Thomas Breen photos
Protesters outside Skull & Combs barber shop on State Street.
Standing shoulder to shoulder outside of a State Street barbershop, several dozen protesters waved American flags and “Don’t Tread on Me” signs as they decried what one Branford salon owner described as the “dictatorship” of Gov. Ned Lamont.
That protest took place Tuesday morning on the street and sidewalk outside of Skull & Combs at 832 State St. in between Pearl and Clark.
An NBC Connecticut video stream on FaceBook Live (above) shows roughly 50 people densely packed outside of the barbershop, cheering and encouraging car honks of support of the protest against the governor’s decision Monday to exclude barber shops and hair salons from Wednesday’s Phase 1 partial reopening.
Haircutters were originally included as one of five categories of business eligible to partially reopen on Wednesday. Then Lamont changed his mind, pushing the barbershop and salon reopening date to “early June.”
That decision came after Lamont heard from a statewide group of hundreds of salon owners who argued that reopening their businesses at this time was simply not safe given the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are not essential and opening our businesses at this stage is unsafe and dangerous to the public’s health,” Alison Valsamis and Odete DaSilva of the CT Beauty Association wrote in an op-ed over the weekend. “Premature openings, with loosely written and scientifically inaccurate guidelines, the lack of focus on contact tracing, and the emphasis on reporting and shutting down businesses will certainly lead to the demise of our industry as we know it.”
The protesters who turned up to rally outside Skull & Combs Tuesday disagreed.
At around 11:30 a.m., the group had dwindled to around 15 people, nearly all of whom had taken off their face masks designed to stem community spread among asymptomatic carriers.
Some wore “Make America Great Again” hats and held up signs reading “Make Hair Salons Great Again” and “Liberty NOT Tyranny.”
Massimo Liguori (pictured), the owner of Branford’s salon MASSIMO, said he drove to New Haven from the shoreline to show solidarity with other temporarily out-of-work barbers and hair stylists.
“We’re trained professionals. We’re ready to open up our salons and keep ourselves safe, our employees safe, and our guests safe.”
He repeatedly said that the governor’s decision to keep salons closed had “nothing do with health.”
“This isn’t about safety,” he surmised. “This is about other people in the industry that aren’t prepared. So [Lamont] is punishing the rest of the industry. To me, it’s dictatorship.”
Liguori assured this reporter that his salon is well stocked with hygienic protections, including “blue light technology going through these machines that cleanse the air 100 percent.”
He said he also has ample supply of Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer.
When asked if he feared that Tuesday’s protest might prove to be a “spreader” event given how closely people stood side by side and how few people consistently wore masks, he replied, “Everybody I’ve seen did have a mask on. And we just washed our hands.
“The social distancing was a little bit closer than six feet, but that’s what we’re going to do in the hair salon, with masks and shield on. Most responsible salon owners have every safety precaution in place.”