Industry Members, San Joaquin Co. Officials Stand In Solidarity With Struggling Hair Salons
STOCKTON (CBS13) – Emotions were running high for stylists like Chelsey Kiefer as hair salons remain on the cutting room floor unable to reopen under the stay-at-home order.
"I'm just so tapped out of the highs and the lows of this emotional rollercoaster that Gavin Newsom has put us on," said Kiefer, a stylist at Pomp Studio Hair Salon.
Supporters of the barbershop and nail salon industry gathered at Pomp Salon in Stockton on Thursday to stand in solidarity with the business and others struggling with the closures.
Fred Jones, a member of the Professional Beauty Federation of California, along with San Joaquin County Supervisor Tom Patti, other state lawmakers and salon industry members were in attendance.
Pomp Salon's situation went viral after a video surfaced of two stylists arguing with state officers from the barbering and cosmetology board that cited them for violating the latest health order.
These industry supporters said available data and science aren't supporting the closure of their businesses. They also said that on Tuesday, the San Joaquin County public health officer had stated that not a single COVID spread has been traced to hair salons in the county.
"We know and understand that indoor environments, close proximity with families without protection which is not what you're getting in a salon," Patti said. "So it's those indoor, you know, care facilities and large family gatherings that are high risk."
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A representative from San Joaquin Public Health told CBS13 that the public health officer said the county's contact tracing hadn't traced an outbreak of the virus at hair salons in the county but didn't say that hair salons aren't a spreading industry.
The supporters of the hair salon are also standing by their position with a recent statement from Dr. Mark Ghaly, the secretary of California Health and Human Services, where he called their industry, "low risk."
"To us, that's a smoking gun. They know we are not at risk," Jones said.
The California Department of Public Health told CBS13 that it's not about which industry is riskier than the other.
It's the fact that any mixing of families could spread the virus.
So, the Professional Beauty Federation of California said on Thursday that it is filing another federal lawsuit in California next week.
There's also another plan to try to reopen hair salons.
"I am starting conversations with the Recall Gavin Newsom petition. We are considering endorsing that," Jones said.
The co-owner of Pomp Salon told CBS13 that they'll be remained as their fight to reopen continues.