Kiss Those Roots Goodbye

Kiss your roots goodbye. This is the Elevate Polk Podcast, and I'm your host Chrissanne Long. And with me, as always, still from a distance, is Rob Arturi.

And my roots look as good as ever.

Yeah, well, when you decided to shave your head, you didn't have to worry about it anymore.

I was ahead of the game because all these people complaining about not being able to get their haircut, I was unaffected by this completely.

Yeah, you and Craig and a few of our close friends, they're just wondering why, what it's all the hubbub about. And Victoria said to me just today, she's like, we need to get you all the books. I'm like, yeah, yeah, we do. We definitely do. So we have as our guest Victoria Woods from End Results Salon Spa in Lakeland, Florida, and I'm excited to have her on as a guest on our podcast. Welcome, Victoria. Hello. So, Rob, this was kind of something you've been wanting to talk about. You've been kind of asking me to, to recruit Victoria to be on the show. So why don't you, from your angle, share kind of what, what your goal is for this show?

Sure. Well, I think one of the reasons I wanted to have her on was because the hair and nail, the salon industry, I guess we'll just, we use that term if that's appropriate. It's never really been, I think, more in, uh, gotten more attention than it has in the past 2 months when, you know, I mean, absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess. Not that people didn't like it before, but I guess people don't, you know, you don't realize, you don't really think about it like that. And it was one of the issues that really got a lot of attention in terms of these shutdowns and things like that, where you had people who were complaining that, well, there were certain businesses that could stay open, but some were saying had to stay closed. And then it was, well, people were, uh, you know, cutting hair and doing nails on the side, going to people's homes, and is that more dangerous? And then you're punishing people who follow the law and, uh, that sort of thing. And Initially, the salon industry was going to be— I guess it was phase 2. And then the governor kind of came out a week after phase 1 opened up and he said, just kidding, salons and spas and things, they can reopen as well. So I thought that was a good step. I think it was— I don't really know that there was reason not to do that. Um, but Victoria has been a, uh, very involved and a big part of representing that industry at least in our circle. And I think— and I thought it might be interesting to get some perspective on what she's doing, what it's like now that there's this rush of people with, uh, long hair and, and messed up roots running back to, uh, to the hair salon.

So yeah, so as we were discussing, um, a lot of the different things that were going on, um, on the local level, you know, Victoria came on to some of our Bridge Local calls, and, you know, I was worried about her she and I were texting and I was trying to get an idea of, you know, what do you need, Vic? What's going on in your world? And so, so go ahead and give a little background on the salon, Vic, how long you've been running your business and a little just kind of everything that you do at End Results.

So I know it seems far away, but I'm already planning and hoping and keeping my fingers crossed that we get to celebrate our 10-year anniversary in November. As a small local business in Lakeland. I owe a huge, huge thank you to, which used to be LBL and Bridge, because I met Chrissanne just a few months after I opened and we, you know, talked about ideas and I was like, oh my God, you're a genius. And they were a huge part of me growing my business from, you know, just being an individual salon or stylist I was busy too, you know, taking on my dream of building a salon and inspiring new hairdressers, young hairdressers, you know, into the industry. So to the 10-year anniversary, like making it that far, I'm like, oh my God, I've been through so much and I've surpassed the whole, you know, 3-year market and this and that. So even though there's been struggles, this has definitely been a huge, Adjustment. I'm trying to stay positive and not using words like struggle and things like that because, you know, if we stay positive, we can overcome things. But it's, it's definitely been a struggle for me personally. I worried about each of my girls, whether they were my employees or they were subcontractor booth renters. I still worried about them and how they were going to get income as we were shut down. So it was, it was a lot. We all adjusted to a new life for sure.

And that's an interesting point to make because I think that the business infrastructure of a salon is different than a lot of other brick-and-mortar businesses in that a lot of salons have contractors doing booth rent where each of them are independent contractors or 1099s. And that meant that, you know, they were kind of on their own and not necessarily viewed by the PPP program as employees that you could claim or that you could get funds for, correct?

Yes, absolutely.

So that creates now a whole lot of extra people having to worry instead of the one business owner, like in our case, where we were able to apply and get those funds for our employees. So that's something, a distinction that I think many people became more aware of as this thing unfolded.

