Hats off, Scissors is back

By Jami McLaughlin, posted Sep 1, 2021 on BizFayetteville.com

Carla Bullington Myers works in her Scissors On Marlborough salon in Fayetteville. She said she and others faced dire times during the height of the pandemic, but loyal clients have helped her business survive. *Jami McLaughlin/Greater Fayetteville Business Journal*

Carla Bullington Myers has owned Scissors on Marlborough hair salon for 15 years and works with four other stylists. The salon averaged more than 100 clients in any given week prior to the shutdown.

“In March 2020, we were doing great. We had just paid off our building and I was feeling really accomplished,” Myers said. “We paid it off right before the pandemic. All of my hard work and efforts were going to pay off. It was an exciting time. The American dream, you know? It felt rewarding. And we were feeling really good because we are a family-owned business and my dad was going into remission for cancer.”

Scissors down was the order from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office soon thereafter and Scissors on Marlborough at 1030 Marlborough Road in Fayetteville complied with every mandate and recommendation. Salons were closed across the state as COVID-19 loomed threatening lives around the world.

“We knew it was coming. They were talking about a shutdown on the news and it felt imminent. We worked as long as we could every day and got as many clients in as possible. Until the shutdown, we just worked,” Myers said.

Not only hair salons, but nail and skin care shops were closed too.

“I received an email from the NC Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners in Raleigh on March 23 with the news that Governor Cooper has ordered hair, nail and skin care shops to close on Wednesday, March 25 at 5 p.m. for a minimum of 30 days. It also reminded us that in the statutes that in-home and mobile salon services were not permitted. We were not allowed to work,” said Ruby Jackson, a medical aesthetician at Southeastern Dermatology in Lumberton.

The North Carolina Board of Cosmetic Art Examiners statute prevented hair stylists and barbers from doing hair anywhere, but in a licensed shop and even cutting hair at home would be against the law.

“During the lockdown, we had clients beg us to do their hair. They offered to pay extra and come to their houses. We couldn’t,” Myers said.

“It cut my paycheck in half. I could only assist in surgeries, which were medically necessary, and I could not do any cosmetic work at all. As an aesthetician, that is what I was trained to do and I could not do it. I could not work,” Jackson said.

As the weeks went by with livelihoods halted and lawsuits threatened in North Carolina with salons demanding to reopen, Scissors was luckier than most.

“The hairdressers in our salon rent their spaces, but they were not making any money,” she said. “The five of us have worked together so long. It was challenging at times to come together as a team, but we did.

“We had just paid off the building so we didn’t have a mortgage to pay and in return I was able to not collect the rent during the shutdown. It helped,” Myers said. “I realize now how extremely lucky we were. Even our utility and alarm companies worked with us offering a freeze rate.”

Reopening with challenges

When Cooper announced the next phase on May 20 allowing salons to reopen, Scissors did so with caution and with challenges that had to be overcome.

“When we reopened, we followed all of the rules that the governor and the state laid out. We kept the front door locked and our masks on,” Myers said. “I kept in mind that my dad was very sick. I was helping take care of my parents and they did not leave their home during the pandemic. I felt extra pressure to wear my mask and did not want to risk them, or anyone.”

Another challenge were the bare shelves in Fayetteville.

“At one point, my husband, who owns a business in South Carolina, was helping us order cleaning supplies because we couldn’t find any here. He helped us with wipes, masks, even toilet paper for the salon,” Myers said, “We all talked to each other, in our own social groups and network, to see what others were doing to help as we reopened.”

A further challenge was capacity.

“Even when we were allowed to reopen, we were only allowed 12 people at a time in the building. Where we normally saw 100 plus clients come through in a week, we were down to less than half of our normal workload due to space and the need to clean in between clients. We were spacing for six feet apart and only able to see maybe two clients a day each for six months,” said Myers, “It was hard not to feel discouraged. There were times that I was fearful that our salon would not survive.”

Lessons in Resilience

“It was a rough year,” Myers said. “Morale was low. We all wore our masks if we were in the salon and kept every precaution in place. We are seeing the other side now we hope. All of our staff is now fully vaccinated by their own choosing.”

“When I think back though at how hard we worked to come out of it from the shutdown standpoint and with the pandemic in mind, our tiny business could be used as a model for the recovery,” she said. “We really worked hard to overcome the challenges and our clients worked with us.”

“Because of the bond that develops between a hairdresser and their client, I felt like our clients were very respectful and never wanted to compromise our business or our health,” Myers said. “Even though the demand was high, they would call to postpone if they had been exposed to Covid or felt sick. We’ve had to work hard with scheduling issues, but we’ve prevailed. We all just treated people the way we’d want to be treated during it all and that went for our staff and our clients. It’s helped us through.”

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