To ensure for social distancing, it has turned the wax room into a hair styling area, moved a processing area up to the lobby and designed a plan to only place stylists and their clients at every other station.
“We’ve just had to get creative,” she said. “It certainly looks a little different, for the time being.”
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Customers may be asked to wait in their vehicles until they are called inside to give salon staffers more time to sanitize chairs, stations and implements between customers.
Stylists will wear masks and will see one client at a time as opposed to two or more family members or friends.
“We just can’t do that right now,” Stitzel said.
Revive Salon also is extending its hours to catch up with weeks of backlog. Instead of being open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, it will be open, at least the first few weeks, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday.
“I’m going to be working a lot more hours to accommodate people and since they’re going to be spread out, we’re working more hours for less money,” Stitzel said. “It’s definitely going to be a (financial) hit to every hair stylist everywhere. We can’t double book, so we have to work twice the hours to get the same amount of people in.”
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She hopes that people, no matter where they get their hair cut or styled, will bear with their hair stylists or barbers during these challenging times.
“We’re working as hard as we can to get everybody in,” Stitzel said. “Just try to be understanding.”
According to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine's Responsible RestartOhio plan, guidelines include ensuring a minimum of six feet between employees, requiring all employees to wear facial coverings, allowing customers to use facial coverings and cleaning high-touch items after each use.
Guidelines also include wearing gloves and disposing of gloves in between tasks in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention glove removal guidance and maintaining accurate appointment and walk-in records including date and time of service, name of client and contact information.
Jeff Wilder, co-owner of VoodooTattoo in Middletown, said he’s excited to reopen Friday and get his four employees back into the shop, especially as they could not secure unemployment benefits and have been frustrated after weeks of not earning a paycheck.
“They’ve been without a pretty substantial amount of their income,” he said.
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Wilder, who has worked at the business since it opened in 2004, purchased it with his wife and Gary Deaton in 2007.
Instructions from the state have been “vague,” he said, but the shop has decided to eliminate its waiting-room lobby and operate, at least for now, by appointment only, allowing it to catch up on a backlog of about four weeks.
Cleaning thoroughly between clients is already a regulated part of the tattoo industry, but a greater emphasis will be put on disinfecting more surfaces than ever including door handles and items not associated with the trade, Wilder said.
Only one person will be allowed in a session at a time per procedure and customers will be asked to wear masks, he said.
“We’re even discussing not even doing anything from the neck up basically, even the neck,” Wilder said. “As far as piercings go and those kind of things, if we can’t put a barrier between them and us, for their safety and our safety, we just won’t practice that procedure.”
Ohio’s reopening schedule
May 15: Restaurants will be allowed to host outdoor dining. Barbers, hair salons, nail salons, day spas and tanning facilities will reopen. Tattoo, body piercing and massage businesses also will be allowed to reopen.
May 21: Restaurants are permitted to reopen indoor dining, with some restrictions.
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