Every time I talked to someone, I felt like I was saying, I just feel like we're so different from a lot of businesses, but I didn't want to like sound like I was like crying out to just salons. I know there's other businesses like us, but it's not the simple, you know, black and white that's being you know, forgiven in loans and, and given loans and things like that, that, you know, some people honestly, uh, some people actually said, well, you're not responsible for your booth renters, they, they chose to be a subcontractor. And I'm like, but they're still my girls, they're still my family, so I'm still worried about them and making sure that they're, you know, okay.

So, uh, just because of a technical term doesn't mean we, we don't care or we don't worry or we don't feel responsible for the people that we we, we have in our, in our, in our network, right?

Yeah, and that's an admirable, uh, admirable thing. And I think most employers, uh, and I think whether you're, you're talking about 1099 people who are renting or just renting a space in your booth, or they're under the umbrella as a contractor, or they're a W-2 employee, you know, you have a leadership position there. And I think there is some element you feel responsible and you want to kind of help get people through this, which is an added burden. I mean, I think this situation was hard enough for most people in general, whether you lost your job or not, whether you, um, you were worried about, uh, you know, your business or what have you. But when you have the weight of other people as well, it can really be overwhelming.

Yes.

So let's walk back to when Governor DeSantis made the Safer at Home order, and then the, the order, um, that stated that salons and, and barber shops and the like needed to be closed. What was your immediate reaction? What, what did you do? What did you say? Who did you call? What were your initial thoughts?

So I do have to admit that 2 weeks before he made that call, I personally stepped out from behind the chair because I have not had to handle anxiety or panic for several years, thank goodness. But it was coming back. And, you know, although they It was basically so unknown. All I could think about was, you know, my babies. And I have a— I would probably say 30 to 40% of my clientele is in the healthcare. And all I could think was, what if they were exposed without knowing and they brought it to me and I took it home to my babies, which one of them does struggle different respiratory issues. I just— I was having anxiety every day. So I personally stepped back. It was actually like a week and a half before he closed. And then when he closed, the real like struggle struggle came into my mind of, I'm a small business, how am I going to survive? Like, I'm still going to have bills to pay, I have my girls. Like, you know, I'm going through my list of employees and contractors thinking like, who has this person that's going to help them? You know, do they have a spouse? Are they a single mom? You know, all of those struggles. Um, so when the initial order was put in place, it was definitely an emotional and high-anxiety time for me.

Yeah, and when you were on a couple of those calls, I could see it all over your face and, you know, the concern that I had for you and for all of our Bridge members and all of our local businesses. You know, it's just, I carry that weight on my own shoulders as you're carrying your weight of your girls on your shoulders. So it was tough to kind of see all of that unfold, and I know that you have You're very emotional like I am. So I could see it really affecting you as it was unfolding.

I had to step back for a second and honestly just think to myself, you know, you can't take care of anyone else unless you are in the right state of mind. Like, you have, you know, your babies depend on you, your family depends on you. You have to be strong there before you can even start thinking anywhere else, and I had to get my mind there. And I definitely do not discriminate on any religion, but I kept my faith and I just did my praying, and everything has come through. On my darkest days, I also— not everyone would know, but my Cheryl, she appears as a cardinal often in my hard times. Um, so she was there so many days during all this. Um, gosh, see, you called me emotional, now I'm gonna get emotional.

Well, I've got the goosebumps just thinking about the Cardinals and Cheryl, so I'm right there with you.

She showed up on so many of my days, like literally right on my porch, not like in my yard, like on my concrete porch, just, just pouncing around telling me, you know, it's gonna be okay. Everything happens for a reason. Just keep doing what you do. Do what you're told. Be obedience, or however you want to say it. I mean, whether I agree with or not certain things that have gone on, if it's out of my immediate control, I can't let it bother me completely. So I've just stayed positive and done what I've done. I've had a million and one maybe not a million and one, but several people reach out to me about house calls, coming to my house, you know, sneaking in the back door. And I'm like, I'm sorry, we were closed by the governor, and it is not worth me losing my license, being fined. And orange isn't my color, and I'm really afraid of orange being my color. So, um, so you want to stay on this side of the law, right? Yeah.

Yes.

