BEACHWOOD, Ohio — When salon, barber and nail shops were forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it left not only clients, but stylists with questions about the future.
Some are finding creative ways to bring in whatever income they can while also assisting clients.
Natural Hair Cosmetologist Donnella Jefferson has been licensed for 19 years and has a space inside Salon Lofts in Beachwood. She's also styled 3 News' Tiffany Tarpley.
Jefferson says she feels like she’s been here before. “Being a veteran, coming home from the military and trying to find a job and I couldn’t,” she explains.
She misses the creative side of cosmetology as well as her clients.
“Of course I want to be back in the salon, that’s my first love, that’s what I want to do but I am thinking about long term and if this thing goes past the summer, that’s huge, and I just, I don’t know, it’s scary, that is the scary part,” says Jefferson.
While the stay at home order is taking its toll on business, she says she was relieved when the governor closed salons. She was concerned about keeping the virus from spreading in her shop.
“I actually slept better the night they closed us than I had slept the previous days.”
These days Jefferson is coming up with new ideas to bring income in and service her clients.
She’s done video tutorials on social media and she’s taking that to the next level. “I was getting messages, can you do one on braids, can you do one on twists and so I decided to offer virtual appointments,” she explains. “My price point for most of what I’m doing online is half of what I would charge in the salon.”
Jefferson plans to update her resume in May and if this goes too long she might have to rely on her degree in Business Administration.
“We are more than just hair stylists, I’ve had people, women, sit in my chair and cry, I cry with them, just don’t forget about that relationship because they’re hurting right now,” she says.
Jefferson is urging people to remember the relationship and assist stylists in anyway possible while they're unemployed.
She says it’s also important to uplift your own spirits.
“Even though we’re sitting in our house, pick yourself up by putting yourself together. Whether that’s putting on some lipstick or doing a beautiful head wrap, just something to make yourself feel better.”