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'Don't cut your own bangs' and more haircut advice from suburban hair stylists

Karin Jackowiak, an owner/stylist at Salon MACKK in Crystal Lake, has simple advice for anybody struggling with uncontrollable hair and nowhere to go.

“Put the scissors down,” Jackowiak said. “Whatever you do, don’t color your hair at home. Wait for us.”

Salon MACKK closed for the first time in 11 years when Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker issued a stay-at-home order and a shutdown of nonessential businesses, including salons, barber shops and hairdressers, to help stop the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Pritzker’s initial stay-at-home order was put in place March 21. It has since been extended through April 30. Closing the salon was “awful, very sad,” Jackowiak said, but also necessary.

“We’re OK with being away from people and doing our part,” Jackowiak said. “We’ve been good. We’ve been Zooming with each other and everything.

“We’ve put some things in place so we won’t have to close our doors permanently, and, hopefully be able to stay open after all of this is over. We’re pretty resilient, we’re not going anywhere.”

Jackowiak said that customers have been understanding, even as their hair grows longer and stranger. A few have asked about getting or giving haircuts at home. Jackowiak is telling them all, “please wait.”

“Don’t cut your own bangs, because that will just cost more in the end,” Jackowiak said. “Just wait. We always preach to support small local businesses, because we are one, and we work with a lot with other companies, too. Just wait and support as many small local businesses as possible.”

Salon MACKK recently posted videos on its Instagram page with quick and easy styling tips that do not involve chopping off your hair.

“A few of the girls that run it for us have been putting up tips and tricks on there, to grow bangs instead of cutting them, pulling them back, that kind of thing,” Jackowiak said. “A couple of people have asked about box color, and we don’t recommend it. I don’t really know what the best one out there is.”

In a news conference Monday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended a decision to get a haircut despite her advice to the public to follow social distancing. A photo emerged on social media over the weekend, showing Lightfoot and a stylist after a haircut. The two are standing next to each other, without masks or gloves.

Lightfoot said masks and gloves were used during the haircut.

“I’m in the public everyday and candidly my hair was not looking the way it did,” Lightfoot said in Monday’s press conference. “I thought I would do it myself, but I thought it would be a disaster. So I got a haircut.”

Pritzker declined to comment on Lightfoot’s haircut when asked Monday, instead embracing his hair growth.

“I actually feel like I’m getting a little shaggy,” Pritzker said. “I’m going to turn into a hippie at some point here.”

Randie Mingus, co-owner of On the Brink Salon in Crystal Lake, said it doesn’t send the right message to say one thing and do another.

“We’re all in the same boat,” Mingus said. “Everyone is going to go gray and shaggy together. Quite frankly, seeing some people in the public eye not participating in that is very disheartening to me. Me personally as a citizen, I would feel much better if the people in the public eye did the same thing we’re doing.

“That’s part of being a community and sticking with (your) community.”

On the Brink Salon has been open for a little more than three years, Mingus said. This is the first time that they have been closed. After rescheduling appointments when Pritzker’s initial stay-at-home order went in effect March 21, On the Brink Salon had to push appointments out further when the order was extended through April.

“We definitely want to get back to work, but not at the risk of everyone’s health,” Mingus said. “Even if you take away the shelter-in-place order, even with six feet of social distancing we can’t do our jobs. It’s physically impossible. That’s just not feasible.”

Mingus does not recommend haircuts at home. She has not heard of any bad haircut stories yet, but “I’m not sure at this point any of my clients would tell me that,” Mingus joked.

For now, it’s a waiting game.

“I’ve really just been asking my customers to be patient and wait for me,” Mingus said. “Don’t do anything yourself because you could potentially make a mistake and no one is around to fix it. It could be very costly to get it back to your original hairstyle.”

Source: The Daily Chronicle

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