By Patrick Newhook/February 10, 2022
Few people have been as affected by the cycle of Covid-19 business closures and partial re-openings as folks working in the hair styling industry.
Despite the uncertainty, barber Christine Day went ahead last April and opened her own shop, Beyond the Cut, in Mount Pearl.
Day had been renting a chair in another salon for three years before venturing out on her own.
Looking back at the move, she admits it was scary. “It was absolutely petrifying to be honest with you,” she said.
“Prior to opening it, because of the pandemic and because of the shutdowns that we’ve had, my clientele was able to build just because the restrictions at every other barbershop meant you no longer had a waiting room, there was no longer walk-in service, so there was kind of a shuffle in the barber industry. I literally was just fingers crossed that we do not get another shutdown so my business can grow. Of course, we did have a bit of a slow period opening up after Christmas with the high (Covid case) numbers, so it was pretty scary for a few weeks, but things are going back to normal.”
COVID-19 is a virus that requires people to stay away from each other. Barber shops are a business that require people to be close together. Barbers have seen a lot of changes in how they go about their work.
“A lot of sanitizer, a lot of cleaner, so I mean it has changed,” said Day. “You don’t know. You are really close to someone. Their mask is up, your mask is up, but it still is scary. I just make sure that my hands are sanitized in-between every client… I clean my chair, I clean my equipment in-between every client.”
The unpredictability of Alert level changes is something else to contend with.
“I have to say it is highly stressful, everyday you’re wondering, ‘Are my doors going to stay open,’” said Day. “A lot of local barbers are either commission based. For myself, If I’m not behind that chair cutting then I’m not getting paid. So it’s quite scary to think, ‘Okay we’re going to go into a lockdown, that’s it, there’s no money coming in’ and you’re kind of worried about it.”
Leanne Clarke is the owner of the One of Boys Barber Shop, which opened its first location in Paradise in 2010, and opened a second location in Mount Pearl in 2018.
According to Clarke, despite some setbacks, the Mount Pearl business was doing well prior to the pandemic.
“They were pretty well on par with the original location, despite the fact we had nine months of construction during that opening year, Snowmagedeon and then COVID happened,” Clarke said. “We were holding our own, at the time so we were doing pretty good.”
COVID-19 brought a lot of uncertainty.
“From a business front it’s a pretty scary situation because you don’t know if your bottom line is going to be met or if you will have to shut down and for how long, is there going to be enough funds to pay the bills during the time of shut down, and so on,” Clarke said. “Fortunately, yes, we could avail of some federal funding, but it wasn’t enough to really keep us topped up, it kept us kind of breaking even along with any sales we were allowed to have, be it online or be it curbside or the times when we were allowed to reopen. So, it was extremely uncertain When it comes to shutdowns, the ability to reopen and when was quite scary.”
On February 3 the Province moved back down to Alert Level 3, meaning a lessening of some COVID-19 restrictions. Clarke feels cautiously optimistic about it.
“We can feel pretty comfortable based on what the government tells us as to the percentage of the province being doubly vaccinated and or boosted,” said Clarke. “Our staff is still quite intimidated by the small percentage who can come in, exposing the environment to Omicron or Delta or whatever the case may be. We aren’t 100 per cent comfortable but you know what, when it comes down to being able to accommodate our clients to a Level 3 we’re ready.”
Day feels similarly. “I have to say, personally myself and being in a business, I’m looking forward to it, I’m looking forward to going back to some type of normal,” said Day. “It is stressful, it is mentally stressful as well because you don’t know day to day what’s going on.”