Well, how do you feel about that? How do you feel about the, you know— and look, we'll start from the perspective of the governor gave an order, you complied with the order. But there are people who didn't, and I kind of wrestled with that because part of me believes that on some level, I don't know how long the government had the power to actually do that, and how can you tell people you don't work, that sort of thing. And on the other hand, I think about people like yourself who simply have more to lose. You look at it a little bit differently. You have a larger business and you have all these people working with you and you have a different consideration, I guess, than just the average person. But I also think like, well, is it— is that fair to you? So if we turn a blind eye to this group, does that necessarily punish people like yourself who otherwise might be willing to work? I know you mentioned that there was a point where you felt like you really weren't comfortable, and that's perfectly fine. That's okay. But there is kind of a difficult— I kind of wrestled with this, you know, myself about it. What would I do if I was in your situation? What thoughts were you— what was going through your head at that time?

Uh, oh yeah, that one, that one goes deep because I have been one extreme to the other. I, um, definitely feel like, you know, the virus is real, it's out there. I know people that it has been affected, or, you know, have been affected. I know nurses and, you know, clients of mine that have seen the cases and, and things of that sort. But the clearness of it, I guess, would be how I would say it. Like understanding why for the first time that anyone I've ever spoke with, this is the weirdest, you know, bizarre thing that they've ever been through in life. Understanding why we have quarantined the healthy, why we're, you know, people are scared and in the fear. So I was initially that person. I was in fear. I was like, well, I don't want to get sick. I don't want my babies to be sick. I couldn't imagine trading it from one client to the next. I'm booked all the time. I have health people. I'm going to be the carrier just passing it along, and I don't want to be that person. So I stepped back. But then as I was home and I just was sitting there thinking all the time, obviously, You know, I just, like I said, I'm a person that says everything happens for a reason. I tried to step back. I love, love, love, love being a hairdresser. I love being a salon owner. But having my girls a little later in life, I was already established as a hairdresser, very busy. So as much as we were on a schedule, it was a very busy schedule. As my almost 4-year-old told me after like 2 weeks of being home, I want to stay with you all of the days, every day. And I was like, I love you too, girl, but I'm going back to work.

I know what you mean.

But the whole thing has been such an adjustment. Like I said, back to the— I believe the virus is out there. I don't want to sound like I'm being Oh, what's the word I'm looking for? Oh, what's the word?

Insensitive.

Yeah, yeah, to anyone that's actually physically dealt with it. Because the only person— not mentioning names for HIPAA and all that— um, I have a client/friend who was not in my chair, but she was in one of my stylists' chair mid-March, and she didn't post until the end of March that her, her husband, and her son were were diagnosed in 3 different extremes. And immediately when I saw her post that, I was like, oh my gosh, when was she in the salon? I need to tell the stylist who was all in there because I had already stepped away from the chair. And so, you know, knowing her, I know, you know, it's not fake news, which we all know that it is out there, but I knew it wasn't fake news. And I reached out to her and she was telling me the different things and stuff they went through. And it made it more eye-opening to me. Like I said, I know the virus is out there. I'm just very confused on why we're being, you know, shut down, closed, and the statistics. And, you know, you don't know who to believe and who not to believe, but we're small business owners, and to be put out of business— I am grateful that my husband was essential. I am grateful that and blessed that I was able to get the PPP and the EIDL, but not— I know people that haven't. I've talked to business owners that haven't, and it like makes me want to just like give them some of mine, and I'll just have to pay it back. Like, that's me, and I'm like freaking out. I even started trying to figure out how I could use my charity, um, you know, to help small businesses, um, raise money, you know. And I'm like We got to do this. Like, we're, we're Bridge, we're LBL, we're Lakeland. Like, this is what we do for each other, right? So it's been fun.

It's interesting to see, um, and, you know, who you surround yourself with and, and, and how— who you attract. So you and I share that, you know, helper mindset, that giving, um, mentality. And, you know, I felt the same way, and I, and I, and I admire that in other people. But then again, that's not everybody. And there are others who I think we were kind of referring to or kind of going down that path of the dog-eat-dog scarcity mentality kind of approach where it's like, well, I've got to do everything I can to survive. So even if I have to cheat, borrow, steal, whatever, I'm going to go into people's houses and I'm going to break the law because I've got to survive. But then how did that like impact you? Not the customers wanting you to open, but knowing that there were people that could, could get in, um, were servicing their customers or doing, finding a way to do it and just not doing it according to the law.

