SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kayci Subia closed up her Midtown Sacramento hair salon, Mas Amor Salon, on St. Patrick's Day, just two days before Governor Gavin Newsom issues a statewide stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the novel conoravirus.
Subia's hair shop, like hundreds of other salons across the state, has been closed ever since. To support herself and her family, Subia has been dropping off color kits to clients, but is refusing to do any house calls even for family members and neighbors.
"If you would have asked me three or four weeks ago, it’s a hard no," Subia said of still doing clients' hair. "But now... it's tough. But still, truthfully — no, I cant."
Now, Sacramento stylists and clients are teaming together to sign an online petition in hopes of getting the attention of Mayor Darrell Steinberg to allow salons to service one client at a time, claiming that beauty salons are essential.
The petition, which has more than 2,000 of it's 3,000 signature goal, was launched by Nikki Ramos, a hair stylist and colorist out of Everly Hair Collaborative in Midtown.
The likeliness of that happening is unclear. Officials with Steinberg's office told ABC10 that the city is following county guidelines on what can be considered essential during the pandemic.
"We are following the county's order on what can and can't open," said a statement from the mayor's office. "We aren't going to deviate from that and decide to allow one industry or another to open without public health guidance."
When it comes to getting help from the state, Subia, like many salon owners, does not qualify for many of the COVID-19 small business loans because the stylists that work at her salon rent their booths out.
"I'm getting told daily apply for this, do this — the disaster relief loan," Subia explained. "That doesn't apply to me. I don't have employees. Technically I'm a landlord, because I have renters."
Subia said she agrees and disagrees with different parts of the petition but does believe there is a way that salons could open again.
Although Subia says she doesn't believe that hair stylists are essential workers, she says she does think that salons could reopen if they followed safety guidelines similar to those followed at local grocery stores.
"Not every salon is small. You have salons that have 30 stylists, 15 stylist," Subia said. "How do you take one client at a time? What do you tell your stylist?"
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Monica Coleman.
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