Salons and spas in the area plan to reopen, but some wish they had more guidance

MILWAUKEE/BROOKFIELD, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Salons, spas and barber shops have been closed for nearly two months, but with varying re-opening guidelines from county to county, opening their doors hasn’t been the easiest task.

Barber shop owners say they’re ready to open but still have many unanswered questions on safety guidelines, which is why some have decided to wait to reopen their doors.  

Owner of The Menz Barber Lounge in Milwaukee says he’s treading carefully after Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision before seeing clients again.

“A little bit of confusion right now, because I don’t know what that means with it being lifted and other suburban counties is opening up so I don’t know what it means,” said owner, Ivy Hopson.

The City of Milwaukee is still under a Safer at Home order, but has released some guidelines for opening salons and spas safely. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he plans on doing a tutorial for them in the coming days.

”I don’t know what kind of stipulations they’re going to have or what kind of provisions they’re going to put in place for us to open safely, so I have to still keep my ears open,” adds Hopson.

Meanwhile Waukesha County isn’t restricting business operations.

”There’s a lot of excitement for sure, but there’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of concern,” said Gina Vecera, Owner of Sola Salon Brookfield.  

Sola Salons in Brookfield houses dozens of beauty services from hair, nails and lashes. They’re opening their doors Friday morning, but their county not having guidelines hasn’t necessarily made it easier either.

“Because they didn’t have set guidelines we actually utilized the ones that were in place for Milwaukee County because we thought that would be a really good place to start with, and we knew that our priority was to keep everybody safe and healthy,” adds Vecera.

Some of Milwaukee city and county guidelines say salons and spas should have one client per stylist at a time, masks are to be worn and allow no walk-ins. 

Area doctors also recommend people wash hands and socially distance as businesses reopen, but for salons, it’s not always possible.

“There’s a challenge when you’re doing services on clients,” said Vecera. “But there is time in between processing of color and things like that where you can get socially distant.”

Vecera and Hopson both decided they’ll post signs to help enforce guidelines. 

“We’re not taking any sick clients -- all of those have to be rescheduled, and then we’re asking that there’s some time in between appointments made for all of our professionals to be disinfecting,” said Vecera.

”It’s tough—because it’s close quarters with servicing a client, so the only thing you can do is put a mask on,” adds Hopson.

Hopson says he’ll spend the rest of this week sanitizing and preparing and he hopes to have his barber shop open by next week.