Hair, massage business owners eager to reopen - The Chatham News + Record

[massage]

BY RANDALL RIGSBEE

News + Record Staff


As a professional licensed massage therapist, Deirdre Brown is accustomed to following strict health and safety guidelines to protect the well-being of her clients and herself.

It’s part of her routine, said Brown, who owns and operates The Pampered Touch in Siler City.

For example: Brown, licensed in massage therapy since 2015 and doing the work full-time for the last three years, herself must maintain personal standards of hygiene, including keeping her nails clipped (no whites can show) and ensuring any knick or cut on her hands is securely bandaged.

And after each client, she adheres to strict professional sanitation guidelines, cleaning and disinfecting her equipment and preparing her work space for another customer.

It’s close-contact work and the health and safety of her clients, Brown said, is an ever-present responsibility.

“We’re always at risk of exposing our clients to flu, hepatitis, HIV,” Brown said. “That’s an everyday risk. It’s not like it’s a brand new thing. We’ve always had to protect each and every one of our clients.”

But Brown hasn’t seen any of her clients since 5 p.m. on March 25, two days after Gov. Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 120 limiting mass gatherings across the state and temporarily closing a number of businesses including barber shops, hair and nail salons and massage therapists.

“It shut me down completely,” said Brown, who — along with everyone else in the state who owns or works for any of the businesses affected by Executive Order 120 — had fewer than 48 hours notice after Cooper signed the paperwork to comply.

In that short span of time, Brown “worked in as many customers as I could.”

Since that frantic burst of activity on March 25, though, Brown’s normally busy office at 514 E. Third St. has been closed.

She’s filled the hours since spending time with her family, staying at home.

“Basically, I’ve been doing a lot of gardening,” she said.

With mounting bills and no income to match them, however, Brown is growing impatient with the shut-down.

“I had an incredible business,” she said. “I was working six days a week. Now it’s a Class II misdemeanor if I work. How is it illegal to work? Right now, I’m less afraid of the virus and more afraid of unemployment.”

Brown, of course, isn’t alone in her frustration on the quiet sidelines.

Nineteen miles east of Brown’s therapeutic massage business, hair stylist Susan Lecrone operates Uppercuts Tanning and Hair Salon, 204 Sanford Rd., Pittsboro, another local business closed for the duration of the governor’s order.

“I’m holding up pretty good,” Lecrone said. “I’m just trying to stay busy and get some things done around the house. I’m trying to see this as sort of a vacation time, to make light of it. But it’s not any easy thing. I’m trying to be patient. I do miss my customers.”

Lecrone’s shop averages around 150 clients each month; and as the stay-at-home order continues, some of those clients are growing anxious.

“Some of them are begging me to cut their hair,” Lecrone said, “and I’ve refused.”

That’s because, like Brown’s massage business, it’s illegal for hair stylists and barbers to continue to operate, subjecting them to fines and even jail time under state law if they violate the order. They also are prohibited from making home visits, subject to the same potential legal repercussions and fines.

Lecrone has applied for two small business loans to help her pay rent on her salon and to meet other business expenses.

“But I haven’t heard a word from anybody about those loans yet,” Lecrone said. “So I am running out of money, honestly. But I’m hopeful those things will come through for me.”

Brown, too, has refused requests for service, but that’s been a difficult choice, too.

“I have clients that I see weekly, some more than once,” said Brown. “They’re in pain, and it’s affecting them tremendously. Some of them are beginning to resort to pain pills. I’ve had tons of people reaching out to try to fine someone who will see them. But none of us can. We can’t take the risk. We could be punished. When I started doing this, I took an oath to cause no harm. But I feel terrible. I’ve had so many clients tell me they miss me, that they need me, and I want to help them so badly.”

The desire to help runs both ways, too.

Some of clients have purchased Pampered Touch gift certificates to use once a normal business climate resumes.

“Every little bit helps,” Brown said.

And she’s helping her clients as best she can, too.

Brown has, through remote means, recommended to several customers some exercises and therapies utilizing heat and cold that may bring some relief to them in the interim.

“I’m just trying to get them through until I can see them again,” Brown said.

Likewise, Lecrone has offered her clients some tips on making it through the weeks of shut-down, from ways to manage longer-than-normal hair by tucking it back behind the ears, applying gels and hair sprays to make longer hair more manageable, or even just wearing a ball-cap to tame hair.

Lecrone said she understands the urge some customers may feel in their frustration to take matters of hair care into their own hands.

“The way you look does affect how you feel,” she said.

But beyond some advice to maintain increasingly-unruly hair, the 34-year veteran hair stylists recommends, above all, patience.

“I know we’re all looking a little more shaggy and a little more unkempt,” Lecrone said. “But I encourage people not to color or cut their own hair. It’s not as easy as you might think it is.”

Hair dyes, for instance, could pose dangers to those unfamiliar with their application, particularly if the dye gets into one’s eyes, Lecrone said.

And even using scissors on one’s own hair could yield disappointing results or, worse, be dangerous — so she advises against it.

“It’s even hard for me, and I’ve been cutting hair for years,” she said. “And it’s just really easy to mess up your own hair trying to cut it yourself. I suggest leaving it to the professionals.”

Exactly when professionals like Brown and Lecrone and their clients will re-unite remains uncertain now, but Lecrone is planning a return to business as soon as she can.

“Right now, I’ve rescheduled everybody for next month,” she said. “I’ve got the first two weeks of May booked non-stop without a break. I look forward to the possibility of going back to work, but I’m not sure when that’s going to happen if the mandates aren’t lifted. It’s a waiting game.”

Brown hopes that wait is short, and she’s among a growing number of affected professionals who are asking for the governor’s help. She’s signed a petition that’s been circulating through the state pushing the governor to authorize a “soft opening” of hair and massage businesses on April 27.

The petition, launched on moveon.org by Keisha Lindsay, who runs The Beauty Shop in King, N.C., asks that those affected businesses be re-opened with extra safety precautions in place, including allowing only one customer inside at a time. The petition has amassed more than 5,200 signatures.

“We’re all going through the same thing,” said Brown.

Randall Rigsbee can be reached at rigsbee@chathamnr.com.