The owner of a Kamloops barber shop says she is hoping to open at the start of next week, but there are some unanswered questions that remain.

Deanna Decicco owns Manhandler Barber Shop on 4th Ave. Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, she says she was initially surprised that hair salons were a part of phase two of BC’s restart plan as she was thinking it would be June at the earliest that she’d be permitted to open.

“We want to be ready to start it’s just really hard when there’s so much back order for PPE and stuff has been tough. We need disposable capes, that’s something we had to order it’s not in yet. Masks, not just for us, but we need to have to be able to have some for clients if they don’t have their own.”

Decicco says she is hoping to open on Tuesday, but she can’t commit to that without knowing if she will have the proper PPE in hand by then. “Whether we need same plexiglass, we need some decals. Those are all things that take time to make and bringing and the mail right now is quite slow on all these things. So, it’s definitely a challenge.”

Decicco says she has a lot of customers asking when she’ll be open, but she has been hesitant to set a date and her staff still has concerns. “For the most part we are very close. We touch people. We are touching their hair. Some people have open psoriasis or something on their hair. So that’s a pretty close proximity to be with somebody. The anxiety level is definitely high among the girls.”

Decicco says there also concerns when it comes to child care as she has mothers on staff and if someone gets sick it will be tough to take 10 days off without pay. “I think that’s more the level of anxiety is just all these questions that we don’t have answers to.”