Governor Abbott, please let stylists go back to work. And, if you can’t, at least add stylist representation to your task force and ensure NO ONE in this state (yourself included) is getting their hair done.

I am a licensed cosmetologist in the state of Texas. To those not familiar with the process, that means I spent 1500 clinical hours being educated. I then had to pass a rigorous exam to ensure that I was paying attention for those 1500 hours. It also means that I must spend 4 additional hours being further trained on sanitation practices every other year to maintain my licensure. Your hair stylist is effectively licensed to touch you. She (or he) takes seriously that this privilege comes with a considerable amount of responsibility. The state comes in randomly to inspect her business operations and facilities to ensure she is continuing to comply with all of the intense sanitation practices her profession requires. Infractions result in major fines, business closure and/or loss of license. Sanitation is something no stylist takes lightly. They are all trained to protect their clients from infectious disease transmission at the salon. Long before we all heard of COVID-19, they were taking extra precautions to make sure you didn’t need to worry about HIV, MRSA, Staph, Strep, Tuberculosis or countless other ailments that improper sanitation practices might otherwise allow a salon to inadvertently transmit from one client to another or from a stylist to a client.

We’re all together in grocery stores mixing and mingling and touching the same items and interacting in confined physical spaces. Our grocery store clerks do not, of course, go through the same sort of rigorous sanitation training. Now, in Texas, we’re opening movie theaters, malls and restaurants. We are limiting capacity in these places, but will all workers and patrons in movie theaters and restaurants be wearing masks to control transmission? No. It simply isn’t possible to do so when your patrons are consuming food and beverages in the establishment. Will they be maintaining proper social distancing? If you’ve ever walked down a movie theater aisle, I think you know that answer to that one, too. Even if patrons sit 3 seats apart on every other row, people will have to get up to go to the bathroom. They’ll all wait in line in the bathroom… improperly distanced. And, then, they’ll go from touching that dirty bathroom door to squeezing by every other patron on their row to get back to their seat - touching countless seats and surfaces along the way. Restaurants are similar. Your server is interacting not just with your table of four but with five tables of four people. Yes, those tables are removed from you physically. But, she’ll grab their glass to refill it… and then grab yours. You’ll swig some water from that glass and then pick up a fry...and the proceed to rub something out of your eye. Transmission complete. It doesn’t matter that the infected party was 20 feet away from you because the server was walking back and forth between the two of you carrying the virus unknowingly. And, I don’t blame her for that. She’s not trained to combat the spread of infectious diseases like your hair stylist is. Don’t even get me started on what sort of germ bucket a mall is, but please also don’t touch the hand rails there...and use the automatic doors if you can...and don’t touch any dressing room doors...better yet, it may be best not to go right now. 

We are asking Texas to be more thoughtful in the guidelines on getting back to work. Restaurants and movie theaters and malls should be some of the last places to go back to work. The current guidelines look more like a plan concocted by the members of the task force that designed them - or maybe just a selection of businesses based on those that generate the largest taxable sales base in the state. Were restaurants represented and are their sales fully taxable by the state? Yep, Tilman Fertitta of Landry’s and Balous Miller of Bill Miller BBQ were on Abbott’s Special Advisory Council, so they’re opening. Was retail represented and are their sales predominantly taxable by the state? Yep, Kendra Scott and Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale - so they’re reopening. Were theaters represented and are their sales predominantly taxable by the state? Yep - so they’re opening. Were stylists represented? Is their service revenue taxable? Nope on both fronts - so they can stay closed. Was this really about health? If it was, I’d expect guidelines would keep us from opening venues where so many vectors can come into contact and result in an explosion of cases and illness. If it were about health, wouldn’t we be opening places where employees are already rigorously trained on preventing disease transmission and can easily also add on additional practices. Wouldn’t we be opening places where masks can be worn by patrons and employees? 

