PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A little more than a month after Gov. Janet Mills closed hairdressers and barbers in Maine to contain COVID-19, salons across Presque Isle said people were rushing to get back to the stylist chair on Friday.
Barbershops and hair salons were among the first businesses permitted to re-open on Friday, May 1, in what is the first stage of Mills’ four-phased plan to restart Maine’s economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Business had come sweeping back, said Sheri Carter, owner of Great Beginnings Hair Boutique in Presque Isle. While some are booking new appointments, other regulars had rescheduled appointments canceled during the shutdown.
“The phone hasn’t stopped ringing,” Carter said on Friday morning. “It’s back to business as usual.”
While business was as good as ever Friday, clients should not expect a return from the “new normal” immediately. For example, patrons of Great Beginnings were no longer allowed to thumb through magazines in the waiting room because they were relegated to their vehicles until the beginning of the appointment.
Hairdressers and clients alike wore masks at all times, staff frequently sanitized equipment and the number of people in a room was kept as low as possible. Carter said the boutique had already followed rules requiring a new cape for every client.
Like other hairdressers across Presque Isle and the state, it was following guidelines released by the state on Wednesday, April 29.
There was some concern among the boutique’s employees about the safety of re-opening, Carter said. She sought to assuage such concerns by closely following state-mandated guidelines.
So far, she said most clients had been comfortable getting a haircut in the new environment. She said one 98-year-old woman had come in ecstatic to get her hair done for the first time in months.
Some businesses could hardly keep up with renewed interest from a public yearning to get back to their regular routines. Lori Burtt — owner of Hair & Beyond in Presque Isle — said many had called trying to ink themselves in for that day. Meanwhile, the salon was already booked for the next couple of weeks.
“I enjoyed my time off, not going to lie,” Burtt said. “But it’s great to get back in the groove of things.”
While many stylists are itching to get back to work, it is not without some mixed emotions. Sheila Cunningham, owner of Total Look in Presque Isle, said that while she was excited to work with clients again, re-opening during COVID-19 brought fears as well.
“It’s a little scary for us. We know that people want us, but at the end of the day, we want to be healthy,” Cunningham said. “It’s a lot of emotions wrapped in one.”
Cunningham said her salon was following the guidelines “to a tee,” even when it added extra work on their end. She said the various sanitation measures the salon had taken between appointments had increased total workload.
With staff working hard to reschedule canceled appointments and keep up the re-opening, the salon received another show of support increasingly common as The County fights the pandemic: free food.
Boxes of pizza from Pat’s Pizza in Presque Isle had been sent anonymously to their location from a good samaritan.
“Whoever you are, you are an amazing human being,” it wrote on Facebook. “We appreciate you.”
