These Manatee County hair salons are back open after COVID-19 shutdown. And they’re busy
Lisa Moscarello didn’t get a Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Small Business Administration, which guarantees forgiveness for keeping workers on the payroll, for her hair salon in downtown Bradenton.
For roughly the past six weeks, the future for Salon Uptown Downtown was cloudy after COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, forced widespread closures of businesses as Florida went into quarantine.
“When you’re used to having an income and then your income suddenly stops, and being individual owners or booth renters, we didn’t qualify for any of the government funding,” Moscarello said.
Moscarello said she thought how was she going to make money and pay her bills.
Then this past Friday came when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order to allow barber shops and beauty salons, outside of Miami-Dade and Broward counties, to reopen Monday as a continuation of his Phase One plan to reopen the state.
Clamoring customers
“I was super excited about that,” Moscarello said. “A lot of salons are not open on Monday anyway, but I am. And my phone was blowing up with phone calls and texts, ‘When can I get in? When can I get in?’”
Moscarello estimated she fielded about 30 phone calls since Friday, and she said her salon, which has been in operation for nine years, is pretty full for most of the week and is maxing out at six appointments per day.
Per DeSantis’ order, there are guidelines on what’s allowed and not allowed for barber shops and beauty salons that decided to reopen Monday. They include promoting social distancing and having employees wear masks when performing personal services. Customers can only get served through appointments.
Customers are not required to wear masks, DeSantis’ order states.
None of that deterred Cindy Edwards or Holly Ianiro from getting haircuts.
“Since all this stuff started I needed a haircut and never got it done,” said Edwards at Salon Uptown Downtown. “Now it’s gotten so long (I) thought, ‘I can’t take this no more.’”
Busy reopening
Ianiro, a 62-year-old who moved to Bradenton seven years ago from Cleveland, had an appointment at The Loft Hair Studio, 7420 Cortez Road W. in Bradenton, for April 1.
Due to the ongoing global pandemic, Ianiro didn’t have a hairdresser to see. Then owner Carolina Angel began calling customers who had their previous appointments postponed following Friday’s order from DeSantis.
“I was thrilled,” Ianiro said. “I went to bed happy. I woke up happy. I was excited to get here (Monday) and thrilled Carolina called me and said she’d take me (Monday).”
To accommodate the safety guidelines for reopening, Angel said they’re using only three stylists working at a time instead of six or eight to limit capacity. And to deal with the amount of customers, their hours are 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
“The people we called first, their reaction was really excited to get in this week,” Angel said. “And the people we’re calling now, three days later and are getting booked a month from now, they’re a little disappointed that they have to wait so long. But I think, overall, everybody’s pretty understanding.”
Funding for the future
While closed, Angel attempted to get a Payment Protection Program loan but was denied originally. The second time, however, Angel succeeded in securing a loan of $88,500, she said.
“It all happened at the same time,” Angel said.
That offers protection for her employees and the salon for eight weeks.
“It’s definitely a relief going forward knowing that things are going to be covered and the employees are going to be paid whether we’re able to stay open or not,” Angel said. “We may reopen for a couple of weeks and the numbers might spike again and they might shut everything down again. It’s very uncertain at this time.”
While the phone was ringing off the hook since Friday, Angel, who grew up in Bradenton, said she had to turn new customers away.
Ianiro was one of the fortunate ones to get an appointment Monday.
“I know that if the salon opened, they were going to follow all of the guidelines,” Ianiro said. “I have a mask on, everyone here has a mask on, they’re covering all the chairs. ... I feel a million percent confident of my safety, their safety.”
Not every barber shop or salon that could open did on Monday.
The Herald attempted to contact at least a dozen barber shops and salons seeking comment, with many either closed or not answering their phones.
Sports Clips was one that wasn’t open Monday. A voice mail stated plans to open their Bradenton location on Wednesday and the Sarasota location on Tuesday after employees went through training on the new guidelines.
