Valley salons brace for regional stay-home order

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Many Valley businesses have been flooded with calls from customers trying to make last-minute appointments for personal services since salons are on the list of closures in a "stay home order".

Nicole Kvalevog says the wait time at Sports Clips in Clovis has been hours long since Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a pending regional stay home order in California.

"We had about a two to three-hour wait until closing at 7 pm," she said. "People are just wanting to get in. They don't know when we will be open again."

The order goes into effect Saturday. Salons, barbershops, and spas are among the industries expected to shut down with ICU capacity below 15% in the San Joaquin Valley.

RELATED: San Joaquin Valley region falls under 15% ICU capacity, meeting criteria for stay-at-home order

"We have all of our stylists working here until they tell us we can't work anymore," said Kvalevog.

In northwest Fresno at The Spa and Hungry Hair Salon, owner Tammie Riley spent thousands of dollars on plexiglass and other upgrades to comply with COVID-19 guidelines.

"We are following all the guidelines that we can find online and doing everything that we can to keep our customers and our staff very, very safe," she said.

Riley says her business has received many phone calls from confused customers the past couple of days.

"Phone calls coming in wanting to know if we are still open and if we are going to be open," said Riley.

As a result of the looming shutdown to the industry, the business has had to accommodate changes to appointments.

"We have seen a lot of last-minute appointments made. And then we have seen a lot of cancelations," said Riley. "It's just caused a lot of chaos and confusion."

During what's typically the salon and spa's busiest time of year, Riley's employees are facing uncertainty too.

"You know they have bills to pay. It's Christmas time," she said. "They don't know if they are coming to work the next day."