Barbershops Across America Lead the Reopening Effort

(Bloomberg) -- There was a lot we couldn’t agree on in this pandemic, but one thing that united us was our hair. 

With barbers and salons shuttered, manes grew into unruly tangles, chronicled under hashtags like #coronahairdontcare. Heads were shaved. Long-forgotten mullets returned. Shades of gray sprouted while we all hunkered down at home.

As the U.S. begins to emerge from the Covid-19 lockdown, a trip to the stylist, among the first businesses to reopen in many areas, will be at the top of to-do lists for Americans desperate for a haircut and some social contact. That will make the return to barbers and salons a test case — a mirror on how society has changed as we try getting back to our daily affairs in the shadow of a virus we can’t cure or prevent. 

Hairstylists have always been more than just businesses for the customers they serve. In many communities, they’re a cornerstone of cultural, social and political life, where news and gossip are shared from the swivel chairs or under the dryers. So as we turn attention to our hair once again, the shops will be centers of a national conversation — about the economy, race, the upcoming presidential election and other topics.

To see how it unfolds, Bloomberg spoke with stylists across the country about what their industry will look like in the post-Covid world. We’ll follow them in coming months. You’ll meet a Black barber in Detroit who is raising money in support of protesters against police brutality, and a survivor of Cambodia’s Killing Fields who cuts hair on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Also among them are Cuban cousins doling out espresso near Miami, and Southern California’s “queen of color,” whose client list is stacked with A-list celebrities. Many are back to work already, others still waiting for the all-clear.

Some of them will have to fight to keep their businesses alive. 

Outside of a medical appointment, a trip to a hairstylist puts you in the tightest proximity to someone you’re not necessarily close with. That means customers wary of the virus may be afraid to return. 

Social distancing rules will limit the number of appointments salons can book, cutting into their potential income and making it harder for them to get out from under rent bills that piled up during the lockdown.

Many smaller operations “are not profitable enough even to begin with,” said Steve Sleeper, executive director of the Professional Beauty Association, a trade group. “So you pile this on, and our estimate is it could be up to 20% of the industry doesn’t return in any normal way.” — Jeff Green

DETROIT

Name: Sebastian Jackson, 33
Business: Owner of the Social Club Grooming Co. with shops in Midtown and Downtown. He runs the business with his wife, Gabrielle, who is chief operating officer. Established in April 2012.
Open? He reopened his two shops on June 15. 
Clientele: Mostly Black men, about 500 customers a week before the lockdown.
Received federal funds? Estimates he may get as much as $150,000 from all sources, including the Paycheck Protection Program and state and local support.
Main industry in the area: Autos, but Jackson’s customers represent a range of professions.

While protests against police brutality raged, Sebastian Jackson started a new campaign — selling $50 T-shirts and hats emblazoned with the words “Anti Racist Social Club,” a play on the name of his eight-year-old company, the Social Club Grooming Co. The effort so far has raised more than $19,000, half of which will go to the Detroit Justice Center, which helps impoverished residents get legal representation — often citizens trying to get back to work after incarceration.

“The most important thing for us right now is not the pandemic. I would say it’s the epidemic,” Jackson said after several nights of demonstrations in the city led to a curfew and arrests. “In this country, we’re looking at an epidemic of racism.”

At the time, Jackson, 33, was getting ready to reopen his two barber shops after a 12-week shutdown. He started cutting hair as a teenager in his parents’ garage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, then served fellow students at Wayne State University, where he majored in journalism. His professional ambitions would bridge those two worlds.

Opening a barbershop was an obvious choice for Jackson. He also wanted it to be a social hub. His first branch debuted in 2012 on the Wayne State Campus and the second in 2018 near the Detroit Opera House. He’s leveraging the shops and his media background as part of a broader strategy, complete with a YouTube channel for a talk show, “Shop Talk.”

Merchandise sales initially supported the $50,000 monthly payroll for his dozen employees during the lockdown, but Jackson now says he expects to get close to $150,000 in funds from federal programs and other sources to plug the holes. When he and his staff can cut hair again, he figures they’ll work longer hours and staggered shifts so they can serve more people safely. Still, appointments probably will drop by at least 25%, Jackson said, because of sanitation and personal-protection requirements that will double the time required for each customer. 