You know, right off the bat, you know, you were thinking, you know, outside of the box for you, um, and, and reached out to me and said, hey, let's start selling gift cards online. But I know how gift cards work in my industry, especially because we're a little different. Um, if I sold, you know, $10,000 worth of gift cards last week or last month, you know, I could have paid bills or done this. But then when those gift cards come in, I have to pay the commission to my girls. It's not just a, you know, a business loss, it's an income out. Um, and so that, that really scared me to do that. Because I didn't want to— I was trying to figure out what to do in the moment, truly not in the future, which some people would think opposite in their business. And then there was the, um, at-home color kits, which in some states is somehow legal, but you know, I don't know all the states' different regulations. But when I saw some states in Florida, or some salons in Florida, um, all across Florida posting that they were making at-home root color kits, I actually called the Department of Business and Professional Regulations, which is where our license comes from, and asked, and they were like, no, that's illegal. Would you like to make a complaint? I'm like, no, nope, I just seen it on Facebook. But, but I was just double-checking because on our products it clearly states on the box to be applied by a professional in a professional salon. So I think some people were thinking outside of the box, and I don't think they necessarily meant it in a negative way. But as a business owner, not just an individual stylist or whatever, I was thinking on the liability. So for example, I give Chrissanne her color, she goes home and applies it. She gets in the shower to wash it out and it gets in her eye and it gives her a chemical burn and she has to go to the hospital. Like, whose liability is that really on? Because I don't think it's going to be covered under mine, and I don't know where that's going. So I'm just not going there.

That's why I shaved my head.

Yeah, right. And then, like, the other suggested thing, and even the governor said, oh, you could still stay open for product sales. Well, I can personally tell you, when— before I opened the salon, I could average $500 to $700 worth of product sales a week. As a salon owner now, I'm lucky to do that like a month, like as an individual, because there are so many online orderings and it's just convenient to people. And our clients are very loyal. They book, you know, before a lot of them book for the year. But as far as products go, they're like trying the newest thing that pops up on Facebook and they can order it right there or they can go on Amazon and order it with their whatever else they're ordering. And so our retail sales have gone down tremendously. In the whole industry. I've taken a whole course in class on this. So I was like, you know, I'm not gonna have someone go sit up there all day for like 2 or 3 people to come pick up shampoo, you know. Um, so I, I really felt like, you know, there wasn't much we could do besides try to, you know, interact a little bit. Um, but at the same time, I, I started trying to do this like, you know, Get Ready with Victoria But it wasn't always easy because I had my girls at home, right? And I mean, I would try to do a Zoom and they'd be screaming in the background and I'd be muting myself and changing my scenery and they'd be crawling up my leg. So it was just interesting. Like I said, I go back to the whole everything happens for a reason. I just tried to play by the rules and let it play out and I just kept my faith and I said, If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. If I have to file bankruptcy, if I have to start over, like, I just, I cannot control right now. I just, you know, I have to, I have to do what I'm being told. Unfortunately, I would have liked to have been the salon owner in Texas, not to make a statement, but I really, I was really on the verge of that.

I think there were a lot of people that were on the verge of that, and I think she was— the reason that it got so much attention is because I think so many people in businesses, not just the salon business but other businesses as well, were at that same point. And, you know, there's been a lot of— you know, it's funny, when you were saying earlier you had to kind of clarify that you're not saying the virus doesn't exist, but you're thinking this. That's the reaction that we have now because we live in this weird place where everything is either A or B. So if you, God forbid, If you come out and say, well, maybe it's okay to reopen, then people will say, what are you saying, it's a hoax? It's not really a virus.

I'll tell you, we have already had clients as we're trying to book. At first, we really thought that it was gonna be required from the service provider and client to wear a mask, but it's only required from the service provider and suggested to the client. So we do have them here. For people who may not have them but would like to have one. But we've had both scenarios already. We had, we had a client say that she is against it. She's not going to be told she has to wear a mask in public. No names mentioned, you know. And then we've also had a client say, so is it required? Because I'll wear it if that makes everyone else comfortable. And then we've had a client say Is everyone going to be wearing a mask in there? So I'm like, it's the hardest thing for me right now to explain to my girls. I'm like, listen, no matter what it is, no matter what the situation, we are going to smile, say it's out of our hands. This is what we're doing. This is what's required. This is what's suggested. I hate to say it, but it's basically like, if you don't like it, stay at home because that's called freedom right now.

