Petition calls for hair salons to be an essential business

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A petition on moveon.org is calling for hair salons and barbershops to be considered an essential business.

The online form suggests these groups have a soft opening on April 27.

One local hair stylist who has signed the petition is Tami Draper.

She owns Sensational Hair Salon and has worked in the industry for over 30 years until COVID-19 closed her salon.

Now she is getting creative, making personalized hair dye kits for clients they can do at home.

"We have one location and if we don’t work we’re not going to make it," said Draper. "I don’t know what’s going to happen over the summer because I’m already spending the money I would have saved."

The hair industry has been deemed non-essential since restrictions developed over coronavirus concerns.

The petition has collected nearly 500,000 signatures to fight against the closures.

"I signed it and I forwarded it on, and I’ve had clients signing it," said Draper. "We wear gloves, we wear capes, the client wears capes or gowns. We would be ale to have one client at a time and depending on the size of your salon, we would be able to have space between stylists."

However some local stylists like Read Brown-Scott, owner of Read Brown Hair Salon, still think it’s too early.

"I think it’s a dangerous and irresponsible move," said Brown-Scott. "When we think about our job as hairstylists, how intimately close that we are when we’re washing your hair, how close our faces are to each other, it’s unsafe."

For Brown-Scott, the topic is one that comes with emotion.

‘It would devastate me, if all the beautiful things that we do, for you and for us, turned into somebody getting sick," said Brown-Scott.

But Draper says, the desert’s clientele makes this job important for our area.

"Clients are much older and those ladies get their hair done once and twice a week, they can fall in the shower they can fall trying to washing their own hair, so I think for a lot of people it is essential," said Draper.

Draper creates personalized kits for clients they can pick up or have delivered.

The kits include dye, gloves, applicators and skin protectors so that clients can touch up their hair in the meantime.

The delivery also includes step by step directions.

Call (760) 779-5911 for more information.