A box of pink hair dye and spouses with scissors. Extreme things happen in quarantine.
Children are cutting their parents’ hair, teachers are dying their hair pink, and people are stressing about their roots showing as salons are closed across the state because of the coronavirus.
For some, it’s desperation and for others, it’s just boredom at home in quarantine under the statewide stay-at-home order.
Nichole Case, a seventh-grade science teacher at Pine Hollow Middle School in Raleigh, was feeling a little antsy spending so much time at home preparing for online classes. She surprised her students with pink hair on Thursday.
“I just wanted to do something totally fun and out of the ordinary for me,” said Case, who’s in her 40s. “I’m starting to do some [video] recordings for my kids, and I thought that will be a fun way to get them excited.”
The hot pink color didn’t turn out as dramatically as she had hoped, but that’s probably for the better, she said.
“My actual stylist would probably kill me when I do get back to see her,” Case said. “I just have to keep the scissors away from my bangs.”
Case also tried to cut her boyfriend’s hair and do a bit of a fade. It did not go well.
“Yeah, it wasn’t that easy and it ended up being terrible, so we just took clippers to the whole thing,” Case said. “I have a whole new appreciation for stylists.”
Haircuts as bonding experiences
Laurie Ruettimann, 45, said she was eager to cut her husband Ken’s hair because he was “looking a little shaggy.” But he didn’t trust her skills and is still going to work everyday, so he only let her trim around his neck.
She said she thinks his position may change in a month or so because desperate times call for desperate measures. And she’ll be ready.
“I think it’s the thing that bonds couples together during quarantine and isolation,” Ruettimann said. “Are you really even a couple if you haven’t cut each other‘s hair? I’m waiting to hit that benchmark.”
Lyndsee Graham, a 23-year-old stylist in Raleigh, made an Instagram video giving her clients a crash-course on cutting their own bangs. She also posted a blooper reel for a bit of comic relief during the pandemic and does not want to hear that people are using kitchen scissors.
“I want to be a resource for my clients and give them information that is helpful,” Graham said. “But I don’t want to teach someone how to perm their hair at home and make matters worse.”
Meraki Salon, where she works, had also been doing curbside color every Saturday for people to come get touch ups. Other local salons, including Mark Christopher Salon, are sending at-home color kits with customized formulas and instructions on how to apply it properly.
Bishops Salon at The Dillon is doing a “pay what you can” hair product campaign to benefit the food bank and their stylists while salons are closed.
Hair tips before the next Zoom call
Stylists are also posting hair braiding tutorials and videos about perfecting a messy bun or getting ready quickly to look presentable before a Zoom call.
Graham said she wants to keep that connection with people even when they aren’t sitting in her chair at the salon. And she understands why they want a distraction, a hands-on project or just a sense of control and routine during this time.
“Doing your hair at home, even if it’s not cutting or coloring, styling it or giving yourself a blowout, putting curls in ... it just gives somebody a better sense of control,” Graham said. “Or you just want to feel good about yourself and a lot of times that can be the only way.”
Tim Kennard, 32, had been keeping his platinum blonde hair fresh, getting it cut, toned and bleached every two weeks. But that hasn’t happened during the pandemic and his inch of dark roots and long bangs are evidence.
“It’s definitely aggravating,” Kennard said. “And I know it sounds vain.”
He hasn’t tried to trim or dye his hair himself yet, but he’s sought comfort in the fact that he’s not alone in this.
“Everyone is going to look crazy, whether you don’t do your hair or you do your hair,” Kennard said.
Kennard worked at Mark Christopher Salon in Raleigh but lost his job when it was forced to close. He said being unemployed really put things in perspective, and he knows his overgrown hair isn’t that big of a deal considering everything that’s happening.
‘A tragedy about to unfold’
Craig Schaefer, a 46-year-old writer in Cary, is relying on YouTube videos to prepare for his own much-needed haircut. Luckily, he found an old attachment for his electric razor that should get the job done.
“Thinking about cutting my own hair later today. I might not write King Lear in quarantine, but I still feel a tragedy about to unfold,” Schaefer tweeted Thursday morning.
Schaefer lives alone and works from home regularly, so he won’t be seeing anybody for weeks. And he trusts that his hair will grow back if he “mangles it.”
He knows it won’t look great, but it’s going to be manageable. And that’s something.
“It’s interesting what we take for granted,” Schaefer said. “Right now with the stress of the situation, just having one less stress point will be a nice thing.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
