1-year later: No more hanging out at the barbershop

Ron Franklin’s used to be a place to hang out and get the scuttlebutt. Franklin has been cutting hair since 1977, and has had a place in La Salle for 20 years, and it was OK to grab a seat without getting a haircut.

That was true before the pandemic, anyway. A year ago, the state imposed hunker-down orders on Illinois residents and temporarily halted operations at a number of businesses including barbershops and hair salons. Ron’s Barber Shop in La Salle was closed for 11 weeks, “which did hurt.”

Franklin still is open for business but much has changed, not least his interaction with customers. He can chat with the person in the barber’s chair but the two-person limit means no more shooting the breeze with people waiting inside.

“A lot of customers will wait into their cars until the other customer comes out,” Franklin said. “There’s definitely a difference, but I feel like people are getting used to it.”

Franklin and other barbers and stylists agreed there’s much more work involved in implementing infection controls. Disinfecting was routine for the combs and scissors but now they have to spray down the chairs and other common surfaces, too. That means more time and energy between customers.

Dennis Franklin is mostly retired but still helps his son, Denis, at Ben Franklin’s Barber Stylist Shop in Oglesby. It took the elder Franklin a few tries before he got the hang of trimming hair around the masks, but otherwise the only notable difference is the inability to welcome visitors who aren’t scheduled for haircuts but just wanted to chat.

“Mine was a place where we had a lot of fun,” he lamented.

Lynn Cawley owns Studio 718 in La Salle. She recalls that the first day reopening with infection controls was “so scary,” but by the third day “you had your skates back on.” It was a relief not only to be back to work but to so quickly get the hang of a new way of doing things.

“Everything you touch or get near, you’re disinfecting and cleaning it, which is not bad,” Cawley said. “I also feel it’s not so bad we’ve stepped up with cleaning and being more respectful of people’s space. People have to see cleanliness, which is vital.”

While she won’t remember 2020 among her most profitable years, “We did OK.”

There was a silver lining to the shutdown, too. She used the shutdown to install new software and do an interior remodeling, including the installation of a new floor. That would have difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish without the forced hiatus.

“It was a godsend, it really was,” Cawley said. “It was a fresh start.”

And while infection controls remain fiercely debated, those barbers and stylists interviewed said there has been little or no resistance to mask mandates and other infection controls adopted.

Sonny Kaszynski owns Sonny’s Barber Shop in Peru. He said some of his right-leaning customers aren’t happy with infection controls and not afraid to share their opinions, but overall customers have been “pretty obliging.”

“There are about 20% who, if they didn’t have to, wouldn’t wear them,” Kaszynski said.

Franklin said he had to stand his ground on mask usage, but just once.

“I had one customer the whole time who fought me on the mask,” said Dennis Franklin, “but you’ve got your rules and you stand by them.”

Cawley said there was no pushback from customers at all. Most were eager to get haircuts after weeks without access to the salon, and virtually all who walked in were obliging with mask mandates and other new protocols.

“Everybody was so anxious to get back into the groove and get back on schedule with their appointments,” she said. “People were very good. I had no complaints whatsoever.”