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California Nail, Hair Salons Plead to Reopen With Other Shops

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California's roughly 50,000 nail and hair salons remained shuttered on Friday, even as scores of other retail businesses got the green light to partially reopen.

For more than a week, increasingly desperate salon owners have clamored to get back to work, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has them slated for a later reopening date that could be weeks away. Stylists have shown up at county board meetings, pleading for officials to let them go to work so they can earn a living without making house calls that violate the rules.

This week, an association of salons and barber shops said it would sue to try to force Newsom let them reopen sooner, arguing they already undergo extensive training on sanitation, and are licensed by the state.

Fred Jones, public policy director and legal counsel for the Professional Beauty Federation of California, said most salons have ample supplies of masks and gloves.

“There’s not going to be a salon in California, when we reopen, that doesn’t have both. We are trained in this,” he said.

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Some salons have already opened in defiance of Newsom’s order. Shortly after one opened Wednesday inside a Yuba City mall, a line stretched out of the shop, with customers not wearing masks.

On Friday, Newsom said that 33 salons that had illegally opened quickly shut down again after being contacted by state officials. He said salons are in the next phase of the state’s reopening plan, which “may not be more than a month away.”

Read the full story from the Associated Press here.

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