This past weekend, I had my first brush with what the “new normal” will look like during the next phase of the COVID era.
With my bangs covering nearly half of my face after having to go months without them being trimmed, I decided I couldn’t take the annoyance any longer and drove to New Hampshire to get my first COVID haircut.
I did not have a set destination in mind, which turned out to be a mistake as I pulled into the first Salem hair salon that showed up in a Google search — it was near the town’s mall, where I had made an online return — and immediately noticed a sign on the front door indicating services were “appointment only.”
As I only needed a 2-minute bang trim, I decided to take my chances and call the number to see if they could squeeze me in. Luckily, it was a go and I made my way inside with my required face covering.
A salon worker, who was also wearing a face mask, informed me that she had to take my temperature before I would be cleared for the haircut. I passed the forehead check and made my way to the salon area, where only one other woman was getting her hair done.
The lack of customers inside the hair salon seemed to be intentional, for social distancing requirements, rather than a sign of poor business, which the hair stylist confirmed when I asked her if they had been busy since opening that week.
She mentioned that they had been getting not only their regulars, but plenty of new customers. With Massachusetts a short drive away, with some towns right on the border, I assumed a good number of those people were also crossing state lines to get a service that was still banned in the Bay State at that point.
I wasn’t getting a full haircut, but it was easy to pick up on some of the restrictions during the experience without having checked what the state had in place beforehand.
For example, even for just a bang trim, a hair stylist would typically wet my hair before cutting it and then blow dry it afterwards. This time, it was a dry cut, which was a state requirement as blow dryers are banned in New Hampshire salons to mitigate the chance of spreading the virus.
Salons are also limited to simple cuts and color jobs, according to a New Hampshire Public Radio article.
Getting a haircut with a face mask on is uncomfortable, not to mention a little odd. There’s no way to judge whether a dye job or cut looks good, as a person can’t remove their face covering at any point to check.
In my case, the trim only took several minutes and there wasn’t much of a change, so the experience was relatively simple and brief.
The bang trim was definitely worth the trip since I can now see again without having to constantly brush my hair aside throughout the day. That said, I probably wouldn’t be keen to prolong the experience for a full haircut until it’s deemed safe enough to ease the virus restrictions a bit.
