OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Hair stylists across the metro have been unable to legally work for more than six weeks. Now, many are not just worried about their lack of a paycheck, but the possibility of losing their clients.
A salon owner in Prairie Village told 41 Action News the inability to schedule her clients may lead them to salons in Missouri.
“We don’t know what to tell our clients," salon owner Hannah Powell said. "We have to keep rescheduling them, we don’t know how to book them."
After Governor Laura Kelly's announcement on Thursday, Powell can't get back to work until May 18 at the earliest, while across the state line, salons will open up as soon as May 6.
“A lot of them are probably going to go over to Missouri to get their hair done, so that then when we open just a couple of weeks after, everyone's going to have been taken care of and we really needed that initial boom to start up our businesses again," Powell said.
As a single mother, Powell was eager to get back to work, telling 41 Action News she has the education to safely do so.
“I think people don’t understand that over half of our education as stylists is being trained in sanitation," she said.
Other salon owners told 41 Action News they disagree with the quick return back to work.
“I have been researching Georgia salons and salon owners and seeing what they’re doing and I am not a trained medical professional and I think to make me dress like one, act like one, to cut someone's hair is a little absurd," Kat Forster at Henley Grace Studio LLC said Friday.
Forster believes staying closed awhile longer is the responsible thing to do.
At Bronzed N Beautiful in Overland Park, Malinda McHenry told 41 Action News she plans on opening her doors regardless of Governor Kelly's plans.
“This is the peak of our earnings season, March 1st to June 30th for my specific type of businesses, it’s the peak, it’s almost 70 percent of my annual earnings," McHenry said.
Governor Kelly has salons as part of phase two of her reopening plan. An executive order would be issued to move the state into phase two and would begin no sooner than May 18.