He also plans to bring back his “Shop Talk” series in which prominent business people, celebrities and athletes sit for a haircut and answer questions. The events have brought in guests that include Che Pope, the hip-hop producer best known for his work with Kanye West, and Delane Parnell, founder of the esports company PlayVS.

Last year, Jackson was hired to stage a private “Shop Talk” event in Atlanta the week Super Bowl took place there. About 75 NFL players, staff and representatives — some in barber chairs, getting haircuts — discussed Colin Kaepernick and his take-a-knee protests against police brutality. It gave players and the league an opportunity to talk frankly about the topic in a social setting, he said.

He wants to keep the discussion going. One possible outcome of the current crisis, he said, is for White people to recognize their role in the problems that have led to police killings of Black men.

“If I say racism is an infrastructure, and racists are anyone that benefits from that infrastructure and doesn’t try to change it —  if I define racist as that, people tend to not like that definition, even if it’s true,” he said. “They don’t want to feel uncomfortable.” — Jeff Green

NEW YORK

Name: Marshall Kim, 60
Business: Owner of MK Salon, at 61st Street and Lexington Avenue, near Bloomingdales, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Established 1990.
Open? No.
Clientele: Finance, lawyers, corporate executives, women and men.
Received federal funds? Received $27,000 in PPP funds through PayPal on April 16.
Main industry in the area: Retail, offices, media, banking.

Marshall Kim was 15 in 1975, when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge overtook Cambodia. He alone in his family survived the Killing Fields, staying alive partly because a Khmer Rouge commander liked how Kim cut hair. He gained passage to New York, got a barber’s license and in 1985, gave Donald Trump a haircut that earned him a $5 tip. Kim opened his own salon on the Upper East Side five years later, bringing lots of customers with him. He moved his family from the Bronx to a rented apartment in Scarsdale for the kids to go to school there. His son is an Emory University graduate aspiring to be a physician, and his daughter is about to enroll at Harvard on a full scholarship.

That, in a nutshell, is the story of Mr. Kim, as his customers call him. At first, he figured the virus was a mere bump in the road. After all, he survived the Killing Fields and came back a few years ago from a fire that shut his shop for six months. On Saturday, March 14, his salon was as busy as ever, crowded with people with the foresight to know they should get a haircut while they could. He wasn’t prepared for the frustrations that followed. His employees, anxious to get jobless benefits, wanted him to dismiss them. He told them to wait until he could compensate them with federal aid, but at least a half-dozen banks turned him down. He’d just about given up when one of his customers, a banker, told him PayPal was about to start processing federal aid applications online. Within days of applying, he received $27,000 to share with a worker who didn’t collect unemployment. 

He started to cry, he said, when his shop landlord, worried about Kim’s health, told him to stay home and not worry about the rent, even before the shop closed. Two regulars organized a GoFundMe.com page that’s raised more than $32,000, helping him cover some expenses. Kim sets aside 10% for Cambodian charities, just as he’s done for several years.

New York City is poised to allow barbershops and salons to reopen June 22. Mask-wearing will be compulsory, and Kim and his employees will get tested for the virus every two weeks, he said. Even before the city’s action, Kim was busy taking appointments. “My customers, they look out for me,” he said.

Memories of his childhood in Cambodia returned when the city shut down. It was that feeling that a force beyond his control could determine his life forever. Yet, he’s not afraid of what will come next. 

“I know that nothing will stop me,” Kim said. “As long as I’m not sick, I keep going. I’m strong. I know how to go about life in times like this, doing one day at a time.’’  — Henry Goldman

LOS ANGELES

Name: Tracey Cunningham, 51
Business: Owner of Mèche, in Beverly Hills, California. Established 2012.
Open? The salon has been closed since March 13 and plans to reopen June 23.
Clientele: Many A-list Hollywood celebrities and anyone who can pay for highlight services that start at $575. 
Received federal funds? Yes, a PPP loan.
Main industry in the area: Entertainment.  

Tracey Cunningham — the “queen of color” — closed her esteemed Beverly Hills salon, Mèche, on March 13, after working on Emma Stone, Jessica Biel and Khloe Kardashian in the days before. “I had just found out that Rita Wilson tested positive, and I was with her the night before she left for Australia, so I had to stop working and quarantine myself,” she said.

