San Benito County allowing hair salons, barbershops to open

SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION) San Benito County announced that it will follow state guidance and allow hair salons and barbershops to reopen.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that counties approved to move into the expansion of Stage 2 of reopening under his Resilience Roadmap would be allowed to open them. San Benito County qualified for the expansion on May 13. Newsom said they would be allowed to reopen immediately.

Workers and customers will be required to wear face coverings, and activities that will be allowed include haircuts, hair coloring, blowouts, weaves and extensions, braiding, lock maintenance, wig maintenance and hair relaxing.

Salons and barbershops will not be allowed to perform services that cannot be done with face coverings or that involve touching the client's face, such as shaving, facial waxing, threading, eyelash services and facials.

Employers will need to enforce social distancing, except when providing haircuts or other close contact services; provide temperature or symptom screenings, encourage sick workers and customers to stay home and screen customers and cancel or reschedule if they are sick.

Hair salons and barbershops are asked to self-certify using state guidance and the San Benito County Self-Certification window placard, which can be found here.

Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties have not been approved to move into the Stage 2 extension, so hair salons and barbershops are not allowed to reopen there yet.

Read the full guidance for hair salons and barbershops below.

Raul Gonzales has owned B&R Barbershop for more than 50 years. And he's finally back in business, after closing for the first time due to COVID-19.

"Driving me crazy, so it’s good to get back in the routine," Gonzalez said.

And even though he's 86 years old, making him more vulnerable to the virus, he's prepared with his mask. Gonzales said he's not too worried. He's not letting fear stop him from returning to his livelihood.

"What’s going to be is going to be, but take precautions," Gonzalez said. "Don’t be a fool."

For Gonzalez, some of those precautions involve taking his clients' temperatures when they first come in, and wiping down the chairs in between each haircut.

And other barber shops and salons reopening in San Benito County are doing the same. They're following the state's guidelines for keeping customers safe, which could present some challenges, like trying to style clients' hair around their masks. But salon owners say it's a learning process.

"I think they’re more than willing and able to come in and just be part of our new adventure together," 218 Salon owner Michelle Perry said.

And residents agree that they're ready, and they're not scared.

"Because they already take so many precautions," Hollister resident Ana Moreno said.

And Gonzalez said that even though he can only see one client at a time, he expects his phone to be ringing off the hook.

"For some of my clients, it’s been three, or longer, months since they had a haircut, so I'll be here waiting for them."