Personal care services including nail salons and barbers are finally reopening in Toronto

A trip to the hair salon, spa or nail salon is finally in the future — personal care services are getting the green light to reopen in Ontario.

While there have been barbers offering outdoor haircuts, and some people went to black-market barbers, many have been waiting for months for a decent haircut.

omg haircuts and manicures are back next wednesday !!! :-) A HAIR CUT !!! I CAN GET A HAIR CUT!!

— rachel mcmillan *preorder The Mozart Code, please* (@rachkmc) June 24, 2021

Shut down in Toronto on Nov. 23 due to rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, personal care services nearly reopened again on April 12 but the province swiftly did an about-face as case counts again went on the rise.

On Wednesday, June 30 at 12:01 a.m the Ontario government is moving the province into Step 2 of its Roadmap to Reopening, the province announced on Thursday.

actual footage of me going to the nail salon https://t.co/CLq6nvdIsj pic.twitter.com/b4tG3IWtPO

— sophia (@sophsa) June 24, 2021

Step 2 of the province’s three-step plan includes the reopening of personal care services, defined as hair salons and barbershops, manicure and pedicure salons, aesthetician services, piercing services, tanning salons, spas and tattoo studios.

But only services that can be done with a face-covering are permitted — so people will have to wait a bit longer for a facial or barbershop shave.

Personal care services must operate with social distancing measures in effect at 25 per cent capacity.

After 8 month closure of barber shops and hair salons, now is the time for my haircut rush!

— Carman Yan 殷有志 (@carman_yan) June 24, 2021

Hair stylists and barbers argued for months that their services are much safer than going to a big box store, but they remained part of Step 2 of the reopening plan.

To enter Step Two, Ontario needed to have vaccinated 70 per cent of adults with one dose and 20 per cent with two doses for at least two weeks, ensuring a strong level of protection against COVID-19.

As of June 23 over 76 per cent of the population in Ontario ages 18 and over have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and over 29 per cent have received their second dose. More than 13.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered provincewide.