She’s been staying home since then, preparing do-it-yourself color kits that are sent to clients as far away as Dubai, London and New York. The cost is $175, the same as a base color appointment at the salon. “We supply you with a bowl, brush, mixer, gloves and the product, and we FedEx them to you,” Cunningham said. “We’ve been giving Jennifer Lopez hair-color kits.”

Mèche should already have opened, but because of the police brutality protests in the area, she said, “we had to board up our salon.”

When they start arriving for appointments, clients will see plexiglass screens between each shampoo bowl and at the reception desk. Every other seat will be empty. Cunningham plans to delay her return. “I heard that salons aren’t going to be able to blow-dry,” she said. “I’m going to let everybody go back, and I’m going to do just house calls.” — Hailey Waller

SOUTH FLORIDA

Name:  Danny Roblejo, 46
Business: co-owner of Primos in West Kendall and Pinecrest, Florida. Established 2010.
Open? Yes, since May 18.
Received federal funds? Yes, an undisclosed amount through PPP.
Clientele: Pre-pandemic, more than 150 customers a day across both shops, English- and Spanish-speaking restaurant and cruise industry workers, doctors and lawyers.
Main industry in the area: Tourism.

Cousins Danny Roblejo and Eddie Aja, 44, grew up in the Miami area, sons of Cuban immigrants. Both bald and with no experience cutting hair, they took a flyer on a barber shop after Roblejo lost his job at a rental car company. They called it Primos (“cousins” in Spanish) and added a second shop after several years. Aja works a second job as a software company executive; Roblejo, married with a 19-year-old daughter in college, depends on Primos for his income. He drew on federal small business assistance and renegotiated some contracts to make ends meet while the shops were shut from March to mid-May.

Their doors are open now, with reduced capacity, but to Roblejo, the lively hum that attracted him to the business is missing. Once a hangout where men came early to sip Cuban-style cafecito and engage in bilingual banter, Primos feels almost hospital-like nowadays. On a recent Friday at the Pinecrest shop, two masked, carefully distanced customers sat several chairs apart, hardly talking. The complimentary espresso is available only to go now; serving it in-shop would encourage clients to remove their face coverings.

Roblejo is glad to be open, helping his barbers earn tips. But with the restrictions in place, the two shops combined are doing about half the 150 daily haircuts, shaves and other services he’s accustomed to. He’s not even covering overhead. Many of his customers, including workers from Florida’s hard-hit tourism industry, are themselves struggling to get by.

“Today, at this time, I would have six barbers cranking,” Roblejo said, speaking from behind a mask and safety glasses. “There would be a buzz. People would be talking. You’d hear the machines and the scissors.”

Now, “it’s not the same,” he said. “But we’re hopeful that eventually we can get back to ‘Hey, man, have a seat. Here’s a cafecito.’” — Jonathan Levin

BRUSH, COLORADO

Name: Carrie Ankrom, 44
Business: Owner of the City Barber Shop & Color Parlor. The business has operated since 1920. Ankrom has owned it for a year.
Open? Yes, since May 1.
Clientele: Farmers, workers from the Cargill beef plant.
Received federal funds? Yes, from PPP.
Main industry in the area: Agriculture.

Carrie Ankrom’s shop in Brush, about 80 miles northeast of Denver, reopened for business at the beginning of May, even as the area recovers from one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Colorado. The coronavirus hit the Cargill beef plant in neighboring Fort Morgan, as well as a cheese factory and a nursing home.

“My business is thriving,” said Ankrom, whose customers include farmers, workers from the beef plant and small business owners — more men than women. “We've finally calmed down and started taking walk-ins.”

The Pennsylvania native, who moved to Colorado when her sister married a rancher, bought the 100-year-old business after working there under the prior owner. She recently moved to a larger building.

