Barbershops, salons prepare to cut El Pasoans’ hair
EL PASO Texas-- The order from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott allowing hair salons and barbershops across the state to open goes into effect Friday.
Businesses in El Paso will open their doors for the first time in over a month to cut El Pasoans' hair, leaving some hairstylists and patrons a little weary of a reunion after the pandemic shut down.
Nina Ruiz, the manager at 209 Studio, indicated she feels "a little nervous of course, but I think as long as everyone does their part and we follow all the precautions, I believe we will be fine."
The salon workers across Texas are not required to wear face masks andthe stylists at each business may also make their own decision about whether a client is allowed through the door without one.
Ruiz added, "What we're doing different is that we are only taking appointments over the phone. We will not be taking any walk-ins and we have a list we got from the state board."
Other hairstylists in the Borderland like Briana Alarcon are also doing things a little differently.
"Being in such proximity to my clientele, I'm scared to pass anything around. We are basically just booking extra time in between appointments. And also investing in some air purification systems and providing masks if the client needs one," said Alarcon.
William Segovia, a co-owner at Segovia's Nail & Hair Studio, is excited to reopen, but he hopes his customers feel the same.
"We're kind of curious to see," Segovia said. "We had some older customers so we're still waiting to see. We've called them, we're making our calls so we'll find out."
Segovia will likely open his doors on Tuesday. His salon will be making some changes as well.
"We have [clients] sanitize before they sit down, and of course we're sanitizing ourselves before they sit down," Segovia said. "We're going to have them wear their mask when they come in and if they beg for us to take it off, we're going to kind of try to stick our guns. We'll have ours."
Across town at The Beauty Bar, owner Delilah Mejia is enforcing a similar mask rule. For customers who do not have masks, the salon will provide them.
Customers will also be required to wait in their cars or outside on the salon's patio.
