NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Hair salons across the state have been temporarily closed for more than two weeks.
A temporary order extended their closure until at least April 27.
Amy Howie has owned the Papillion Salon in North Myrtle Beach for four years and she says she’s ready to get back to work.
On Wednesday Howie created a petition to slowly reopen hair salons statewide. It was signed more than 449,000 as of Friday night.
“In my wildest dreams I would’ve never thought that it would’ve escalated that quickly and that much,” said Howie.
Howie says the overwhelming support is shown in the numbers. She says salons should be considered as essential businesses and can reopen slowly with proper guidelines.
“I believe that when there’s a clear set of rules, there is no grey area,” said Howie.
The R. Cribb Salon in Myrtle Beach is one of many salons in the Grand Strand hurting from no income.
“There are a ton of ways that you can [slowly reopen] in a sanitary way to get us back open in some way. While we may not be making us much money, something is better than nothing,” said director, Aly Davis.
The petition suggests having one client per stylists and a limit on how many people can be inside a salon at one time.
“There needs to be guidelines from the South Carolina LLR and everyone needs to adhere to those guidelines,” said Bob Delong, owner of Dolce Lusso Salons.
Delong closed all of his salon locations two weeks prior to the temporary order and has been temporarily closed for over a month.
While no one in the industry is making profit, Delong says he will only reopen if it’s safe for employees and customers.
“We’ll see where we are in 10 days. I mean at day 11 we could open up or we could decide as a team that it’s not in our best interest to do that,” said Delong.
Howie says she will leave the petition up until Monday then will send it over to the governor’s office.
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