haircuts in a time of pandemic

When Terry and I moved to Hemet six years ago (that meant I had returned to Hemet after forty-one years away), I obviously needed to find a new hair stylist. The logical first choice was to find someone at the salon in the lodge here at Four Seasons, which I did. I was happy with the results I got from Stephanie and so followed her to her nearby salon when she stopped working at Four Seasons. When the shop sold Stephanie moved to a salon almost half an hour away. Too far for me. I found a shop on Florida Avenue, Hemet’s main street, and made an appointment with Taylor. I was not happy with the two haircuts I got from him.

I looked around and found a salon near downtown Hemet run by a woman named Sonja. I stayed with her for a while, but then I got a couple of bad haircuts in a row. About that time the pandemic hit, and Sonja was not taking any precautions in her shop. No masks. Nothing. I decided that the best approach was to cut my own hair with some help from Terry, who took care of the back.

I did that for more than a year. Once we were both vaccinated and protocols were in place for hair salons I decided it was time to venture out. Terry had a stylist in the local Ulta store with whom she was happy, and Ulta was implementing protocols, so I went to see her. Two haircuts. Not happy.

Time to research. I posted to the San Jacinto Valley Facebook page twice asking for recommendations on salons that both did men’s hair and followed COVID protocols. The first time someone responded and asked another person to post information on a particular salon, but that never happened. The second time the only response was someone who recommended Super Cuts near Walmart. Super Cuts? Sharing a parking lot with Walmart? I don’t think so.

So I went to Yelp. There were plenty of salon listings. One reviewer wrote about a shop with a sign saying, “masks not required.” There were several photos of unmasked stylists and clients. Then I saw a small shop with a photo of a properly masked male client. I stopped by and the owner, Sandra, seemed to follow proper protocols. I went there for my haircut this week and she did a nice job. Not ideal, but good enough.

Sandra gave me a hand mirror so I could see the back of my head. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the back of my head. Seems that I’m losing hair back there. Yikes! What’s with that?

It’s nice to have a decent haircut after so long. Even if I am losing hair on the back of my head.