PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — It’s been a difficult five months for Ashley Taylor.
The owner of Cutting Edge Studio and Boutique at the Port Hawkesbury Shopping Centre has had to deal with the personal loss of her partner, John Green, a well-known funeral home owner in the Port Hawkesbury area, who died in November.
Taylor doubled the budget for her women’s clothing business in anticipation of the spring and summer months, along with preparing for her regular salon business, which sees roughly 600 clients per month.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor was forced to close her salon on March 19 and decided to keep the boutique’s doors closed as well because of the lack of customers.
Almost two months later, the 34-year-old has been left with thousands of dollars in inventory, with not much time to sell, and losing $30,000 each month the salon is closed.
“I’m getting hit really hard, personally, but I’m resilient and I have great friends, family, clients and a wonderful community,” said Taylor.
An 11-year veteran of the hairdressing industry, she started her business five years ago this month. She kept a close eye on the coronavirus outbreak in the early stages, but didn’t realize the severity of it until she returned home from a cruise in February.
“When I came home, suddenly everyone was getting sick, things were closing, and the world was shutting down. I realized it was a real thing,” said Taylor.
“The week before we closed, everybody was cancelling their appointments, nobody was coming in, the town was dead, people were scared and staying home without even a warning.”
At the time, Taylor was worried knowing she had bills to pay — including her employees' salaries — and no clients walking through the door.
“When the government announced they were shutting us down, it was a blessing in the sense I didn’t have wages to pay with no customers, but then it meant we were closed, not knowing what we were going to do or how I was going to pay things.”
Taylor, who has five employees at the salon, was optimistic about the situation.
She believed the business would be closed for a month but it didn’t turn out to be the case. The virus began hitting its peak in Nova Scotia in mid-April and salon doors across the province remain shut.
“We’re probably looking at June or July before we can open,” Taylor said. “As a hairstylist, and I have others who agree, until we can hug our family, we can’t cut hair safely.”
Dana Sharkey, executive director of the Cosmetology Association of Nova Scotia, told the Cape Breton Post the association has submitted guidelines to the provincial government for approval, however, no timeline for reopening has been set.
The association has received hundreds of emails from its members asking questions about the potential protocols.
“The biggest thing now is the lack of information to help our members prepare for reopening,” said Sharkey.
“They want to be prepared, making sure they’re in cleaning and sanitizing but they don’t know what they have to do or what they have to order.”
Some suggest hairstylists wear gloves and masks in order to protect themselves and their clients but Sharkey doesn’t want to force hairdressers to wear gloves.
“They’re just going to cut them right off their fingers,” she said. “Their hands are in water before they begin the service, during the service, and if they’re doing chemical work at the end, they’re very trained in the protocols of washing their hands, sanitation and disinfection.
“I’ve had concerns about people having to wear masks all day. Some people have issues with that. Some are wondering if they have asthma or other health conditions do they have to wear them. So, these are all questions we’re trying to answer.”
Along with wearing a mask, Taylor believes there will be even more challenges when it comes to the number of clients she’ll be able to serve each day.
“You can’t double book your clients – if I had to sanitize my station after every client, now my time when I do a haircut is actually costing me more time, but I’m able to take less people, so I’m losing money as soon as I open the door,” she said.
“Instead of doing 20 haircuts, we’re only going to be able to do maybe 12 haircuts because by the time I get everything ready, you add those minutes on each customer, that’s a haircut you could have been doing.”
The Cosmetology Association of Nova Scotia has close to 10,000 members across the province and represents almost 2,000 salons and spas.
Sharkey doesn’t know how many businesses will potentially be forced to close permanently because of lost revenue.
“We’re praying that none of them will close,” Sharkey said. “We don’t know how long they're going to remain closed or what their financial burdens are. It’s a scary situation.”
When asked how long she can remain closed while losing money, Taylor said she has no plans to give up, regardless of the outcome.
“I’m going to try to go as long as I can. It’s a challenge. If it means I have to get a loan, I’m not closing my business.”
Along with cosmetology, barbers have also been affected by the virus. Barbershops have also been closed since March and there’s no timeline as to when they could reopen.
For now, it’s a waiting game for Taylor but it hasn’t stopped her from thinking about her clients.
“We miss them as much as they miss us,” she said.
“You really get to know your clients and you do all those life experiences with them but for now we can’t do those things.”
