Petition Urges Return Of Barber Shops & Hair Salons In CT

CONNECTICUT — More than 8,000 people have signed an online petition urging Gov. Ned Lamont to allow a licensed professional barber, hairdresser or cosmetologist to perform service one client at a time beginning Tuesday, April 28.

Nancy Smigiel started the petition. The petition states that "All existing sterilization and sanitation protocols approved by the state of Connecticut and coinciding county's Board of Health would be strictly maintained. All individuals will wear face masks. Clients would be scheduled accordingly to allow ample time to perform extra cleaning and sanitizing procedures

"The Barber and Hair Styling industry needs to be recognized and deemed as an essential business. With careful and responsible procedures, we can safely provide the necessary services that our clients so desire."

"Why is this important?

"We are educated and licensed professionals; so many of us working within the small business community. Not only are we suffering from the financial aspects of this shut-down but we are dealing with the reality that we are unable to provide the services that our loyal clientele rely upon."

People who have signed the petition thus far have left reasons for doing so. One woman who owns a nail salon said "I have never seen so much unfairness in my life ... (I'm) signing this because I can't believe how the care act has failed so many small businesses (.) we don't qualify for unemployment, we can't work so how are we gonna feed our family .. we are not gonna get a bail out as we stay home, our bills pile up at our commercial location."

And another person wrote, "I want to remain looking professional while working in healthcare fighting Covid."

You can view the petition here.

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