at one time and staff will wear masks and gloves. The retail section of the store will be closed.

“We don’t want our customers browsing and handling products,” Girolamo said. “We’ll still be offering those products, but the stylists will be helping them.

“We’re reducing all sorts of areas that are shared,” she explained.

The salon will also offer home delivery of shampoo, conditioner, and styling products.

In Westbrook, Salon Belle Vie, like many others, has been reaching out to its customers via social media and on May 13 posted its new protocols on its Facebook page. The sudden delay came as a disappointment to owner Jessie Griffith and staff, who have been busy contacting customers in order of their canceled appointments.

Griffith’s disappointment in the reopening delay doesn’t mean she doesn’t appreciate the need for caution.

“I actually decided to close [the salon] before the state did,” said Griffith of her March closing before the governor’s executive order. “All of us stylists and customers...were getting really nervous. I pulled the plug a little early. None of us has gotten sick—I don’t think any of our clients have. We’re a tight-knit family.”

A great deal of preparation went into re-opening preparations after the roughly two-month closure. The salon, which ordinarily has nine stations, removed one to provide more space. Only three will be in use for the time being.

“We have three sinks at the back,” said Griffith. “We’re going to try to use one at a time.”

Sinks and stations will be sanitized between clients—Griffith has scheduled 15-minute breaks between appointments for this.

Services will be by appointment only and the waiting room will be closed. That means customers arriving for their appointments will be asked to wait outside or in their cars until their stylist is ready. As at all hair cutting establishments across the state, clients will be required to wear masks.

“If you are exhibiting any symptoms whatsoever, we ask that you please reschedule your appointment,” the salon’s guidelines posted on Facebook state.

Griffith did not have too much difficulty obtaining PPE and cleaning supplies. She’s bought cloth masks for her staff on Amazon and Etsy; some employees have made masks themselves. She has also purchased face shields on Amazon.

One of the salon’s distributors has been able to access cleaning supplies, including hand sanitizer. And Griffith has purchased masks for clients who don’t bring their own.

In an email to Harbor News on May 19, the day before the planned opening, Griffith said she was “bummed.”

“[A]s much as some of us were nervous, the general feeling among us all was excitement,” she said. “I understand the opposition to opening now and harbor some of those feelings myself, as I have an infant and two elementary-age kids at home. It scares me to think I could bring something home to them.

“But I also know that we are prepared and understand the actions we need to take to keep us and our clients safe,” she continued. “I met with [Westbrook Director of Health Zachary Faiella] this morning and we have everything in place to open.”

For Kim Piontek, owner of Bella Capelli Salon in Saybrook, the governor’s decision was “absolutely terrible.”

“If he was going to change his mind he should have done it a week ago,” she said.

Forty-eight hours notice was not sufficient considering that weeks, and much care, have been spent rescheduling appointments, she said.

Piontek and her staff have kept in contact with clients during the hiatus, going so far as to offer color kits for home use.

“Everyone was calling about box color and we were trying to save them from a disaster,” she said.

The kits were accompanied by Piontek’s instructions for doing the best job possible at home.

“Some people had to go to work, some people had conference calls [online] and they didn’t want to sit there with two-inch roots,” she explained. Offering the kits was “what we tried to do to get everybody through.”

“We worked with a third party and they sent us everything,” she said, adding that the kits were about customer care rather than making a profit. “We weren’t really making any money from them.”

Not too many physical changes to Bella Capelli have been necessary, Piontek said, although only every other chair will be in use.

Waxing, spray tanning, and eyelash extensions will not be on offer for the time being “because of how close you have to get to a person’s face” to provide those services, she said. “We’re limiting [services] to strictly hair.”

Piontek put a lot of thought into re-opening, saying that if her salon were not in Middlesex County, which hasn’t been hit too hard by the pandemic, she might not do it.

“Of course I want to reopen—I want to get my business back in line—but at the same time, I want everyone to be safe, the staff and the clients,” she said.

But “[w]e have a really good plan in place to keep everyone safe,” she added. “I feel pretty good about it.”

For Blow Dry at the Beach’s Girolamo, re-opening is “really just managing our clients’ expectations. I think everyone’s going to be a little nervous for the first [visit]. Over two months, a lot of people have missed appointments.

“We’ll start slow and get comfortable with our disinfecting protocols and cleaning processes,” she continued. “We’ll establish a good routine and then we’ll start opening our doors a little greater and be able to service more clients and more appointments on a daily basis.”

“I guess if we have to wait 10 more days it’s only 10 days at this point,” said Griffith of Salon Belle Vie. “I have a feeling some things are going to change again this week. So I’m trying not to have any expectations.”