More information, clarity needed from the province on re-opening says Saskatoon salon owner

Douglas Armo Bean has owned Salon Deja Vu on Broadway Avenue for more than two decades. The last six weeks or so have been unlike anything he and his staff of four, have experienced.

While he’s had some success selling salon products online, it’s nothing like the steady business he’s had prior to having to close his doors.

On Thursday, Premier Scott Moe outlined a five step procedure for “re-opening Saskatchewan.” It includes allowing hair salons to tentatively open again, May 19.

In the last 24 hours he’s been inundated with messages from the public.

“I’ve had messages through my personal Facebook page, through the salon Facebook page, through my instant messages, through Messenger, through the work phone, through my cell phone texting. Yesterday, I almost had a meltdown because of all of these messages.”

He says one thing is clear: he’s not going to rush to open his doors, and he will not be overbooking any appointments not only for the health and safety of his staff, but for his clients as well.

That said, even getting to the point of opening is confusing. Bean isn’t sure how that’s going to happen. He finds some of the information coming from the provincial government right now very confusing – especially about wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).

“Because we’re a ‘touching’ profession, you know you have to maintain physical distance, yet we’re unable to. And of course I read the guidelines. We’re obligated to wear protective eye wear, capes over our bodies…and a mask as well.”

He says wearing a mask will become quite cumbersome and staff will get quite hot. It’s not clear what types of masks they’ll be required to wear, how often they’ll have to be changed or replaced, whether cloth masks will be acceptable, how often and with what chemicals they can use to disinfect the salon, and a host of other questions.

“What I’ve realized is that it sounds like we’ll have to stagger things a little bit. We’ll probably be operating at half-speed, meaning we won’t be able to do the numbers we did before.”

An esthetician also works in the same facility, although she won’t come back to work until the third phase of the plan.

He says he’s planning a Zoom meeting with his staff to try and iron out additional details, although more information and direction he says, is urgently needed from the provincial government.

“There’s a lot of ambiguity and contradiction if you read some of the guidelines.”