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Getting a haircut, manicure or massage all requires being within 6 feet of another person.
But Oregon has decided salons can reopen as soon as May 15 in counties that meet the criteria of declining or low cases of COVID-19.
That has some people, even in the salon business, worried about the state's guidance.
"Until you, personally, are comfortable having your face next to five to 10 people's faces for an hour at a time in a day, you are showing us that you value your life over those in the personal service industries," wrote Lillian Huggins, owner of Atomic Hair Studio on Southeast 18th Avenue, in a letter she sent May 9 to Gov. Kate Brown and other officials. "I am begging, please move the reopening of the service industries to Phase Three. Vanity is not worth dying for."
Professors at the University of Chicago recently flagged beauty and nail salons as high-risk businesses, based on cellphone data and surveys. They examined how much time people spent inside and how much they interacted with others as well as "touched shared surfaces," the professors wrote in The New York Times.
Brown is, in fact, distinguishing between the risks posed by different types of businesses. She told Oregonians on May 7 not to expect to attend fairs, festivals, live sporting events or other large gatherings through at least September. (Those events won't reopen until there's a treatment or a vaccine, she has said, which could be far later than September.)
The governor's office says it is weighing which businesses can reopen—and has decided salons can operate, under new restrictions.
"As Gov. Brown has noted, until there is a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19, reopening Oregon is a process that will involve risk, and we must proceed cautiously and gradually in order to prevent another COVID-19 outbreak." says Brown spokesman Charles Boyle.
Brown is looking to science and guidance from industry for ways salon "practices could be modified to increase physical distancing and improve client and employee safety," Boyle says.
"For instance, having clients wait outside before their appointment, assigning only one provider per client for each appointment, and spacing pairs of clients and providers at least 6 feet apart from each other in the business," Boyle adds.
The decision to reopen salons is a matter on which West Coast states disagree.
The pact signed by the governors of Washington, California and Oregon to coordinate reopening may include consultation, but it clearly doesn't require following the same rules.
Washington, like Oregon, will reopen salons in the next round of openings. California will not.
California lumps salons in with other higher-risk businesses, including movie theaters and sporting events without live audiences, meaning even when counties start to reopen there, salons won't be among them.
Boyle says each state has to individually determine what will work.
"While the states in the Western States Pact are sharing expertise and have developed a shared approach for reopening, each of our states is different, and our COVID-19 outbreaks and the structure of our stay-home orders are each different as well," says Boyle. "So, while each state has agreed to a shared framework for reopening, our individual plans vary based on the needs and situations in our states."