SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News)- Exactly one year ago this week, the coronavirus changed the world. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the executive order, New York on Pause, forcing all businesses across the state to close. In Onondaga County, beauty salons were hit harder than most businesses by the economic impacts of the pandemic. Because stylists weren’t categorized as essential workers, salons were forced to stay closed longer than many businesses. Now, one salon owner said she believes her business was treated unfairly.
“In the full six months we were open, there wasn’t a single case that came through our salon,” 315 Beauty Bar Owner Amanda McCarty said. “To have us shut down again was really frustrating because we’re not a super spreader. So to not be able to have an income was very frustrating.”
On March 20, 2020, 315 Beauty Bar was forced to close just five months after their grand opening. McCarty said at the time, she thought the lockdown would only last two weeks.
“We were like okay we’ll be back in two weeks, we’ll shut down and figure it out and then be back in two weeks,” McCarty said. “We had no idea it was going to last this long.”
McCarty soon realized the shutdown would go on for much longer: 13 weeks. There were eight stylists working at her salon at the time and she did not know how to tell them they wouldn’t be able to work.
“It was scary,” McCarty said. “It was very scary. A lot of the employees have families and kids, so it was really scary for them. We didn’t know how the government would fund us.”
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Amanda McCarty styling her clients hair.
© 2021 Paisley Skeith
After being closed for nearly three months, the salon was finally able to reopen to 25% capacity. Business was finally starting to pick up again, until COVID-19 cases started to rise. McCarty was receiving just enough grant money to get by when Cuomo signed a new order forcing salons in specific zip codes to close yet again.
McCarty’s salon was forced to shut its doors, while salons just two miles away were able to stay open.
“Creating that zip code rule was the craziest thing because there were salons down the road that could be open so it was like, if we can’t go to this salon, then we’ll just go to these other salons,” she said. “It was scary for me as an owner because there were other salons offering up chairs to girls at salons that couldn’t work.”
On the one year anniversary of the original coronavirus lockdown, McCarty’s business is still limited to 50% capacity. Despite this limit, the beauty industry is finally starting to make a comeback.
Hairstylist Branjae Jackson said navigating the new normal of the industry has been tough, but she hopes to continue using newfound sanitary habits moving forward.
“I think there will definitely still be a conscious evolution that changes within the salon as far as sanitation,” Jackson said. “I hope those things definitely stay in place that have changed since Covid.”
