Wheeling Barber Shop Taking Precautions After Reopening
Trending
WHEELING -- Chad Stradwick would have preferred to wait to reopen Stradwick's Fade Cave in Wheeling, but economic realities gave him little choice but to follow suit when barbershops, hair and nail salons and massage businesses got the go-ahead from the state to reopen in May.
"If I could still be closed to this day and not have any financial repercussions or worries, I would be closed right now," he said.
Stradwick opened his business two years ago, providing appointment-only advanced barbering to customers in a 50-60-mile radius. When non-essential businesses were closed in late March, he'd been saving up money to take some time off for the birth of his fourth child.
"Had the stimulus not come or I didn't have any savings, I would have had to go get an essential job or something," he said.
Stradwick made it through eight weeks of his business being closed. But with his mother, wife and one child at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 because of underlying health issues, going back to work still had him concerned.
He turned to eBay and paid a premium to purchase a half-face respirator mask and cartridges manufactured by 3M, which he said are usually reserved for medical personnel. Stradwick said he wanted to make sure he had a "full seal" to keep the virus out, given there is still a lot of uncertainty about how exactly it is spread.
"I kind of look like I'm a mad scientist when I'm cutting hair," he said.
That also required shaving his 8-inch beard, of which he was particularly fond.
"It's like, 'OK, protect your family or lose your beard?' So that was an easy decision for me," Stradwick said.
Stradwick said he received offers from customers willing to pay hefty amounts to get their hair cut while he was closed, but he turned them down. Now that he's reopened, he stays busy.
In the past, friends might come to shoot the breeze or a customer's family might sit with them. Now, Stradwick only allows one customer each for him and the cosmetologist who rents a booth there. Customers are required to wear a mask, but can remove it when they get a shave.
"When I'm performing the service on their face, I request that they don't speak," he said.