No cutting corners: Downtown stylist trims risk of virus exposure with sanitation policies

After weeks sheltering in place, clients of Kismet Hair Studio are so ready for a haircut that stylist Carrie McClard said she is booked up for the next several weeks, and for now, is not accepting new clients.

McClard, owner and sole stylist at Kismet, reopened her studio for business May 4 when Gov. Mike Parson’s “stay-at-home” order was lifted.

She is a former SoutheastHEALTH phlebotomist who also worked as an LPN at area nursing homes and in-home with special-needs children. McClard has taken several preventative steps to ensure her studio is safe for business amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

She spent a week preparing the studio to reopen — sealing the studio walls and floors to prevent lingering moisture, removing everything people might normally reach for and packaging up all products for purchase.

McClard is using plastic capes that can be sanitized for reuse, and should those run out during the day, she uses cloth capes. A washer and dryer are on standby in the back of the studio for the cloth capes, and the stylist emphasized none of the capes are reused before being sanitized.

Charles Parsons, 42, of Cape Girardeau lifts his face mark for Kismet Hair Studio owner and operator Carrie McClard during a haircut Thursday in Cape Girardeau.RACHAEL LONG

“I’m telling you, there shouldn’t be anything living in here except for us,” McClard said Thursday, with a laugh. “Everything has been cleaned with medical-grade sanitizers.”

About 36 hours ahead of their appointments, McClard’s clients receive a text message with instructions about their visit. They are also asked to fill out a Google form that serves as a way for McClard to give each client a rundown of her expectations to provide services.

Some of the items addressed in the form include gauging client preferences on wearing face masks during the appointment, a disclaimer that any client with a temperature of 99.6 degrees or above must be rescheduled and a note that additional guests will not be permitted during the visit.

Clients are asked to respond to the form no later than the night before the appointment. If she hasn’t heard from a client by appointment time, McClard said she would most likely reschedule the visit.

At 206 Independence St. in downtown Cape Girardeau, McClard’s studio is small, about 300 square feet, she said.

Because of the space limitations, the stylist asks her clients to send a text message upon arrival and wait in their cars until the current client has exited the building and she’s had time to completely sanitize the studio. McClard said she schedules 15-minute intervals for cleaning in between each appointment.

In the past, she could often overlap appointments and see a larger volume of clients throughout the day. But, for now, it’s strictly a one-on-one environment.

Once the studio is sanitized, McClard invites the next client in with a text message and opens the door for them. Before they set anything down, she takes their temperature using a no-contact infrared thermometer and squeezes medical-grade hand sanitizer into their hands.

From there, the appointments continue mostly like normal. McClard noted that aside from coloring appointments, however, she is temporarily offering dry cuts only to avoid shampooing hair or using the blowdryer unnecessarily.

Although she hung up her scrubs five years ago, McClard said her background in nursing has influenced the protocols she put in place.

“I have a whole lot of experience with sanitation and making sure that you don’t cross-contaminate and you’re not spreading things around,” McClard said.

She was quick to note the importance of hand-washing and avoiding contact with the face is also “hammered into your head” in cosmetology school.

“So I don’t feel like I would be afraid of going into any other salon, but on the other hand, I see how easily things can be spread,” she said.

McClard said she even renewed her nursing license when the stay-at-home order was implemented in the event the pandemic worsened locally and “we were short handed on medical staff,” she said.

On Thursday evening, a longtime client arrived at Kismet Hair Studio for a haircut. Afterward, Charles Parsons, 42, of Cape Girardeau reported his appointment went well.

“I always feel good about coming here,” Parsons said. “I mean, she’s been cutting my hair for a long time, and we’ve known each other for a long time before that.”

Parsons wore a mask during the evening appointment, only lifting the elastic when McClard needed to trim the hair behind his ears. McClard also wore a mask and only removed hers once Parsons had left and it was time to sanitize the studio again.

As she cleaned, McClard said she was glad to operate out of a “controlled environment.”

“I’m here, I’m making sure everything is sanitized,” she said. “I have been pretty lucky because if I were working in a big salon, where other people are in and out, I might not feel as comfortable going back to work because you can’t control what everybody else is doing.”

Parsons said it was comforting, as a client, to know all McClard’s other clients had been through the same procedure.

“That’s at least a little bit of a stopgap to make [clients] feel safe,” Parsons said.

And making sure clients feel safe and comfortable during their appointments is McClard’s top priority as she gets back to business.

“I don’t want to be fearful,” she said, “but I do want to be smart.”