Despite all of the shock and awe over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent trip to a San Francisco a salon to get her hair done, the truth is that such backdoor visits to salons, which are supposed to be closed to indoor service during the pandemic, are common and have been going in the city for months.
Just ask the hairdressers.
“People are either working behind closed doors or going to the clients’ houses or setting up shop in their own homes,” said Nicole, who works out of a Cow Hollow salon just a few blocks from where Pelosi made her infamous visit and didn’t want her full name used. “I’ve even gone to people’s second homes outside of the city.
“Everyone has been getting their hair done. It’s pretty obvious. Just take a look around. You can see that people, even public officials, have had their roots done, their nails done,” Nicole said.
Tracy, a second stylist who has 16 years of experience and who owns her own shop, said the backdoor appointments are set up via one-on-one texts or phone calls, just as Pelosi did.
“Sometimes I work with one client. Sometimes it’s a group of clients at someone’s home. Sometimes it’s just hair. Sometimes a nail person comes along as well,” said Tracy, who also requested we not use her full name. The Chronicle granted the requests based on its anonymous source policy.
“And it is all done with masks and social distancing,” Tracy said.
“We take 1,600 hours of classes to get our cosmetology licenses, so we know about how to keep things safe,” Tracy said.
Nicole and Tracy spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern that admitting to breaking the health code imposed during the pandemic could cost them their licenses.
Both said they were driven back to work after months of earning no income and what they saw as a growing inequity in what businesses were allowed to open and which had to stay closed.
Nicole said she stopped working completely for the first two months of the shutdown.
“Then I heard Gov. Gavin Newsom talking about issuing guidelines to allow churches to resume services, and I thought: ‘If they can do that, I can start working too,’” she said.
Nicole and Tracy said the city’s guidelines make no sense.
“They allow for outdoor dining and drinking, so people are all over Chestnut Street eating and drinking with no masks and no distancing, but we can’t operate a safe salon?” Nicole said.
Nicole and Tracy both said setting up shop on the sidewalk, which the city has allowed since Tuesday, doesn’t work.
“The sidewalks are filthy,” Tracy said. That’s not news to anyone who’s taken a walk in the city the past few years.
What the stylists want is to be able to reopen — one customer at a time — as some other Bay Area counties now allow.
“According to the state health department virus numbers, we have a “red” viral designation, so we should be able to open,” Tracy said.
City Hall, while sympathetic, isn’t ready to allow the customers in.
“While the state sets general guidelines, ultimately decisions about how to safely reopen are made by local public health officials based on how that county is managing the virus, said Tyrone Jue, head of the Joint Information Center at the city’s COVID Command Center.
“San Francisco still has a high case count,” Jue said. “We want to reopen safely so we don’t see a spike in cases, forcing us to shut down again.”
As for the Pelosi incident, Nicole said that while she supports the speaker politically, she also understands the salon owner’s frustration and decision to go public to make the point that even public officials are skirting the same ban they are publicly promoting.
“She got played. Boy, didn’t she,” Nicole said of Pelosi.
Her sympathy does not extend to Mayor London Breed.
“I bet she has had her hair done,” Nicole said.
“Mayor Breed will take that as a compliment, since she has been doing her own hair for months,” Breed spokesman Jeff Cretan said.
“Just the other day she was doing her hair in her office, and I had to plug in her curling iron while talking through issues about the Tenderloin. I don’t think I count as a stylist, especially because I forgot to turn the curling iron on,” Cretan said.
Pssst: Word is the U.S. Attorney’s Office will be announcing a new round of guilty pleas in its City Hall corruption investigation in the next week or so.
No word on who will be copping a plea, but given the feds’ method of operation, the guilty pleas often are part of an agreement to cooperate further for a possible reduction in sentence.
The investigation has already snared former Department of Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru and a number of local contractors.
Nuru stands accused of taking favors in return for inside contracting information and of an alleged attempt to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner. In recent months, the federal investigation has expanded into several city departments.
In another twist, word is that businessman Walter Wong, who is cooperating with the attorney’s office, kept a journal of his numerous dealings with city officials and others. Wong’s attorney did not return requests for comment.
If true, some city officials just had their Labor Day weekend ruined.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Matier appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KGO-TV morning and evening news and can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email pmatier@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @philmatier
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