If Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t understand why asking salons to operate outdoors is impractical, Nicky Lecher would like a word.
“What are we going to say while someone is being waxed?” she said. “Would you like to face Whole Foods or TJ Maxx today?”
After months of yo-yoed openings and closures in the Bay Area, many in the beauty industry are realizing that it might be impossible to move their businesses outdoors — the only place salons are being allowed to operate in the region as it struggles with the pandemic.
A coalition of suite-based salons, which provide one-on-one personal care in separate, sanitized zones, is lobbying Gov. Gavin Newsom to reconsider his July 13 order and allow beauticians to get back to work.
“Our girls have been trying to live off subsidies that are way less than they can earn. They want to be in the salon working,” said Lecher, who owns seven LunchboxWax salons in the Bay Area and had planned to open two more this year. “They have families. They have mouths to feed. They have kids that they have to educate at home now. Life is expensive.”
Every industry has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but maybe none more than fitness and beauty, which have endured a roller-coaster of guidelines and protocols and openings and closures for 4 ½ months.
Closed in mid-March under shelter in place, the personal-care industry was allowed staggered comebacks by Bay Area counties in June and July — only to be told July 13 that shuttering had been ordered again in counties placed on a state watch list. A week later, the state said businesses in affected counties could operate outside.
For most, it’s logistically unfeasible to move outside, given limited outdoor access and liability, a lack of running water and electricity, and modesty concerns.
Lecher’s businesses have added temperature checks and masks to a sanitation protocol that otherwise already exceeded the state’s latest guidelines.
Having already invested in outdoor furniture and tried to get insurance to move outside, Lecher and others have started to petition the government for a better solution.
A coalition that includes nearly 6,000 self-employed beauticians in California wrote a letter last week to Newsom and other state officials citing statistics to support their arguments.
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The group believes that suite-style salons are similar to medical offices. The spaces have enclosed walls, ceilings, and doors and are separated from common hallways. No tools, sinks, chairs, equipment or surfaces are shared by cosmetologists, and all interactions are based on a one-on-one model between masked people who aren’t experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
“You could eat off our floors,” said Lecher, who doesn’t allow entrance to anyone but the client and beautician, other than infants. “Our professionals are like doctors and nurses. They’re doing procedures where safety is the priority. You’ll think you’re going in for a triple bypass.”
Even so, the petitioners haven’t gotten movement yet from governmental leaders.
“The situation is fluid and the environment is constantly changing,” the Department of Consumer Affairs said in a statement. “The Board of Barbering and Cosmetology is sensitive to the effects this issue is having on businesses. Personal care operations that are on the statewide monitoring list must comply with the governor’s orders not to operate indoors, however, the board is continuing to review and assess the situation.”
Stylists protested Friday in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza.
After a two-year extended maternity leave, Stephanie Garcia was supposed to open G. Salon Studio within the My Salon Suite in San Jose on April 6. She was finally allowed to open July 13, and her business was permitted to operate for only two days — a reversal that resulted in her calling about 80 clients to cancel or change appointments.
“The heart and soul that you put into it your business and clients in these situations, it’s just heartbreaking,” Garcia said. “It’s not about the hair. It’s about community, care and respect. We go through marriages, divorces, births, deaths, everything with our clients. To have to call them every couple of days while they’re on their own roller-coasters, it’s just unfair to the soul sometimes.”
Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron
