Salons open for business with one message: Make an appointment!

Salons open for business with one message: Make an appointment!

So long to sagging sideburns and nagging nails now that salons in the South Denver Metro Area are beginning to open in Douglas and Arapahoe counties.

“They were a mess!” said Mira Habina of Highlands Ranch, in reference to her nails and toes, which went six weeks without any professional attention. “I tried to soak them off, and the best job I could do was really poor. It’s just really important to have your mani-pedi done professionally,” said Habina.

Salon owners south of County Line Road began opening once the “Stay at Home” order was lifted and once “personnel services” were allowed to begin in Douglas County on May 1st. In Arapahoe County, that day is May 9th.

The Villager inspected half a dozen open salons, to speak with clients, stylists and owners about what they had learned, what they found to be the biggest challenges.

The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), which manages the licenses of all professional service workers, along with the TriCounty Health Department, laid out strict rules for salons to adhere to upon reopening.

As you return to your stylist’ s chair or your nail tech’s table, be prepared for a completely new experience.

The numbers game means you must arrive alone and prepare to wait outside until you have re ceived a text or have been invited inside. There is no longer an indoor waiting area.

“I’m monitoring the door like a hawk,” said Cindy Rayfield, owner of Cookie Cutters Haircuts in Highlands Ranch, where she is only able to allow one parent in with one child at a time.

Salons offering online booking seemed to have the organizational advantage, al Salon owner Stacey Sears managed a phone ringing non-stop on opening day at her Highlands Ranch Fantastic Sams.

Michelle Tate of Highlands Ranch used online booking to secure her opening day haircut at the salon she’s frequented for 14-years.

A plate of plexiglass now separates Mira Habina from her nail technician at V’s Salon in Highlands Ranch.

The biggest challenge we observed was each salon’s exhaustive ef fort to adhere to the Governor’s order demanding no more than 10-people be allowed to gather in any one place at the same time. You read that right. No more than five professionals and five custom ers can be in any salon at any one time.

Balance the limited availability of appointments with the number of people itching for a professional trim of the tresses, and we ob served the phone at every salon we visited ringing of f the hook.

“We can’t even have a receptionist right now, so I am constantly counting the number of people in the salon while answering the non-stop phone calls,” said Stacey Sears, Owner of the Fantastic Sams in the Highlands Ranch’ s Village Center West.

“I’ve been coming to this salon for 14-years, and part of the reason why is because they are professional and consistent in their cleanliness here” said Michelle Tate, a client of Sears’s salon. “I knew that with this reopening, they would put in all of the extra work to have the salon ready and keep it clean.”

ALL appointments are required to be scheduled in advance.

Why?

Remember, we are still in a COVID-19 pandemic.

If a COVID-19 positive patient is traced back to having had ser vices at a salon, health department contact tracers will use the names and numbers of every person who was in the salon on the same day to send them for testing.

When you enter a salon, be prepared to have your temperature taken, and salons are required to report anyone with a fever over 101-degrees to the health depart ment.

Both you and your stylist are required to wear a mask the entire time you are getting your haircut. Sure, they move it off your ears when they are cutting around that area, but otherwise, no mask, no services. Plan to bring a mask with you, because not all salons we visited were able to get their hands on extra personal protective equipment.

Most nail salons we visited now have plexiglass in place be tween the nail technician and the client in the manicure stations, and newly manufactured one-time-use liners are now being used in the pedicure tubs.

Some salons are also requiring customers to sign a liability waiver.

All salons had some form of sign on the door which stated, “Walk-Ins NOT Welcome.” We watched several people get stopped at the door - from the point where they tried to open it - if they attempted to enter without an appointment.

Obey the rules. If the salon or licensed professionals break them for you, they can face huge fines, or in some cases, lose their license or their business.

Hairdressers and technicians at salons opening this coming Saturday uniformly expressed appreciation that they were not the first, but rather, that they had the opportunity to learn from the “quirks” discovered by salons first to open in Douglas County.

Hairdresser Francesca Nichole of Andres Salon on South Broadway, ordered the works for her Arapahoe County salon, including masks for herself and customers, the pricey contactless thermomeStylist Danny RomeroRogal demonstrated today’s COVID-19 “chair care” requires a complete station cleaning between clients. Young children get their first haircut in two months at Cookie Cutters Haircuts in Highlands Ranch.