OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) - Starting Monday, salons can re-open their doors, three weeks after being mandated to close in response to the coronavirus.
And for many clients, they are ready to have their roots recolored and eyebrows waxed.
“I feel like my whole month of May is booked and into June, and everybody's panicking because I think that they were surprised that the salons got the go ahead and to open so quickly,” said Noelle Bush, co-owner and stylist at Evergreen Salon.
Bush, along with her co-owner Kelsey Knauss, closed the salon doors a few weeks before the mandate, wanting to keep their customers and themselves safe.
“Everybody wants to feel good and wants their hair done,” Bush said. “And I think it's hard when people are looking forward to the services so much that it's kind of a huge letdown. But I think everyone understands that safety is the top priority right now.”
But come Monday they will be reopening their doors with a few extra precautions in place. Clients will have to wear masks and are asked to have patience as the salon does a little extra sanitizing.
“Wear your own mask, we’d prefer. And actually, if you’re getting hair color, you would want it to be disposable so you don’t get color all over the strap. For me, any mask should work. We just don’t have enough for everyone and we prefer for you to walk into the salon with a mask,” said Knauss.
Knauss, an esthetician, said she is unable to do facials at this time. But she is still able to do microblading and waxing for eyebrows while customer keep their masks on.
And it’s not just the customers who are ready to go back.
“I'm so excited to be able to have people in here,” said Sarah Boyce, owner and hairstylist at One Salon. “Because it's going to bring some type of normalcy back to our lives. I really think so. And to make people feel good again.”
Boyce says there’s not been much direction from the Nebraska Board of Cosmetology, who oversees salons in the state.
“I've been on the internet every day like trying to figure out all the ins and outs and really all they say is less than 10 people, six feet distance,” Boyce said. “Salons can open as long as everybody's wearing a mask.”
But her and her team have put a system in place, asking customers to wear masks and wait in their car until their stylist is ready for them.
“We have plenty of space to maintain the six-foot distance, wear the masks, we're doing all the things we need to,” Boyce said. “Then the esthetician on the complete opposite side of the building with her clientele.”
Both salons say they are eager to re-open, but encourage any clients who aren’t comfortable coming in just yet to either wait to schedule an appointment.