Barbershops and hair salons opened across Massachusetts after Memorial Day, under strict safety measures including the use of face masks and gloves, and cuts by appointment only. Even with these and other measures, the risk of COVID-19 transmission in a barbershop or salon will never be zero, but the risk is lower than in other places, such as a crowded bar or office building, according to healthy buildings expert Joseph Allen.
In a May 20, 2020 Boston magazine article, Allen, assistant professor of exposure assessment science, said that people have to weigh the risks for themselves.
“From a population standpoint, if one shop didn’t get everything right and one or two people got infected, it shouldn’t set off a super spreader event, like the Biogen conference or the cruise ships,” he said. “Maybe going to the barbershop isn’t all that necessary for me, but for some people it might be—for their mental health, well-being, or maybe even just that little bit of social interaction—so they need to assess: Is it necessary?”
Read the Boston magazine article: To Get a Haircut, or Not to Get a Haircut?