How a New York City hairstylist has made drastic changes to do her high-risk job during the pandemic

Fox & Jane had been closed since March 18 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Hairstylists have one of the most dangerous jobs during the pandemic because there is so much physical contact, per Visual Capitalist's COVID-19 Risk Score.

During this time, the WHO said the spread of the virus was speeding up. Spikes of positive cases were popping up around New York, prompting a delay in the city's plan to restart indoor dining.

New York salons were allowed to reopen a week earlier on June 22, but Fox & Jane took an extra week to prepare all the new procedures.

"Within the first week of reopening, I started seeing how my entire team and everyone that came into our space was really respectful of everything," Cordoba said. "I think everybody has been doing such a phenomenal job at taking it seriously."

But it wasn't an easygoing time. After three months of closure, Fox & Jane had to figure out how to stagger three months of delayed appointments while maintaining a social distance.

"Most of us, in the beginning, were coming in at 9 a.m. and staying until 9 p.m. because we were taking six or seven clients a day," Cordoba said.

Three months later, Fox & Jane hairstylists are seeing an average of three to four clients each day, and the Brooklyn location has been extremely busy.

"We have clients that typically would go into the city locations, and I think that now there's a lot of people that are uncomfortable taking a train or getting in an Uber, so they've been coming to us," Cordoba told Insider.

The first month back was one of adjustment, but now, she says it feels almost normal.

"COVID is obviously still very much a real thing, but it feels like there's some sort of normalcy again," she said, referencing COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. "Minus all of the mask-wearing, it feels like how it felt last summer," she added.

Here's an inside look at how hairstylists are operating during the ongoing pandemic.

Fox & Jane is operating at 50% capacity to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

If an employee is exposed to the virus, they have to test negative twice before returning to the salon, which normally results in a week out of work.

"Let's say they were exposed on Sunday," Cordoba explained. "On Monday, they would be asked to go get tested, and on Thursday, they would be asked to be tested again."

If the employee tested positive, the entire location would shut down and anyone who came into contact with the employee would be notified, including clients and other stylists.

Public health experts say that after being exposed to the virus, you should wait five days to get tested because it can take that long for the infection to incubate in your body, Business Insider previously reported.

The salon is also no longer accepting cash.

Before that, they'll get a notification on their phone that reminds them to fill out their coronavirus questionnaire of the day, which asks employees when they were last tested, if they are showing symptoms, and if they have been exposed in the last two weeks.

Staff members get tested for coronavirus every two weeks, and they are required to wear face masks and their goggles or face shields throughout their shifts.

It's worth noting that temperature checks are more of a performative effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, as Business Insider's Hilary Brueck previously reported. This is because people are typically most infectious days before showing symptoms like fever.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, stylists could share sanitation equipment. Now, they all have their own disinfectant boxes.

Prior to the pandemic, employees would check clients in. Now, they check-in through an iPad after sanitizing their hands.

After checking in and washing their hands, clients take a seat in the stylist's chair and are asked five questions about their health, like if they've recently experienced coughing, fever, or shortness of breath.

"We're constantly cleaning the bathroom, wiping down any door handles, any cabinet handles, everything that we touch, we instantly wiped down," Cordoba told Insider. "So after each person uses the computer, they wipe it down."

She added that they sanitize pretty much everything but the walls.

Before the pandemic, Cordoba often saw multiple clients at once. But at 50% capacity, that's usually not possible.

The biggest difference Cordoba notices in her workday is how she converses with clients.

"Everybody has a story about COVID," she told Insider. "Sometimes you have somebody come in and they're quiet or you can tell something's going on with them inside, but sometimes you have the client that comes in and they had such a traumatic experience and it's almost like they want to talk about it."

It can be challenging, she says, to keep her clients feeling positive.

"Everybody has been so supportive during all of this and making sure that the staff is always feeling supported, so there's nothing really that I would change," Cordoba told Insider. "I feel very supported when going to work now."

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