Over the last week, states, including California and New York, have required all barbershops, beauty and nail salons, and tattoo parlors to close, while nonessential services and elective procedures—meaning everything from balayage and Botox to brow lifts—are on hold for the foreseeable future.
Last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo put out an official call to the apparel industry to start making masks and gowns—but the beauty services industry has many of those supplies on hand already. So the nation’s nail salons, spa providers, and cosmetic surgeons have been raiding their stocks of protective masks and gloves, tapping into their distribution networks, and getting creative about ways to contribute during the current crisis.