At the moment, it’s usually one barber and one client at a time in the four-chair shop. She has stepped up cleaning and sanitizing between customers, and gives them the choice of whether to wear a mask. Most farmers aren’t wearing them, she said. A lot of the shop’s customers believe  the pandemic “put the economy in jeopardy,” she said, “but others feel it was a complete sham and has been blown out of proportion.” — Vincent Del Giudice

WASHINGTON

Name: Mickey Bolek, 54
Business: Owner of the Michael Anthony Salon, just off Pennsylvania Avenue on Washington’s Capitol Hill. Established 2009.
Open? Yes, since May 29.
Clientele: Mainly upscale, including lawmakers, lobbyists and staff.
Received federal funds? Yes, $180,000 in PPP.
Main industry in the area: Politics.

Mickey Bolek describes the conversation at his 11-year-old shop in the nation’s capital in single word: “Trump.”

The Michael Anthony Salon, just off Pennsylvania Avenue on Capitol Hill, draws its share of lawmakers, staffers and lobbyists, and they all gab about the president. The clientele leans Democratic, Bolek says, but it’s a “safe space” for conservatives. Still, few clients are happy with Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, or the recent protests over racism and police brutality.

During the lockdown, Bolek says he lost a lot of sleep worrying about his business and “family” of four additional hairdressers and five support staff, including his husband, who handles administration. Tensions eased when he obtained $180,000 under the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, as well as donations from clients, who booked more than 400 appointments ahead of the reopening at the end of May.

“They’re just so happy to have some human interaction, have their hair taken care of, have a little self care,” he said.

The expense of putting up plexiglass dividers to protect customers was higher than he could afford, so clients are now split by shower curtains. When they arrive for their appointment, they get their temperature checked, use hand sanitizer and sign a waiver. Bolek, a cancer survivor, has felt concerned about his health, too, and the capacity restrictions are eating into the salon’s income, despite extended hours and client excitement.

“It’s definitely on our minds,” he said, “but we’re trying to focus on the moment, and we’ll conquer that beast when we get to it.” — Ben Brody

ATLANTA

Name: Jimmie Jordan, 48
Business: Owner of Stoney’s Barbershop in Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn neighborhood, around the corner from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthplace and the church he led, Ebenezer Baptist. Established 2003.
Open? Yes, since early May.
Clientele: In the past, about 90% of Stoney’s customers were African-American, but that has fallen to 70% in recent years, as the area gentrifies.
Received federal funds? Yes, a $5,000 grant from the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a $15,000 loan from the PPP.
Main industry in the area: Sweet Auburn has many small shops and bars and is dominated by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.

Emotions ran high inside Stoney’s Barbershop, in the heart of Atlanta’s historic civil rights district, as patrons debated police brutality and the nationwide protests. More conservative voices in Jimmie Jordan’s chairs argued that “tearing up the city won’t help the situation” and called for a peaceful solution. Others, saying “burn it all down,” had a more destructive tone.

“With all the heated debates, the barber shop is considered neutral ground, and all topics are discussed with a lot of passion,” Jordan said. “This topic will be around for a long time to come.”

Jordan, a Florida native, moved to Atlanta in the late 1990s. He opened his shop in 2003, dubbing it Stoney’s after a nickname he’d picked up, and carved out a successful business serving a largely Black clientele. Jordan, who is biracial, would cut as many as 25 heads a day on a “ridiculous schedule” — two an hour, skipping lunch. Four more barbers work as independent contractors. Things were going well enough that he had plans to open a bar nearby. Then Covid-19 shut him down.

Jordan reopened Stoney’s in early May for appointments only and says he is about $10,000 behind on his rent payments. Before the pandemic, receipts from the haircuts he gave usually averaged $2,500 a week. By late May, they’d dropped to about $800. “Right now, to be honest, it’s looking ugly,’’ he said in an interview at the time.

At home, things are all right. His wife’s income as a nurse practitioner is paying the bills for the couple and their three kids. For Stoney’s, the future is less certain. Jordan received $5,000 from the federal Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, although a bank snagged a portion of it to cover overdraft fees. He got some welcome news in early June: He’d won a $15,000 loan through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program, which he hopes can help pay off some of his back rent.

