NOVI, Mich. (WXYZ) — Visions Spa Salon in Novi was prepared to re-open and welcome back clients on May 29, following the expiration of the stay-at-home order.
Now, since Gov. Whitmer extended the order on Friday - salons, along with gyms and casinos, remain closed through June 12.
Once clients are able to return, salon owners Anne and Greg Bond said they should expect a lot of changes in order to maintain the health and safety of not only themselves, but fellow clients and staff.
The changes will start right as clients enter the salon - with a touch-less temperature check at the door. If a client is running a high temperature, they will not be allowed entry into the salon.
From the door, clients will be directed to follow floor markings, ensuring social distancing by keeping people six feet apart and moving in one direction.
Doors will be mostly propped open so that clients are having to touch as few surfaces as possible.
Visions staff has also undergone additional training since the outbreak to make sure every stylist maintains increased sanitation procedures.
Anne said in addition to that, the salon's lay-out has been partially re-designed to adhere to new safety guidelines.
“We have acrylic partitions in front of all the receptionists as well as in the nail room," she said.
Since late March, Anne and Greg have been re-working the salon for its eventual re-open, which will now be after June 12.
“We did close before it was ordered to close. And now I am ready to open because I feel comfortable with what we have in place," Anne told Action News.
The salon also now has large sneeze-guard partitions throughout the salon, hand sanitizing stations, and pre-package smocks in plastic so clients and staff are touching as little as possible.
Food and beverage services previously offered at the salon are suspended due to COVID-19.
Sinks are all now six feet apart, and every other sink is covered to make sure clients are sitting far enough apart.
Greg and Anne had to put an expansion of the salon on hold due to COVID-19, but Greg said the biggest challenge for them as businesses owners, aside from more than two months without clients -- is uncertainty.
Before the outbreak, Visions normally saw about 1,000 to 1,200 clients a week. Greg said they've brought all of their staff back with the help of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, but keeping staff will depend in some part on what the occupancy is of the salon once it's allowed to re-open.
As far as safety measures go, Greg said they've done a lot of their own research.
“No direction on what is expected for us to do with preventative measures. So we basically have paid attention to other states that have stayed open or are re-opening and pretty much incorporated everything that we saw that they were doing or recommending or trying," he told Action News.
Visions has thousands of clients they've had to reschedule due to the pandemic. The salon offers not only hair and nail services, but also full-service massages and other beauty and body treatments.
Because of the extra sanitation and safety measures in place, once the salon re-opens -- clients should be prepared for appointments to take a little longer, Greg said.
Clients may be asked to wait in their car before their time slot, so that as few people are inside the salon as possible.
Anne said she's confident they can re-open safely as soon as they're given the green light.
"We don't want it to go any longer, but we don't make those decisions," Greg said before the stay-at-home order was extended again.
"We have to change as this changes. And we’re willing to do that and learn from it," Anne told Action News.
Something else Anne said staff is preparing for? Addressing some of the "quarantine cuts" people have given themselves over the past several weeks.
“We might have to do some repairs," she said.
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