What a weird time to be alive. I never imagined how hard and complicated it would be to just get a haircut. I actually like growing my hair and not caring about grooming it. But the heat has been killing me, and my zoom buddies have been commenting on it too much. They try to make it funny, one person even tries to mask how good the length looks on me now, even though I know he’s just trying to be polite. He’s always been a true gentleman.
So the barber shop I usually go to is pretty cool –they use a UV light for all their instruments now, they book appointments so that everyone in the room is there at the same time in one batch after they sanitize and light up the place, and the next batch of customers don’t get to go in after an hour. Everything for each customer is freshly laundered – one of my friends even had their own cape taken home after the cut – but it has become mandatory to buy it. He ended up paying double what he usually does – because he had to buy the cape apart from pay for the shave.
I on the other hand, had to pay my barber 150% of what I usually pay him. He says it’s because of the laundering of the capes and the new ones they had to buy for each batch of customers, the UV light they had to buy, the extra sanitizing practices they needed to enforce in order to comply with regulatory requirements and continue operating. I guess that was reasonable. I just didn’t expect it.
My dentist was the same. They sprayed me with a bleach + salt + water solution after I filled out the health declaration form. Then I had to gargle with a disinfecting mouthwash before our prophylaxis. They were dressed in full PPEs before attending to me. It looked pretty legit and a bit too normal already actually. Hard to believe that my last session was just come in and go. It was hard to even book this appointment. It was a precarious positon to be in because the procedures were of course direct to my mouth – the most vulnerable and susceptible place to catch the virus. But I had to get my teeth cleaned eventually and my retainers adjusted so I figured it was worth the risk. It’s been a few months and I didn’t want to wait until a vaccine was out in order to get my usual hygienic routines fulfilled.
Weird how my last sessions with them were just so happy-go-lucky. I would even just walk in sometimes when I had a free hour or window from work, or if I happened to be passing by the area. It’s confusing how I took basic grooming and hygiene routines so much for granted, until it felt like a life and death decision to have to push through with them. I don’t regret it though. I know I’m keeping safe with all the protocols. But still, it feels so…surreal. For six months, the question hasn’t gotten old – is this really happening?