MARIETTA, Ga. — Before 8 a.m., the women wearing masks and bandanas began to line up gingerly outside the Three-13 Salon, Spa and Boutique, taking care to keep a 6-foot distance.
In the middle of a deadly viral pandemic, some needed trims and root touch-ups. Others craved pedicures, blowouts and face waxes.
Outside the double glass doors, an employee took their temperatures with an infrared thermometer, asked if they had had a cough or fever, and then handed them a small sticker with a red check mark.
As Georgia became the first state Friday to reopen a broad swath of businesses — lifting restrictions on gyms, barber shops, hair and nail salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys after a month-long shutdown to halt the spread of the COVID-19 virus — the move did not exactly mark a return to normalcy.
With COVID-19 still spreading across the state — its death toll had climbed by 35 on Thursday — many salons and tattoo parlors remained shut as business owners worried about the health risks of reopening. Those that opened their doors looked like scenes out of science-fiction, with skeleton crews spaced six or even 12 feet apart, wearing nitrile gloves and surgical and N95 masks.
Many local officials and infectious-disease experts have warned that reopening too early without more testing could lead to a surge in new infections. Already, more than 22,147 people in Georgia have tested positive for the virus and 892 people have died since the outbreak began.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms urged people to stay home and carry on social distancing.
“Listen to the scientists,” Bottoms said Friday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “There is nothing essential about going to a bowling alley or getting a manicure in the middle of a pandemic.”
But the mood was orderly yet relaxed at Three-13, a large salon in this affluent suburb about 20 miles north of Atlanta. More than half of the 85 full-time staff were back in the 13,000-square-foot space that had been sanitized and reconfigured to allow for social distancing. There was no waiting area inside and hair-cutting stations were spaced 12 feet apart.
“This feels safer than going to the grocery store,” said Karon Gilmore, 59, senior director of operations for a large consulting company, as her regular stylist, Natascha Updegrove, ran a comb through her wet silver hair.
“I wouldn’t call this reckless,” Updegrove said through a black face mask with a charcoal filter. “It’s almost like we’re setting the example on how to safely reopen.”
After being closed for 33 days, the salon owner, Lester Crowell, estimated his business had lost $450,000.
Yet many businesses across the state remained shuttered.
In Douglasville, a city about 20 miles west of Atlanta, Camilla Terrell, 52, could not find face shields or digital thermometers for her stylists at En’Vision Hair & Nail Salon. If they worked without them, she worried they risked losing their licenses.
“I need to go back to work, but this is just too dangerous,” she said. “Logically, I just cannot wrap my brain about what’s going on. Is it because the state doesn’t want to pay unemployment to a certain group of people?”
Unable to pay her monthly $3,690 rent for her salon, Terrell did not know how long she could continue to not work.
Sobbing, she contemplated the loss of her 14-year-old business.
“If I have to walk away, I have to walk away.”
Condemned as risky and premature by Democratic mayors in the big urban hubs of Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan received surprising opposition this week from President Donald Trump, who has long expressed eagerness to kick-start the economy and encouraged states to reopen.
“I told the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, that I disagree — strongly — with his decision to open certain facilities,” Trump said Wednesday in a White House briefing. “It’s just too soon.”
On Thursday, Trump reiterated that he did not like to see spas opening.
“If you ask me if I’m happy about it, I’m not happy about it, and I’m not happy about Brian Kemp.”
A flurry of states have moved to end lockdowns. South Carolina has already allowed department stores, flea markets, florists and beaches to reopen. Oklahoma is letting hair salons, pet grooming studios, tattoo shops and state parks to reopen Friday. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has said the “vast majority” of businesses and services can reopen May 1.
The White House’s Guidelines for Opening Up America Again recommend that states do not reopen until they see a decline in influenza-like illnesses reported and documented COVID-19 cases for a 14-day period.
Georgia does not yet meet that criteria, yet many Georgians were eager to reopen.
“It’s time,” said Deborah Deavers, 63, owner of Hair By The Square in downtown Marietta. “We’ve got to go on with life. If we don’t, we’re going to lose our country.”
Salons and businesses should never have been forced to shut down, Deavers said. Instead, everyone should have carried on with life, wearing masks and gloves.
Under the new rules, businesses that reopen must follow strict sanitation and social distancing protocol. The Georgia State Board of Cosmetologists and Barbers issued a four-page list of safety guidelines this week that recommend salons perform temperature checks of all employees and clients, limit the number of people inside and practice social distancing. All employees must wear a face mask and are recommended to wear gloves and smock. All clients should wear a face mask and cape.
Kemp’s decision to reopen Georgia is driven chiefly by economic concerns. About 1.1 million Georgians have filed for unemployment in the last month and many small business owners complain the shutdown could force them to close for good.
According to the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank, about 16.5% of Georgia’s workforce has claimed unemployment and its state funds can cover only about eight weeks more of unemployment claims.
But the Georgia Department of Labor said it was not running out of funds.
“We have over $2 billion in our trust fund right now and we’re doing okay,” said Kersha Cartwright, a spokeswoman for the department. “This can’t last forever, but of course, no one wants it to. We’re working really hard to get Georgians back to work safely.”
People who felt unsafe returning to the workplace, Cartwright said, would not necessarily continue to get unemployment benefits.
“There’s a big list of potential reasons you could possibly be eligible for unemployment,” she said. “If you are caring for someone in a high-risk category, if you are immuno-compromised, if you have been diagnosed with COVID or living with a family member who’s been diagnosed with COVID. … But if you just feel unsafe returning to the workplace, that by itself would not be a valid reason.”
Much of Atlanta remained a ghost town Friday, with salons, tattoo parlors and gyms remaining closed.
In the leafy Grant Park neighborhood, Patrick Cochran and Blair Smoker, a husband-and-wife team who co-own Pair Studio, decided pretty soon after Gov. Kemp’s announcement that it was not time to re-open.
“No way,” Cochran said. “If I’m cutting somebody’s bangs, I’m right in their face.”
Cochran and Smoker have gotten by so far, earning about a quarter of their regular income by selling gift cards and delivering root touch up sprays and hand balms.
While they have been forced to defer their car payments, they felt lucky compared to other hairdressers who were falling behind on mortgages and facing financial ruin. They had some savings and their studio’s landlord was not making them pay rent until the second week of May.
Watching the debate around reopening get heated on social media — with some condemning businesses that reopened and threatening not to ever spend money with them again — Cochran felt uncomfortable.
“Can we all agree to refrain from public shaming those who freely choose to return to work?” he posted Thursday on Facebook. “People keep saying we’re all in the same boat. This isn’t quite true. We are all in the same storm, but we are in different boats.”
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