Personal services like salons and barbershops are being kept busy this week, having reopened on Tuesday, June 1st, as part of the province's Open for Summer plan.

At the moment, they're only allowed to offer service by appointment, though walk-in services can resume in Stage 2, currently scheduled for June 10th.

For Tanya Douglas, owner of Pure Envy Salon & Spa, it's good to be back, but given that this is the latest of several reopenings, she's keeping the possibility of more provincial COVID measures in mind.

"I'm not 100% like 'yay this is it, this is the last lockdown!' I felt that last time as well. So 'optimistically cautious,' I guess is the right terminology right now."

Cactus Club Salon & Spa owner Mandy Best shares a similar sentiment.

"It's so hard to have your heart broken and be disappointed once more so I try to stay cautiously optimistic but I don't for a second imagine that this could all be over. But it does feel different this time, definitely."

She says there's been no shortage of work since the Open for Summer Plan was originally announced.

"It usually amounts to one to two thousand phone calls that we have to make in the week leading up, so we were really happy to get at least a week's notice this time... It's really good for the girls to come back to a full schedule, and know their time here is well-spent."

It's likely to stay that way for some time, with lengthy waiting lists awaiting those looking to book an appointment.

"We're looking at about a month out, and it's not to say we don't have openings, there are always people that have to cancel last-minute because of quarantines or close contacts... but for the most part, it'll be a few weeks before we catch up and can take a breath," says Best.

Salons often have to not only meet the sudden demand from clients who haven't had a trim in some time but also have to make good on cancelled appointments from when they were shut down.

Douglas says her team often has to pull double duty when these reopenings happen.

"Every time they do this to us, there's some business you naturally lose, so (we) end up having to work twice as hard to try and fit everyone in. At the end of the day, they're trying to please all of their clients, so in order to do that, they work extremely long hours in order to try and get everyone back in."

As for Stage 2 and onward, neither business owners see the return to walk-in services as a daunting prospect.

Many salons mostly deal with clientele who book in advance anyway, and measures will still likely be required until Stage 3 of the province's plan.

Douglas says she's fine with the prospect of keeping those measures in place for a little while longer.

"I definitely think, for the foreseeable future, we won't have any plexiglass taken down until we know for sure we won't be told, yet again, that we're being shut down or anything... We've always worked in a highly sanitized industry anyway, so I'm not sure how much the routine would change."

With that said, comments from the premier regarding the transmission of COVID in salons had her frustrated at the restrictions announced later down the line.

"The second time we got shut down, ten days prior Jason Kenney gave a shoutout to personal services that not one traceable contact had come from them, then ten days later it's like "congratulations, you've been shut down again."

She says the potential of a fourth wave and more shutdowns would be particularly frustrating given plans for a Calgary Stampede and the province's relaunch plans overall.

Still, both business owners say spirits are high and their teams are happy to be back.

Both of them feel like experts at reopening at this point, and hopefully, this is the last time they'll have to flex that particular muscle.

 

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