“I’m a little more optimistic,” Jordan said in a June 2 update. “There’s a little more light at the end of the tunnel.” — Michael Sasso 

HOUSTON

Name: Nikki Lopez-Livingston, 40
Business: Owns a one-person business inside the ReVive hair salon on 20th Street in the Houston Heights neighborhood. She is also the manager of ReVive. She has run her own business for 13 years, and ReVive opened in 2017.
Open? ReVive had reopened in May but is now closed for two weeks.
Clientele: A wide variety; she specializes in blonde coloring.
Received federal funds? She has not received aid for her one-woman business. However, the salon did get federal funds.
Main industry in the area: Oil.

Nikki Lopez-Livingston has been a hairstylist for 13 years and also manages the ReVive salon and spa about 4 miles north of downtown Houston. She describes herself as a specialist in blondes, with styling and coloring for $225. 

She reopened on May 18 after being shuttered for about two months, time she spent making changes to the salon and ordering cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer and masks. Now the salon is closing again as coronavirus cases rise across Texas.

“I just found out I was exposed to someone who tested positive,” she said in a text message late June 18. “I am closing for 14 days until I get test results.”

Before the latest shutdown, two stylists were working at a time at ReVive — down from the usual four — in a space that’s smaller than most master bedrooms. All employees were masked. “I tell you, the hardest thing is reminding people to wear their masks. They are hot, they are uncomfortable and they hurt,” Lopez-Livingston said.

Demand had been strong since Texas allowed businesses to restart, she said. Among other changes, customers must wait in the gravel parking lot to be greeted by their stylist, who would escort them into the building and ensure they wash their hands. Cleanup after each client visit takes 30 minutes. Lopez-Livingston was able to work on five customers a day on a recent Monday and Tuesday, far fewer than she once did. — Jeffrey Bair

BOSTON

Name: Anthony Costa, 44
Business: Owner of Skip’s Barbershop, with two locations in the city. Established in 2016, when Costa took over a Skip’s Barbershop in South Boston. In 2018, he took over a shop in Boston’s South End, naming it Skip’s as well. 
Open? Yes, since May 24, by appointment only. He does about 11 haircuts a day; he would normally average 15 or more. He has to allow more time to clean and disinfect after each customer because of Covid-19.
Clientele: “Politicians, police, even criminals.”
Received federal funds: Costa received $40,000 from PPP, which covered the rent for the two locations.
Main industry in the area: Costa considers himself lucky to be surrounded by a busy neighborhood of restaurants, bars and boutiques in each location. 

Who’s the greater basketball god, LeBron or Michael? Should police departments be defunded in the wake of the George Floyd protests? The debate never ends inside Skip’s Barbershop in Boston’s South End. It often gets serious but never crosses over into disrespect, said owner Anthony Costa.

He describes barbering as the ultimate spiritual quest: Making his customers look good makes them feel comfortable enough to have easy conversations about difficult subjects. “A barber shop is a church in itself,’’ he said, a place where difference of opinion thrives.

Costa is the only White barber working at his two Skip’s shops in the city, where he has taken on three Puerto Ricans and four African-Americans as independent contractors. He said he can keep an open mind because he is well aware of his White privilege.

Born in working-class Charlestown, Massachusetts, then moving in with his grandmother in nearby Arlington, he got into trouble early with drugs. “I stood before nine judges,” he says. “I walked away with 17 CWOAFs” — judicial lingo for “continued without a finding.” In other words, he was given a pass as a White youth, whereas a minority suspect facing the same charges would likely have gotten harsher treatment.

Costa graduated from a vocational high school in 1995 after studying the culinary arts. He became a chef and bounced through a number of jobs, including bartending and waiting tables — selling and using drugs, too, before landing in rehab. There, he chose barbering as a course of study and found his calling. Even then, because of his drinking, the nine-month course took two years to complete. Today, he calls himself a recovered alcoholic. He is married to a woman who works as a cardiac sonographer at Massachusetts General Hospital and living his dream. — Tom Moroney

SAN FRANCISCO

Name: Kristy Nalepovic, 49
Business: Owner of the Strand in San Francisco’s wealthy Pacific Heights-Presidio Heights district, where tech moguls Larry Ellison, Jony Ive and Peter Thiel have owned homes. Established in 2005.
Open? No.
Received federal funds? A Small Business Administration loan. 
Clientele: Nalepovic describes her customers as “devoted,” largely 40 years of age and up, who pay $95 for her haircuts. The salon’s other workers have clients that represent a wider cross section of the city.
Main industry in the area: Tech.

