Alberta Hair Salons Reopening

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic hair salons have been closed for a total of 10 weeks with one more week left to go. Meanwhile the malls have been allowed to remain open. Jason Kenney stated and even congratulated hair salons for their safe practices as there were no cases traced back to any salon in Alberta. Yet he decided to close us down again.

With Christmas and New Years just behind us I fear that the numbers will rise again and we will not be allowed to return to work while I will assume the malls will again remain open. There is no reasonable explanation for these  contradictory decisions being made but my intent is not to criticize the people making these decisions.

These are not easy decisions to make. My purpose is to apply pressure to have the decision to close hair salons reevaluated. With the measures in place salons are as safe if not safer then any other business where the public is allowed to enter.

We also provide a service which is uplifting to its clients which in a time like this is important
when so many people are suffering with mental health issues. I’m sure I can speak for many salons when I say the salon is a place where people share their joys and frustrations. The last week before we were closed for the second time, the salon was filled with laughter and though worries were discussed we were all just trying to find the good in what was happening.

The other issue at hand is the monies being doled out every time they decide to close businesses down. For one thing it does not even come close to replacing the income being lost, and secondly it is putting our country and province into even greater debt unnecessarily. A debt we will all be paying back sooner then later.

We are now more aware of this virus and we know what measures that need to be in place in order to minimize the risk of its spread. Now it’s time to minimize the spread of this economic disaster. While following the safety
guidelines set out by AHS (wearing a mask, sanitizing our hands, and keeping all tools and spaces sanitized between clients) we need to return to living our lives as normally as possible.

The hair salon is a very controlled environment where we have proven with the safety measures in place, the we can and have provided a safe place for people to come and enjoy the services we provide. This being considered we must be allowed to open our doors and resume business on January 12 th . At the moment all hair salons are waiting to see whether or not we will be allowed to open our doors on this date. Most of us are fully booked and if they should decide to not let us open our doors we will be forced into yet another very stressful time of trying to reorganize our schedules as well as continue in our financial hardship.

This is absolutely unnecessary considering everything just mentioned. I believe it is only just that hair salons resume business and give all of us a little piece of normalcy.

If you would like to support hair salons reopening on the 12 th of January, please write a letter to your MLA and share this article. A simple letter stating that you feel safe at  whichever salon you go to and you believe that it should be allowed, along with all other salons in Alberta, to reopen their doors. Your support could make a difference and it would be greatly appreciated.