Personal services like salons and barbershops reopened Monday, January 18, with the easing of Provincial restrictions announced last week.

The change came as a shock to many, with December's restrictions extended just the week before, leading many business owners to believe they'd have to remain closed until the end of the month at the very least.

Owner of the Pure Envy Salon & Spa in Okotoks, Tanya Douglas, says it was a busy weekend spent restocking supplies and reaching out to clients.

"Friday, Saturday, Sunday was definitely spent getting a hold of all those clients that had had their appointments cancelled on them because we wanted to make sure it was fair to them and get all of them in before we booked new people in."

Douglas says her client base has been supportive throughout the salon's closure, and have carried that support through to their reopening.

She says that's part of the reasons spirits were so high on Monday, was the fact her employees were happy just to be back at work.

"It's amazing how much of our mental health is attached to our workplace. Certainly here, for the girls, we've all missed each other. I know for the girls, they missed the routine, missed being able to see their clients. It's a very personable industry where your clients are your friends. It's weird, you can't socially interact with anybody anywhere else right now, so being at work is your social life."

Pure Envy's protocols and health practices remain largely the same as they were prior to their closure, including a temperature check for incoming clients, hand sanitization, proper mask-wearing, and of course one-on-one service that's been mandated by the provincial government.

Douglas says that's been a source of frustration in and of itself, given that many local salons she's aware of, were all taking strict precautions prior to the December closure, with little to no recorded incidences of transmission, according to premier Jason Kenney himself.

With many fitness facilities having employed similar precautions, Douglas says frustration and uncertainty remain among owners of those businesses, particularly when big box stores carried on operations through the holiday season.

"I personally went to a mall during this time, just to have a look, and people were allowed into the stores, they were touching everything, there were people with no masks on, and it certainly seems over-capacity in my opinion. It was very frustrating to be shut down this time. The first time I totally got it, they didn't know what they were facing, they shut down everybody that wasn't essential, but this time I don't understand why they shut some of us down."

She says the possibility of further restrictions continues to linger in the minds of many business owners.

"It's still there. Are they going to shut us down in another two weeks because the numbers spiked after opening? There's still that unknown of are we going to stay open this time?'"

Despite this, she says protocols and limited capacities are a small price to pay to be able to continue operations.

"How we're feeling today, I think, is so different than how we were feeling last week. We're very grateful that we're allowed to be open again. My empathy goes out to a lot of businesses that are still struggling and are waiting to be opened again. I definitely feel fortunate that we have been allowed to open again, and I'm sure I speak for all of the girls here that we're just happy to be back doing what we love doing and to be able to have some social interaction."

 

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