Kristy Nalepovic has been doing hair for 30 years — 15 of them as owner of the Strand salon in San Francisco’s well-to-do Pacific Heights-Presidio Heights district. With the shop shuttered since March, she’s biding time making $50 at-home coloring kits for her clients (because “no one wants gray hair”), and hosting a Friday night radio show on KXSF-FM called “The Verge,” where she plays songs by female garage-rock bands and takes calls from listeners.

She’s turning down requests to provide services in people’s homes “because I don’t want to get fined, jeopardize my license — and I’d like to stay healthy.” A small business loan provided enough to cover her lost income and pay the bills, and her landlord reduced her rent to a manageable level until the end of July. Of the six stylists who rented space from her, one has retired and another has moved out of the area. Nalepovic and those who remain are “all in the same boat: no income, waiting to start up again.” It’s likely to be a while. The tentative date for reopening San Francisco’s salons is July 13. — Vivien Lou Chen

SEATTLE

Name: Robert Townsend, 46
Business: Co-owner of Essensuals London in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, a once-gritty area that has gone upscale in recent years with the city’s tech boom. Established 2014.
Open? Yes, as of June 9.
Clientele: A cross-section of Seattle’s working professionals — “people who have to look good all the time,” such as restaurant and hotel owners. Townsend also cuts hair for some people in tech. About 75% of his clients are women.
Received federal funds? Yes, both EIDL and PPP.
Main industry in the area: Tech.

Robert Townsend worked as a stylist in Southern California for years before opening the Essensuals London salon in Seattle in 2014 with his brother. He figured the city’s booming tech scene would make it a good bet for his first business. Thousands of people were moving to the city every year. Before the virus, everything was going well for his salon, where haircuts start at $65 and go up to $110. Capitol Hill, the edgy neighborhood in which he opened, has gone upscale, and he’s had no problem finding clients among the city’s professional class. 

Following a three-month shutdown, Essensuals London reopened on June 9, after King County, which includes Seattle, began allowing barber shops and salons to operate at 25% capacity. Even so, Townsend had to close early on the first day back because of fears of violence. There were rumors that “people with guns were showing up,” he said. 

The salon is just a few blocks from the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct, where protesters gathered for several nights after the death of George Floyd to decry police brutality. While the demonstrations were mostly peaceful, cops dispersed the crowd on several occasions with tear gas, pepper spray and “flash bang” grenades. On June 7, a gunman plowed his car into the protesters, shot one in the arm, then brandished his weapon as he moved through a sea of people before turning himself into the police. The department has since vacated the station, allowing demonstrators to claim the streets outside and set up a protest zone that’s attracted worldwide media attention.

Townsend said he supports the demonstrations, even though they have complicated his reopening. A window at his salon was smashed early in the morning on June 2. While protesters have mostly left businesses in the area alone, several have boarded up after reports of late-night looting and broken windows. “I’m really, really hoping that everyone can get together and find a solution to this,” Townsend said. “I don’t want people getting hurt. There’s got to be a better solution than screaming and throwing tear gas. It just feels like a powder keg.” — Noah Buhayar

RURAL IOWA

Name: Sarah Myers, 30
Business: Haircutter at Innovations Salon & Spa in Algona, Iowa, a farm town with a population of 5,000. The shop opened in 1996, and Myers has been working there for six years.
Open? Yes, since mid-May, after closing for two months.
Clientele: Myers cuts only men’s hair and sees about 200 clients a month, from high school age up.
Received federal funds? The shop received aid from PPP (undisclosed amount).
Main industry in the area: Agriculture.

While Iowa never instituted a statewide lockdown order, the salon and spa where Sarah Myers cuts hair was shuttered for two months. Even with few cases of the virus in the area — a client’s daughter-in-law, in Arizona, was the closest one she knew of, personally — that was a relief for her. “I was super nervous to go back to work because it’s impossible to social distance,” Myers said. After reopening, she worked some 12-hour shifts, instead of the usual eight, because of the high demand for haircuts. Just to be safe, beard trims are off for now. — Michael Hirtzer

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Bloomberg