With COVID-19 cases still soaring in Dallas County, a local salon owner says she isn't waiting to see if more restrictions are coming. She's taking matters into her own hands and shutting her doors again.
After the shutdown, when salons could reopen, Myeisha Meeks said she took her responsibility for providing a safe environment seriously. She requires masks and spaces out her bookings to have as few people inside the salon as possible.
“I take the proper protocol as far as my salon is concerned,” she said. “Cleaning after each person.”
But she noticed a trend among some of her clients. Many would come in for a service and divulge what they’d been up to or their plans for the coming days. She said what she heard wasn’t sitting right.
“They’d say, ‘Oh I went to a restaurant. Oh, I did this. Oh, I just happened to go visit my friend,’” Meeks said. “And that makes me a little nervous. Because then you’re coming to see me. And then I have to go home to my child.”
So she tallied up the cost, weighed the options and made the decision she thought was best.
“I just couldn’t continue to see the numbers increase and some of my clients not doing what I feel they should be. So, I said, 'You know what? Let me just go ahead and make the decision to shut down,'" she said.
For the month of August, she’ll close the doors to her salon in Coppell and stop styling hair. It’s a move she said is best for clients, herself and her young daughter, who she plans to keep out of Montessori school come August.
“We’ll be virtual learning,” Meeks said. “That’s kind of difficult to do from a salon and I don’t want her at that salon.”
She said she has enough savings and money from small business loans to survive at least one month. She said the pandemic has also made her focus on other streams of income like her hair and body oil line and a children’s book.
While she’s away from the salon, Meeks said she’ll keep a close watch on the numbers and hoped to see a downward trend.
“I still love doing hair. I do. This has just made it so much more difficult,” she said. “It’s not just about me, you know. It’s about my clients as well. So, I’m just trying to do my part.”
