According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 737,407 cases of COVID-19 have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. Noting a recent rise in cases, provinces have instituted a number of mitigation protocols, including closing some businesses deemed non-essential. In response, some personal care facilities have rebranded themselves in order to remain open during the lockdown.
Chrome Artistic Barber in St. Catharines, Toronto redesigned its salon in order to function as a visual production studio. Customers can get their hair cut while being filmed.
“We’re not offering haircut appointments,” owner Alicia Hirter told CTV News on Thursday, “we’re offering full auditions.”
Clients at the hair studio are not required to wear masks since Ontario’s COVID-19 policies consider performers to be exempt from the mandate. Customers are required to take a COVID-19 test and sign a talent release form upon arrival. Footage obtained by the salon owners may be used in the future as part of a documentary or podcast.
Hirter said forcing her business to shut down was fundamentally unfair.
“You’re telling me Walmart can sell bananas that 17 people have touched but I’m not allowed to operate?” Hirter said. “It’s morally wrong. You can’t expect us to shut down.”
Newsweek reached out to the office of St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik for comment.
Bladez To Fadez Barbershop in Innisfail, Alberta took a similar approach when they rebranded themselves as a pet grooming establishment.
“Since pet grooming is essential service,” the barbershop posted on Facebook in January, “We are groomers today, as apparently we are pets of the government. We are Offering pet grooming for humans!!!!! We we also have dog and cat food available for purchase.”
Co-owner Natalie Klein told CTV News in January that although they complied with Alberta’s original lockdown order, mounting financial problems caused them to reopen during the extension of the closures.
“We don’t have any backup funds, you know, after four weeks of shutdown,” Klein said, “and an additional 2 weeks is crippling.”
Klein added that the salon was following health protocols including the wearing of face masks and hand sanitization.
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday that although Canada is on the way toward slowing the spread of the virus, “there is no fast track. We must stick with public health measures and individual practices that we know are effective for controlling spread.”
COVID lockdown procedures in the U.S. caused the pastor of one California church to call itself a strip club in December 2020, circumventing the state’s restriction on religious gatherings. San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil ruled that strip clubs should be “allowed to provide live adult entertainment” during the pandemic. Meanwhile, churches in the state were mandated to remain closed.
Godspeak Calvary Chapel Pastor Rob McCoy declared his church to be a “temporary strip club.” Before a November sermon, McCoy removed his tie in a small approximation of a striptease. Members of the congregation donated one-dollar bills.
McCoy decried the stringent measures enacted by California health authorities in his following message.
“Cannot America see the hypocrisy and the stupidity of all this?” McCoy said. “You’re being lied to.”
