pandemic

Goodbye Split Ends! Salons and Barber Shops Reopen

Personal services small businesses reopen with restrictions.

NBC Universal, Inc.

Split ends fell to the floor. Roots joined the color of the hair a few millimeters away. Mullets met the business end of clippers.

Tuesday was a joyous day for people in dire need of a righteous haircut. It was also a day for salons, barbers and stylists to get back to business.

“The past two months? I like to describe it as a firestorm,” said Deena Van Yokes. "The fire went through my business, literally, and it kind of wiped out everything that we know, and we have to start fresh.”

That fresh start gained steam the second the small businesses learned the stay-at-home order was to be lifted in Southern California and personal care services would be able to reopen with the usual public health restrictions.

“I literally feel like a giddy little girl,” said Von Yokes as she worked on a head of hair inside her Studio Savvy Salon in Rancho Santa Fe.

She said her phone blew up as soon as the order was lifted.

“We had clients coming from out of the woodwork,” she said. “Our text messaging went crazy.”

“Who would have thought that something as simple as getting your hair touched and worked on can be such a wonderful luxury?” asked Lydia Vargo who was getting her hair cared for a few seats away. “I think we took a lot of things for granted.”

Von Yokes said her salon was booked the moment it reopened.

“My adrenaline was pumping this morning because I’m a fighter,” said Von Yokes. “I don’t like the fact that I couldn’t work.”

It’s been a roller coaster for small businesses that had to open and close and have the rules change almost monthly.

“We’ve had to make a lot of COVID cutbacks and that’s hurtful and it’s a hard thing to go through as an owner and as a person,” explained Von Yokes. “There’s a lot that goes back into it when it’s open, close, open, close, open, close; you have to be very adaptable at this point.”

Deena Von Yokes said she is focused on the future.

“I think it’s important not to look back, but to look forward,” she said. “I know that I built this business and I will rebuild this business.”

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