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Wearing face masks at hair salons
Atlanta hair salon demonstrates face masks slow the spread of coronavirus
ATLANTA - Atlanta Hair Color Studio owner Emily Galbaugh estimates she has paid over $3,000 for cleaning supplies, Plexiglas screens, UV sanitizing machines and HEPA filters for her air-conditioning system.
But, Galbaugh believes the $5 cotton face masks her stylists and clients are wearing have made the biggest impact, when it comes to slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Galbaugh's Druid Hills salon reopened May 1, 2020, after shutting down for several weeks when coronavirus cases surged across Georgia.
Since then, she and 7 other stylists have been working behind masks.
"It's definitely been challenging," Galbaugh says. "I feel like the first few weeks we were definitely in panic mode, in terms of not being able to breathe and having issues. But, we've definitely gotten used to it."
The salon's clients are required to wear masks, too, and that’s raised some challenges.
"I think the biggest thing is learning how to cut around masks without cutting the mask off," Galbaugh says.
Clients wait in their car for their appointments and are asked to put on a mask before they enter the building.
Then, they are asked to sign in, fill out a health screening form, and get their temperature taken.
Galbaugh says their system, and the masks in particular, seem to be working.
"We haven't had any calls of anybody saying, ‘We've tested positive,' or any kind of issue of anyone being sick," she says. "As far as I know, none of our stylists have been sick. We check temperatures every day."
A new CDC study shows just how effective wearing a mask may be.
In May, two Missouri stylists contracted the virus and went to work sick, exposing 139 clients.
The story made national news, as local health officials launched an effort to track down and isolate the clients who may have been infected.
All of the salon's stylists and clients were wearing masks, at the time of the exposure, most of them wearing either cotton face coverings or surgical masks.
But despite being indoors, where the virus is more likely to spread, and spending anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes with the sick stylists, researchers say, none of the 139 clients went on to develop symptoms.
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Of 67 clients who volunteered to get tested for COVID-19, all were negative.
"For me, I felt like it was a no brainer," Galbaugh says. "I don't know why we wouldn't all be wearing them to protect each other. It clearly works, if that's the case."
Working in a mask is not easy, and some clients have pushed back, asking why face coverings are necessary.
Still, Galbaugh believes, wearing a mask is a small price to pay for keeping her team safe, and her salon open.
"I feel like if you're going to be within six feet of someone, you should be wearing a mask," she says.
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