Today, barber shops and salons in Michigan can start welcoming in customers again.
But in Georgia, where WKAR's Sophia Saliby is currently living, it’s been more than a month since they began to re-open.
To give Michiganders an idea of what their next cut and color or shave might look like, Sophia headed to her local salon in Atlanta.
A Trip To The Salon For The First Time In Months
Wearing a mask, I walked into the salon doors of Creature Studio and was greeted at the front desk with a quick temperature check and a pump of hand sanitizer.
The salon my hair dresser, Bit Sanders, works at has been open since early May, but she waited until the beginning of June to start cutting hair again. She says she has some high-risk family members and was anxious about going back too early.
“I wanted to wait to see how the numbers kind of played out after restaurants and salons were reopened so quickly here in Georgia,” she said.
Most everything is the same though. We talked about what was going on in our lives, some hair tips for my cut and what’s changed in salons in the past few months.
Getting your hair cut has become kind of a symbol of personal freedom during the pandemic.
A barber in Owosso is tied up in a legal battle with the state of Michigan after he continued to cut hair when the state ordered shops to be closed.
Hair stylists and barbers staged a protest where they gave free cuts on the Capitol Lawn in Lansing last month.
Sanders says she’s lost clients over her decision to wait to start meeting customers again. She felt hurt because as much as she wanted to go back to work, she couldn’t.
“We just were trying to protect our own health and our own family's health, and at the end of the day, we love to make everyone feel beautiful and feel their best selves,” she said. “But we also have to protect our well being and your guys' well being.”
Now that Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signaled it’s ok for people to go to hair salons again, Sanders has some advice for Michigan hair stylists.
“I think to all the hairdressers that are just going back to work, I think just love your clients and love yourself and be really patient and know that we're going to make this work.”
