Barbershops and salons prepare to reopen for phase two

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — There are many businesses that will open Friday after 5 p.m.

People are anxious to get back in the salon, and barbershop chairs for the first time since the pandemic started.

“After the governor’s announcement yesterday, the phone has not stopped ringing. Thankfully everybody’s ready to get back in the salon and get their eight weeks of roots touched up, and back to some normal looking haircuts,” Bangz Hair Salon Owner Linwood Gainey said.

Employees prepped the salon to make sure they are following all guidelines for the reopen.

Gainey said they will be supplying disposable capes, requiring employees and clients to wear face masks, doing temperature checks, and more.

“Everyone has to wait in their car until, their appointment time, and they’ll be called to come in one at a time. No one can bring in extra items like keys or coats, or umbrellas,” Gainey said.

Not too far away, Queen Street Barbershop Owner Hayden Mingus also ran through his preparedness checklist.

Per Governor Roy Cooper’s order, all stylists and barbers have to be spaced out and running at a 50% capacity.

“We have five full time barbers, which means, we’ll each have a client in our chair. That’s ten people in the shop, which is what our limit is,” Mingus said. “So we get to keep operation pretty much as normal, but we won’t have anybody on the couches waiting for haircuts, so it will just be one client at a time for their appointment.”

Mingus said these new guidelines will take some getting use to, for everyone in his shop.

“I think the biggest thing for us is going to be understanding that just because people are coming in here, doesn’t mean they’re extremely comfortable with society yet, so we have to kind of keep our distance from people we don’t know, or they don’t know us yet,” Mingus said.