That's called freedom. They have the freedom to stay at home. I I think we have to be careful trying to appease— you're never going to appease everybody. And, you know, you, you kind of mentioned some of the, the different mindsets of those different groups. And I understand all of those groups in, in different ways. I mean, they— there's still people on, uh, from the— in government who are back and forth on whether or not we should even be wearing masks if you don't work in healthcare and you're not ill. Is it doing more harm than good? Do they really do anything. I mean, who knows? I, I don't know. But I, I, I live in the world where, uh, you know, I worry about me and those things that are in my purview, and I don't go and just, you know, shout at the sky because not everybody is doing what I want. I don't think that's a productive way to live in society. But it's got to be difficult as a business owner when you have people coming in, uh, and, you know, you're working so intimately with people, whether it's hair or nails.

Yeah, I can honestly say, I, I mean, I think Chrissanne would vouch for me. I'm one of those people. I'm like, I do not care your political race, religion. Like, I like you for you, for our conversation, for your personality. But unfortunately, as a business owner these days, you have to pay attention to that stuff. And it's been very far few and between in my 10, almost 10 years of being open that I've actually had to deal with you know, any of those in particular. But I told my girls when we open, I said, unfortunately, we're just— we're going to deal with COVID like politics, religion, and race. It's not discussed. We don't want to hear every client's, um, you know, opinion, whether they would do this or wouldn't do that. I said, we're just going to ask them how have they been holding up. Aren't they excited about getting their hair done? You know, how's their kids, whatever, just change the subject. I said, because we all have too many opinions, but right now we're gonna do what we're required to do so that we can stay open to serve you.

So, you know, I think everyone has the ability or the freedom, like you said, to make choices. And as long as we're making choices based on what is legally allowed for us to do, then on us as, as individuals, it's our choice whether we want to go do that or not under the current circumstances, right? I mean, exactly. Isn't that where we are? Okay.

Oh, well, you know, the— I think the other side of that, the pushback that we would get from that is people saying, well, that's only true in some circumstances, but by virtue of the fact of you being out there, you increase my chances of getting it. Now, the, the fallacy that we have here, and this is where I, I've wrestled with this whole thing, I think in the beginning everybody was kind of in agreement. We didn't know what we didn't know, and the, the outlook was pretty bleak, and the numbers were staggering and terrifying. But as things went on, you know, we're still forced to believe a lot of the same things. And, you know, one of the questions that I ask a lot of people with this is, okay, well, when is it safe to open up? At what point will the virus turn back into a pumpkin and we can all go back on, you know, resume our lives? And nobody can answer that. And I don't know that any of these experts can answer that.

No.

And so the problem I have with it is that there's a— this judgmental— like, what they're doing is they're filling in the gaps of what they don't know with judging others for doing whatever it is they're, you know, they're doing. And I think if you want to stay at home and you want to shelter in place and sanitize your groceries when they come in and quarantine your mail, you have every right to do that. But I just saw something interesting today. You know, the state of Georgia was early in, in opening back up after dealing with COVID Some states never even closed. They didn't— they had very few cases anyway. But Georgia was one of the first to open up, and people— I mean, I think even the president was kind of like, they thought they were going a little too quick. But today marks, I think, day 15 of the reopening of Georgia to include places like hair salons. And one of the things I saw was interesting statistic that today marked the, uh, the lowest hospitalization rate in that period of time. So of the past 2 weeks, today was the lowest number of people going to the hospital for, for COVID. And it's exactly about the average incubation time. So if there was a surge from people out and about, um, it doesn't seem like it's really come to fruition.

So I guess we're seeing that at this point in time.

Yeah, you would see some sort of uptick. I mean, maybe not deaths because that can take longer, but you would see hospitalizations. You would see if a percentage— if a consistent percentage of the people have an acute reaction to it. We know that a lot of people don't have no reaction, maybe they don't even have any symptoms, but there's a percentage of the population that will. And if those people are having this reaction, you'd see those numbers increasing in the hospitals. And we're just We're just not seeing that. And I think that's reassuring to people because it's not just about the fact that many are going stir crazy and their roots are gray and their toenails are like a velociraptor. But we want to know that somewhat what we're being told makes sense. And I think you have to adjust as new information comes in. That's been my position.

