As COVID-19 first started
to surge in March and April 2020, one unexpected consequence of the quarantine
was the lack of access to barbershops. Barbershops have been the subject of
government closure because of a perception that they are a non-essential
business and the proximity required between barber and their customer. Apart
from just providing grooming services, however, barbershops hold a unique place
in many communities as central hubs for meeting and interacting with other
community members. This blog post will look at the current state of barbershops
by focusing on two barbershops in two different cities: Cutz Lounge The
Grooming Lounge in Detroit, MI and M & K Barbershop in Queens, NY.
Dante
Williams opened Cutz Lounge six years ago in Detroit. Cutz Lounge was the
reincarnation of the barbershop that Williams owned in Inkster, MI. From the
outset, Williams focused on delivering what he views as a vintage haircut
experience. The vintage quality extends past the decoration and jazzy ambiance.
Williams recognizes the place that barbershops and barbers hold in connecting
community members, but COVID has had a dramatic impact on the innerworkings of
Cutz Lounge. While the three-month closure period earlier this summer was an
abrupt interruption of his operations, after returning to business things are
not as they once were. The dynamics of the barbershop are no longer the same.
People no longer wait for a haircut and have an opportunity to talk about the
local game or what is happening in politics. Any haircuts occur by appointment
only and the ritual seems more transaction: people come in, get a haircut and
leave.
Fernando Fernandez owns the M&K Barbershop
in Queens, NY. Located near the 103rd Stop of the 7-train, the
Bernardino Barbershop seems to be a carbon copy of other Dominican owned shops:
loud and crowded. Two large television screens are always on showing baseball
and playing bachata. In one corner older men play checkers while everyone screams
about the Yankees during the summer months and Las Aguilas del Cibao
during the winter months. Fernandez says that the shop is eerie now. Social
distancing guidelines mean that people are not allowed to mingle in the shop.
Fernandez now thinks his shop is too small – making sure that barbers are six
feet apart severely constricts real estate. New York has had some of the
strictest quarantine measures and kept barbershops closed until the latter end
of August. Fernandez and his barbers book customers by appointment, but this
has not been a difficult transition. Many regulars already booked their
haircuts by appointment – they know that it is the only way to save a spot on
the seat of popular barbers and it is part of the barbershop’s culture. When
asked to sum up the community atmosphere created at the barbershop, Fernandez uses
a slang Dominican term: “Bacano.” Simply, it was great. He does not know if
there are new spaces that have taken over the community space function of a
barbershop. He does know, however, that his barbershop is much too quiet and
there are more people leaving than coming.
Barbers
have an intimate connection to their clients. Apart from providing a grooming
service, a barber must also be a pantomath: a barber knows a little about
everything. Nowadays, however, barbers need to know a whole lot about COVID.
Both Fernandez and Williams highlight that there is a sense of fear in their
communities. The pandemic has been all consuming and has impacted every part of
their community. Politics also dominate discussions. The 2020 presidential election
may have started in earnest this past summer, but for Fernandez it felt like it
had been happening for ten years. Williams also notes that the conversations he
has with his clients are much more political in nature. The summer of unrest
spurred by the murder of George Floyd have translated to conversations about
policing and Black Lives Matter.
When
not flexing their muscles as master conversationalists, barbers are performing
public health duties. Any patron that enters the Cutz Lounge shop wears a mask,
and this is not a negotiable policy for Williams. Apart from recognizing his
responsibility to adhere the government mandate, he recognizes the impact that
collective action can have on outcome of the pandemic. For any “non-believers”
who come to his store without a mask, Williams offers a facemask for a nominal
fee of $1.00. Fernandez has a thermometer that he uses to quickly screen
individuals before they enter his shop and has everyone wearing masks. Both
shops clean all instruments before the next patron enters the store. For
Fernandez, inspections have also become common place as health inspectors are
more readily present to ensure that small businesses like his are compliant
with state health mandates. Sometimes this is made difficult because the
inspectors lack understanding of the services he is providing. For example, a
patron may temporarily remove a mask to finish some aspect of the haircut or
for a quick shave. He believes that the government should enforce safety
mandates, but he also wishes it was done with a greater understanding of the
community and businesses it is meant to protect.
Like
any business barbershops are adapting. The business aspect of the craft will
recover. If we have learned anything in the pandemic as people grew out their hair,
we learned that an America without haircuts is not a pretty America. People
will continue to patron their local, trusted barber out of vanity. The other
intangibles of the barbershop – dynamic community interactions created by
people just hanging around the shop – however, may not recover until there is a
readily available vaccine. Williams recognizes, with some disappointment, that
this may continue even after the pandemic has abated. He has observed that
people have become more transactional in nature and want to leave as quickly as
possible. Let us hope that as America returns to some semblance of normalcy, we
choose to retain the opportunities that gave us the opportunity to bond in
person. As we hopefully abandon Zoom, let’s embrace just sitting at the
barbershop.