People Flock To El Dorado Hills For Salon Appointments After Mass Closures
EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) — Salons in El Dorado Hills are experiencing a surge in customers.
Phones were ringing off the hook with people desperate for an appointment Tuesday. The county is one of few left in the Sacramento area where salons and gyms can still be open.
The questions are the same: "Asking if we're open still because their salons are closed," said Brooke Vaquiero, an employee at Thrive Hair and Spa.
Appointments are booked solid at both hair and nail salons in town.
"The mass influx is obviously fear that it's going to close down again," said Donna Huston, who owns Adagio for Hair.
Huston said the last two days her business has taken more than 100 calls. She's had three staff members dedicated to just answering peoples' messages. She said people are anxious about what might be their only chance for an appointment.
"They're coming up even from San Francisco, LA, as far as LA," Huston said.
El Dorado County is one of few in our area not on the state watchlist. That's proved to be a lucrative advantage. In much of the greater-Sacramento area, including Sacramento, Placer, Yolo, Solano, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Yuba and Sutter counties, salon doors are shut and their customers are headed up the hill.
"With the phones ringing the way they have been, I'm calling in more staff. We are working as many hours as we possibly can," Huston said.
The El Dorado County Health Department is closely monitoring positive COVID-19 cases. If the county surpasses the state threshold, it's put on the watchlist, and salons, gyms, churches and more would be ordered to close.
A county spokesperson said so far so good but doesn't expect that to last long.
"We've all been thinking about it it's kind of the elephant in the room," Vaquiero said.
Huston has kept her business alive on government loans, grit and a good attitude. But how far can that go?
"So right now I've learned a good lesson, which is I live in the moment. It's when I try to think out too far that I get a little crazy," she said.
El Dorado County recently announced they would increase enforcement of the mask and social distancing rules by revoking the licenses of businesses that didn't follow them. This was after a spike in cases in South Lake Tahoe.