Yes. And we all know that social media, everyone, Everyone knows that there's fake news, there's good news. And, you know, as we went out last weekend on the boat, we did stay at like a smaller, uh, hotel, um, that we found because we wanted a boat slip because we knew the boat ramps were going to be crazy and we didn't want to be like exposed to everything or whatever, to be cautious. The water was crazy, don't get me wrong. There was boats everywhere, but no one was tied up. No one was like gathering in huge gatherings or anything like that. Um, and then I see this weekend where they've allowed, you know, beaches to open and stuff, and I have clients like posting videos and stuff. I'm, I'm sure there's some beaches that are more crowded, don't get me wrong, but I also see some beaches like clients of mine that I know it's their video they're posting, and there's hardly anyone on the beach, and they're trying to say, we've created 13,000 pounds of garbage over the weekend from being open on the beach, and we've done this and we've done that. So no one knows what news avenue to actually believe or trust anymore. And I've had to back off social media, like I said. From being home. I was just like, listen, I actually asked on Facebook. I know that's silly, but because I wanted to hear from my friends, not like, you know, news feeds. And I was like, have our numbers increased? Does anyone have like an accurate number or anything? Like, where do I find this? Because it makes you crazy. It makes me crazy. I shouldn't say it makes you crazy. It makes me crazy.

Well, I have to give it— I have to give a shout out to Barry Friedman once again, and Lakeland Now. Barry has been doing a phenomenal job of consistently putting out the, the actual data and not doing it with any particular spin. See, like when I hear about, well, there's 13,000 pounds of trash on the beach, well, how many pounds of trash are normally picked up on the beach from like a busy beach weekend? So there's not a lot of context in a lot of this stuff. Um, Barry's been, been doing a great job of reporting accurately with really no bias one way or the other. There's no narrative being pushed there. So he's including things like This is one part that's positive, one part's a negative. And what you can see in all of this is that sometimes there are situations where you have, um, the number of cases going up but the rate of the positive numbers going down, which basically means that we're testing more and more people. And what we're finding is that incrementally we're adding people, but the percentage of people who are testing positive is now going down. In some cases, I think it went down from 5% to like 2.5%, which is a great sign because you would think that as you increase testing, you might find more and more people, uh, but we're not really finding that as well. So, you know, I, I hope we're on the right track, uh, and nothing takes away— I mean, like you were saying, this is a serious virus. We have to be— you know, it's one thing to, to start to kind of creep back towards some normalcy without being reckless, right? I think that there is a balance there. There's a way for you to open up your shop, there's a way for you to do things that mitigate some of that risk. But at the same time, um, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're just opening the floodgates and, and everybody is just, you know, uh, doing a group hug every time they walk in the door. That's silly.

That's going to be hard for me. That part's going to be hard for me. I'm not going to lie, it's going to be really hard because that's how our clients are here. We're not, you know, we're not a walk-in salon. Like, our clients love us. We're We're used to all of that, and I am a hugger, I'm a handshaker. That is going to be the hardest part for me.

Yeah, I don't know. I, I think some of that is, is totally overstated. The idea that we'll, we'll never shake hands again or anything, I, I think that's ridiculous. I mean, we, we have encountered and, and survived far worse than this, and you know, the, the tradition of shaking hands as a, as a greeting, and the, the symbolism that it has, it dates back thousands of years. I, I just don't, I don't think that. I think, you know, maybe there's some better practices, um, we could, you know, maybe some more hand sanitizers, some, some better hand washing. None of that is a bad thing, but the idea that our whole society is going to be fundamentally transformed, I think that's just a little bit, uh, a little bit premature to say that.

Yeah, let me get to some last minute— not last minute, but wrapping up questions. Just as far as reopening, I know you were ready to reopen and you have made some changes to how you operate. So let's go ahead and talk about what new processes you're taking, new systems you have for taking on clients. You mentioned, you know, all of your girls are going to have masks on. What other, what other steps are you taking?

So our Department of Business Professional Regulations gave us a list and basically for the clients it is, please stay in your car until you're called or told to come in. Masks are only suggested and you cannot bring any additional guests. Our only exception to that is if a mother and child are both receiving services and they're they're too young to be left in the car because, you know, that could be a problem too. Then they can sit directly in front of the station on the floor if that's their choice, or we can schedule them at separate times. So that's our only exception to that. So I'm used to, you know, why Chrissanne's color is processing for 30 to 40 minutes, I could throw in a highlight or a color to someone else. I'm not doing that. So I'm going from working 3 to 4 days a week to 6 days a week for the next couple of weeks until I get everyone in. We will have a sign at our front door that's poster size that basically just gives those 3 rules. And our doors will stay locked until you come in. All of us have given ourselves time between each client to be able to disinfect our chair, station, mat, our surrounding area. Our chairs are 6 feet apart. Our dryer chairs, we've had to kind of rearrange the salon a little bit. We can't serve beverages. We can't have magazines out or candy dishes out, any brochures. We've put up a sign for alternative payments such as Samsung Pay, Apple Pay. Apple Pay, uh, Venmo, Cash App, PayPal. I think that's the 5 main 5. So we put up those, um, so that, you know, it's kind of helping to eliminate hands-on transactions. But we do have a credit card machine where like our customers put their own credit card in, hit their own keypad, and we'll just be wiping it down each time. Mm-hmm. We use our capes for one client only anyways, and then they get washed. So we're, you know, we're following all the guidelines from the DBPR. It's going to be an adjustment, but we're all just gonna make the best of it because we're ready to get back and work.