A hair salon generally has a single stylist interacting with a single client at one time. Between clients, a stylist has the opportunity to fully disinfect anything that the client touched, every tool that the stylist used, every surface/switch/door handle in every public area that the client may have interacted with, etc. She also takes the cape the client was wearing and can put it in an air-tight container for washing prior to using it on another client. Further, salons have been designed to accommodate those with disabilities. In most cases, salons with more than one stylist station have them spread more than 6 feet apart to ensure accessibility for those that have mobility impairments. And, if they don’t, it’s easy for a salon to close alternating stations. Salons also offer an environment where no food nor drink needs to be consumed. Hence, masks are a viable option for all stylists. For the vast majority of the appointment (and all of it in most cases), clients can also wear a mask. This will further reduce the risk of transmission. If this was about health, no business would be opening where people from separate households interact without a mask on. 

Further, let’s talk about the hundreds of thousands of stylists that operate completely independently. They own their own suite or salon, and there are no other stylists that come to work there. It is just that stylist and her client. If this was about health, she would be able to go to work. She can completely control everything in her environment. Suite owners in other states meet clients at the vehicles. They ask that they leave all personal belongings other than check or credit card for payment outside. They walk the client in (opening every door along the way). They give the client hand sanitizer and sit them down. They cape the client, wash their own hands and then begin work. They do not blow dry clients to cut down on blowing virus particles around. When their client departs, they wipe it all down with bleach, Barbicide, disinfectant, etc before their next appointment arrives when the cycle starts again.

One of the safest places you could possibly be is in the chair of a properly-trained stylist - in my chair. And, yet, stylists, like me, are being required to stay home by our state representatives. To be clear, this is not about health. It’s about further marginalizing a population that doesn’t speak up. Stylists are predominantly female. Most of them are mothers. They’re not a raucous group that has a well-oiled lobbying machine that can snag a precious spot on the Governor’s team of business leaders that gets to decide who can go back to work to make money again. They aren’t on the golf course with our leaders (don’t worry, we opened that back up, too) or smoking cigars in the back room cooking up the deal that will best suit their personal and business needs. Would our salons and barbershops be re-opening on Friday if men ran most of them?

Stylists are also, in large part, self-employed. For those that are not aware, most self-employed individuals didn’t get their checks from the IRS via direct deposit. This is because they owe taxes at the end of every year, so the IRS does not have their direct deposit info. Some are finally able to submit that information… six weeks after they were closed down. They also have not received a dime from unemployment. Our state systems were not designed to calculate unemployment nor process it for folks that are self-employed. We don’t offer self-employed people that sort of safety net. Hence, we forced them out of work six weeks ago and have given them no compensation. We all know stylists don’t make as much as the guys making these decisions - you know, the ones in the nice suits on the TV… who have ALL had their hair cut multiple times since salons were shutdown. Like many politicians, they currently appear to subscribe to the “do what I say, not what I do” philosophy of leadership.

Please ask Governor Abbott to go help us as follows:

Revise your Phase I mandates. He has always prided himself on being pro-business and pro-Texas. I just wish he was pro-our Texas businesses. Also, while he and his team have all been able to continue getting professional hair cuts for their regular press appearances, we ask that these stop until all Texans are afforded the same luxury.

We beg you, Governor Abbott, please dig into the requirements already in place for salon professionals that have made a career out of sanitation practices designed to limit disease transmission in their workplace. Please also look at the guidelines in place that other states are using to allow their stylists to go back to work. 

We fear that movie theaters, restaurants and malls might contribute to a spike in cases. Should that happen, we ask that you continue forward allowing salons and stylists to go back to work (even under strict additional guidelines) even if we have to pull back on restaurants, malls, theaters and other places where large gatherings of people occur in conjunction with food/drink intake.

Add a representative from the Hair Stylist community to your Special Advisory Council. The thousands and thousands of salons and independent stylists in this great state deserve to have representation - and someone that can speak to their sanitation practices and standards that they are beholden to already. They deserve to have someone representing their businesses and communicating to decision makers on their behalf.

Stop having your own hair done. Please ensure that you, your team and our esteemed law enforcement professionals in the state are not getting haircuts nor hair color services while others in our state are not afforded the same luxury. It is noticed, and it is heartbreaking for stylists (and those that want to have their own hair done) to know that your rules apply only to them and not to those deciding for others.

Please do not force an entire class of salon professionals to lose their businesses and quite possibly, their homes. Please help our stylists get back to work so we can continue to put food on the table for our families.