CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW.COM) – Clarksville’s close contact businesses are back open and learning to adapt to the new challenges brought by COVID-19 restrictions.
Tommy Edwards, owner of Holiday Barber Shop on Riverside Drive, said the increased rules are difficult but manageable.
Under the Tennessee Pledge, barbershops and hair salons were allowed to reopen if they followed the state’s guidelines for close contact services. Businesses should not allow walk-ins, opting for appointment only, cannot have an open waiting area, and everyone is required to wear a mask. (Full guidelines can be found here.)
Edwards sees one of the biggest issues for the barbershop – the inability to offer a beard trim.
“The shaves I can understand because you have the chance of cutting someone,” said Edwards. “Where does the sideburn end and your beard begin? It’s the same proximity to your mouth.” Edwards and his wife, Kristen, were already using hospital grade disinfectants for their shop and clean thoroughly in between client appointments.
For a barbershop, serving predominantly male clients, limiting this service presents not only a frustration for the customer but a loss of potential revenue for the business at a time when they’re already struggling.
However, Edwards remains positive that the reopening was a good thing. “If we had to go to the 29th, we would not be here, we would have closed the doors and that would have been it,” he said in reference to Gov. Lee’s decision to reopen close contact businesses May 6 as opposed to the original date of the May 29.
“It was to the point where we couldn’t wait anymore.”
Promises for government assistance to the small businesses never came. The SBA loans and stimulus money ran out before it reached many small businesses. “We never got any money,” Edwards said about the business relief plan. He and his wife did get unemployment, which helped personally. But some of his barbers, who are considered independent contractors or ‘booth rent’, have never even seen unemployment assistance.
For his business, the bills “just wouldn’t stop”.
In speaking with others in the industry, he hears more of the same. Many are working hard to adhere to guidelines, and catch up after nearly two months with no income. Unfortunately, the close contact service community is also responding to the mixed reviews from the public after reopening began. They’ve gone between clients being thrilled at the reopening, to some in the community threatening the shops are going to cause more harm.
“People in general don’t like change. You have to overcome those obstacles any way you can.”
As the community continues to re-open, Edwards hopes that communication between decision makers in government and the Tennessee businesses will improve. He said the lack of clear decisions made it difficult for businesses to properly understand their rights at times. “I’m ex-Military, so chain of command. It should have gone down chain of command and back up. It didn’t feel like there was structure.”
The Tennessee Board of Cosmetology and Barbers, the state board that governs these businesses, must provide clear communication as well. To Edwards, at times it seemed there was a “lack of understanding of the full scope of what kind of sanitizing we go through day to day.”