GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says hair salons and other personal-care businesses can reopen across the state on June 15 after being shut down earlier this year to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Salon owners across West Michigan are looking forward to welcoming clients back into the salon.
Sara Close owns Capelli Salon in Eastown. She says she’s been waiting for this announcement for a long time, and has been preparing for months.
“A mixture of excited and relieved, and now I feel the pressure to get everything in order. We have a lot of appointments we had to cancel and move several times so our first plan of attack will be to re-book those appointments that were missed.”
She says the salon has all the PPE they will need, and that the plastic dividers are ready to be installed to protect their clients. The typical gathering spots in her salon is at the front desk. She says that won’t be the case for now.
“It’ll be a little bit different. We have taken out our waiting room, so people will come in they will call us when they arrive, they’ll wait in their car so we’ll be able to escort them right to their stylists chair. There will be hand washing and sanitation when they come in. Everyone staff and clientele will be required to wear a mask. We also will have Plexiglas between the stations just to give that extra space.”
Ashley Parlour is the owner of The Parlour in downtown Grand Rapids. She says everyone in the salon will be required to wear a mask, and vows to follow the guidelines that Governor Whitmer has put forth to reopen safely.
She says her clients have been supportive through the covid 19 shutdown.
"Lots of nice emails and phone calls and everybody is really eager to get in but also very understanding. So we’re had great support from our clients.”
And in case you did give yourself a bad quarantine haircut, the local stylists 13 ON YOUR SIDE talked to say they will not judge you.
“We still Love you, we still want you to come in. We won’t judge you we all had to do what we had to do,” says Ashley Parlour.
“No one should feel any guilt or remorse,” says Sara Close. “We are just here to help move you forward. So whatever that looks like, if you have to grow out some crazy bangs, or if you have some very strange hair color, it’s all good.”
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