Since 5 p.m. on March 17, 2020, when Governor Walz announced that all hair salons and barbershops would need to close in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, most patrons never realized they wouldn’t reunite with their hair care specialist for nearly three months.
Never in the history of America has there ever been a time when people can recall that it was illegal to get a haircut — until now.
With salons and barbershops allowed to open effective June 1, 2020, they’ve been flooded with customers anxious to tame their mane.
Men started shaving their heads, bowl cuts were a serious consideration, and the infamous 1980s Flowbee was suddenly thought to make a comeback.
Area salons and barbershops were clipping away on Monday, June 1, 2020.
At Sandy’s Hair Affair in Preston, Minn., masked stylist Sandy Marzolf talked about how she was booked out about 3-1/2 weeks. Preston native David Hokenson sat in the salon chair, wearing his mask, saying he usually got his hair cut every four weeks.
Lisa Pickett, owner of Lisa’s Klip N Kurl in Preston, Minn., was getting Spring Valley resident Linda Rain all dolled up. Rain, a Preston native, was adorned in a 1987 Home Hanky, repurposed into a functional mask. Pickett was booked out 2-1/2 weeks with appointments.
At Sally’s Hair to Dye For in Preston, Minn., Sally Gibson was trimming away while customer Bob Smock smiled for the camera — so he said. Smock usually gets his hair trimmed every four weeks. Over the past 11 weeks, he never considered trimming his own hair.
Gibson talked about how she was operating under the new guidelines. “I take at least 15 minutes between clients to sanitize,” she said. She will be working 12 hours a day, six days a week for about a month to get all of her customers caught up with haircuts.
In Rushford, at New Beginnings Salon, Laurie Anderson and Lynda Brunsvold are booked out quite a number of weeks.
They’ve heard some great stories: Men who have had their wives trim their hair, with husbands saying, “It’s OK, it will grow out.” They’ve spent some time fixing a few amateur home style haircuts. Some customers gave up on maintaining their hair color. They just let it go grey.
Aside from looking and feeling great after a visit to the salon or barbershop, the customers and hair care specialists have missed their conversations.
It seems that with haircuts and conversations, everybody has some catching up to do.