CAN you believe it? It is now June 5 when our world stood still because of this coronavirus. I had just come from my trip from the Holy Land on March 5, 2020, and 10 days later, the first-ever restrictions or community quarantine was announced on March 15, 2020. I remember vividly I was at the grocery stocking up on basic goods as this was all new to a lot of us. Thoughts of when the quarantine will be, what will be allowed and not allowed, what will happen next swirled my mind with a myriad of uncertain thoughts.
Fast forward to a year and two months later, this will be the first time I had gone to a salon for a much-needed haircut.
I had gone to a salon in the Westside of Vancouver, Canada as this is where I am doing my own version of enhanced quarantine. As things are still very much unclear in Manila, I chose to stay out in Canada, first which is my second home during this pandemic. The situation in Vancouver, Canada right now is not as tense as it was a few months back. More than 50 percent of the population at this time has already received their first dose of the vaccine. In this city, the people were inoculated with one of the following -- Pfizer, Moderna or Astra Zeneca.
I got the Moderna one, which was not an individual choice but it is what is given when I went to the vaccination site. One does not get to choose which vaccine to receive. I only found out my vaccine the moment I sat down with the doctor who was going to inject me.
The very next day, I went to the salon. I had a bit of confidence in going out as I had just received my first dose of the vaccine. Although the vaccine does not really kick in until about two weeks after so what I did going out was probably not the best thing to do but I was desperate for a haircut.
In the salon, all customers were required to wear a mask while inside the enclosed space. All the hairstylists were wearing masks as well.
Inside Elian Salon in Point Grey, Vancouver, I was taken care of by Brandon, the salon boy and hairstylist who gave me the most fantastic head massage while cleansing my hair. He used Bioesthetique products on my God-forsaken hair. After I had stood up to go to my chair, I saw him sanitizing and wiping down the seat and the rest of the sink where he had just washed my hair in.
He proceeded to cut my hair. It was a surreal feeling to be inside an establishment after not doing any type of salon service or nail service for more than a year. I literally felt I was coming out of my cave with my long unkempt hair. He proceeded to style my hair and suggest that I take home some anti-aging shampoo and serum from Le Bioesthetique. My ugly hair has made quite an impression on him lacking TLC that he suggested these products to bring my mane hair back in action.
A part of me was feeling glorious I was able to go out and talk to real people whose lives have been impacted by Covid. Salons and gyms were two places I really avoided like the plaque in the last year and two months. Brandon did mention it was slow for them as I would imagine it to be. There are numerous instances of seeing my friends cutting their husbands' hairs and vice versa.
Salons, like most businesses, are trying their best to control the situation by seating clients one seat apart from each other, wearing masks and requiring customers to do so, sanitizing every station a customer uses. It will be great to see businesses up and running once again.
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