Awesome, awesome. Yeah, it sounds like you've taken a lot of measures to just think of everything. I hadn't thought about you know, the brochures or the candy dish that you have out that I always grab a Dum Dum on my way out.

So, yep.

Uh, do you think, based upon everything that you're, uh, you're doing, do you feel that it is reasonably safe for people to go and get their haircut and, and not have to worry about— at least at your salon, I know you can't speak for everybody—

if you compare me to someone in Publix, or a client going into Publix, I should say, they may pick up an item, read the back of it, or then realize the one next to it's on sale and they put it back, and this and that. They are going above and beyond to disinfect and clean at nights, absolutely, but there are things missed. But we are still able to go to the grocery store. For a salon, we have always As we renew our license every 2 years, we have to take an airborne and blood illness test to renew our license. Our implements go into Barbicide, which is basically like a hospital-grade disinfectant. The extra measures that we're taking now is more like wiping our chairs down with, you know, disinfecting them. They suggested in some states disposable capes, which I said on one of our Zooms earlier, I'm not going to purchase a ton of plastic to throw away a ton of plastic. I just, I refuse to. We only use our capes on one person and then we wash them, and they say that detergent kills the virus anyways. I'm trying to think of some of the other examples, but I just feel like there's been several businesses that have still been able to open that I'm not saying they're not protecting, they're not doing what they're supposed to do. But as far as regulations between us, we were nothing less because of what we already have to do. I mean, we could cut ourselves while we're cutting. We could have a client with an open wound that we have to deal with or different skin issues or things like that. So we are very aware in our industry of how to be sanitary and disinfect and things of that sort. So that is a good point.

So we have to take these calculated risks, and I'm really, uh, I'm glad for you, uh, and your employees and, and those working at your salon that you're able to get back to work and to do this. And I'm glad that people like Chrissanne, who maybe they need to touch up, uh, are able to do that. I know it's for a lot of people, myself not so much, but for a lot of people it's an important thing. And I'm just glad that we're slowly, if we're going to start resuming that commerce part, because that's what I really feel is the most important part. It's not just the money. I'm glad that you got that relief, but we really need that commerce to go. That's how the economy moves. So I'm glad that we got it started. I'm glad it's helping out for both you and for your customers.

And just keep staying the course and keeping your faith and lean on your friends when you need them because that's what we're here for.

Yes, absolutely.

All right, you have any other final thoughts or anything you want to wrap up?

I just want to remind everyone again, like, as these businesses are opening, it's— there's certain things that are out of our control, whether it's the salons, the restaurants, and, and, and not being able to get certain foods in. I mean, you can't go to a main chain right now and see a full menu. So just, you know, just think what these small businesses are going through. And, you know, it's all a new— it's a new normal for right now. So don't, don't be ugly.

Don't be ugly.

We don't like ugly. Be kind. Um, even if your service is slow or fries are soggy in your to-go order or they forgot something, they're trying. We're all learning something new and hoping that everyone finds something good out of it instead of all the negative.

Awesome. Yeah, I hope so too. Um, and how can people get in touch with you?

Um, so I'm always open, but it doesn't mean you're going to get the quickest response on any of them currently when I'm behind the chair, but I'm going to be working on all that. And I do have my you know, my girls helping and working too. But, um, always my personal page, uh, which is Victoria L. Woods. The salon page, which is End Results A Salon Spa. We have our website at endresultssalonspa.com, our Instagram. Our phone number is 863-510-5969. And I think, I think this would be all that.

Those are all of the ways to contact you. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Victoria, for being on the show and for, for just fighting the good fight and staying positive and doing all the great stuff that you do. And we will be in touch and I will be scheduling my appointment very, very soon.

All right.

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