Hair salons, barbershops booked solid as county reopens
Residents are swarming barbershops and hair salons to get a fresh cut as the county moved to the green phase of reopening Friday after two months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At its reopening, Point Barbershop, 132 Point Plaza in Butler Township, was greeted by a long line of clients in need of a hair cut.
“It's definitely different,” said Bill Stoughton, a barber at Point Barbershop. “We don't normally have people lined up clear up the sidewalk and around the bend.”
Stoughton said about 15 people waited in a line outside, while six others waited inside and three others were being served.“So far, it is running smooth and people understand, and they are waiting their turn,” Stoughton said. “We are doing what we can to be compliant (with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regulations).”As a primarily appointment-only salon, Marshall Hair Salon, 601 W. New Castle St. in Zelienople, didn't have a line out the door, but it was almost fully booked for the next week, according to Daniell Barnett, one of the salon's stylists.Barnett said the number of messages left on the salon's answering machine once Gov. Tom Wolf announced Butler County was moving to the green phase of reopening the economy was “insane.”“We are super happy to be back and working and seeing our clientele. We are just so excited,” Barnett said of the influx of calls and the booked schedule.Before the pandemic, Barnett said Marshall Hair Salon could have up to four stylists on the floor at a time. Now, she said only two stylists are working each day and appointments are spaced out to avoid having too many people in the salon at a time to comply with the state's reopening regulations.“With us being at only 50 percent capacity, there (are) only two of us working at any given moment,” Barnett said. “With only two (stylists) a day working, we've added Sunday for a while to help get our clients back in and serviced.”
