DALLAS — In less than two days, salons and barbershops will have the opportunity to reopen in the state of Texas. But as Friday gets closer, operators are making decisions on whether to open their doors.
On Tuesday, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson encouraged Dallas residents to hold off on visiting a barber shop or a beauty salon “for a bit longer” until the city makes more progress on the coronavirus.
But many businesses believe they are in a position to reopen safely.
Paul Hollowell is the owner of Lux Tanning Spa. He founded his company seven years ago and it continues to grow. He’s been working on new safety protocols since his salon closed weeks ago.
“We want to make sure that clients and employees feel like Lux is going to be the safest place they can be,” Hollowell said.
Hollowell’s team will be regularly using hospital grade disinfectant throughout the facility.
“All of those rooms are going to be sanitized, all of the equipment is going to be sanitized in between each individual client,” he said. “As clients come in for their service that entire space has been completely sanitized from top to bottom.”
Additionally, his spa experience makes it much easier to social distance.
“The rooms as I mentioned are completely private so our clients are alone by themselves in their room,” Hollowell said. “We have put every standard in place far above and beyond CDC standards to make sure that they feel confident coming into LUX.”
RELATED: Texas hair salons, barbershops, nail salons cleared to reopen Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott says
But every situation is different, especially in the world of hair salons and barbershops.
Jacob Luendu works out of Adrin’s Sports Barber Shop in Addison. Though some of the barbers in the shop will return to work Friday, he plans to wait.
“Now is just not the right time,” Luendu said. “It just really didn’t seem like anything had really progressed for the better in terms of the virus.”
He says it should be the state of the virus that dictates when they reopen.
“If the state of the virus has not improved, the number of cases, the number of deaths, the level at which the health care system is overwhelmed right now, if that has not improved, it doesn’t make logical sense to me to go back,” he said.
“I’m just going to be extra cautious,” Luendu added. “Maybe I wouldn’t be as cautious if it was just me living by my own, but I have a wife at home, I have a baby on the way, so that kind of just pushes me to be extra cautious.”
He said his clients have been very supportive.
“They have just been telling me like ‘Don’t worry bro, I’m going to wait. I’m not going to anybody else but you, I’m going to wait I don’t care how rough I’m looking I’m going to wait for you,” he said.
As for Hollowell, he’s just looking forward to getting back to the company he saved a lifetime to build.
“We are excited more than anything to get back to work,” Hollowell said. “We have been missing seeing our clients.”
For customers, employees, or employers affected by the governor's amended order, all of the openings come with a lot of restrictions.
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