Jess Anastasia has long wanted a mohawk but was always told it wasn’t a “professional” look.
A data analyst who also advocates for LGBT issues in Montgomery County, she worried how the edgy haircut might play during meetings with local government leaders. But once the coronavirus quarantine restrictions hit Silver Spring, she had her partner give her an experimental haircut in the kitchen. The two kept sending pictures throughout the process to friends and family, creating a socially distant group effort.
“I think it’s pretty freeing to finally have done it,” Anastasia says, adding that she would maintain the mohawk once she returns to work. “There’s so much going on now that we don’t have a sense of control, but cutting my hair is empowering. It gave me some control back when everything was starting to make me feel anxious.”
Anastasia isn’t alone in her quarantine cut adventure. With salons and barbershops shuttered around the country and in-person meetings limited to grocery store trips, many of those stuck at home are taking clippers or dye into their own hands. The results run the gamut from severe chops like Anastasia’s to lighter washes that add just a touch of color to brighten the stay-at-home doldrums.
NoMa resident Taylor Downs opted for the latter, using a rose gold conditioner instead of a more drastic dye. The pink shade turned out more violet on Downs’ dark brown hair, though the color is subtle enough that it doesn’t show up on a video call. It’s a good break for Downs, who has avoided dyeing her hair because of her job in a public-facing role in Congress.
“Nobody said ‘don’t color your hair,’” she says of her office. “But if I had walked into work it would have been like ‘…interesting choice.’”
The quarantine era is upending style choices for many District professionals, who are often lampooned for adhering to conservative Ann Taylor uniforms and federally approved seersucker suits. As residents swap slacks for sweatpants, they’re making bold choices when it comes to the top of their ensembles.
That lighthearted approach toward hairdos has gained critical mass on social media in Facebook groups like “Haircuts in the time of the plague.” The private group counts 46 members from around the country and chose the apocalyptically appropriate image from Mad Max: Fury Road of a shaved-head Charlize Theron screaming for its banner photo. Members have posted bed head selfies, overgrown locks, chopped bangs, and a slew of bad hair memes.
Amy Callner, a Mount Rainier resident who works in D.C., joined the group with a few friends from her local roller derby community.
“One common denominator is that most of us have spent lots of time with our hair crammed into a helmet,” she says. “Times are dark. Why not let your kids cut your hair and have a laugh?”
The pandemic isn’t the first time that Callner has made a radical follicle choice. After taking a sabbatical from her job a few years ago, she handed her husband a pair of clippers, to which he replied, “I’m gonna Vidal Sassoon this shit.”
“My husband, who I love dearly, is good at a lot of things,” she says. “He is not a hairdresser. He is a public works employee and over our bathtub he did this buzzed undercut thing. So I’ve kept this half-assed hairdo for a while now. I like to say I’m having a bad hair decade.”
Callner is maintaining that unorthodox hairstyle under quarantine; her husband’s recent attempt at an undercut resulted in haphazard lines.
Though Callner doesn’t care how her hair turns out, the homemade efforts at hairdressing are giving some professional stylists anxiety. Mercedes Ortiz-Olivieri, owner of Trim Hair Salon in Adams Morgan, recommended her clients to wait until the salons could reopen. Her tune changed, however, once she saw Virginia’s stay-at-home order would remain in effect until June 10.
“When that kind of reality set in, I started realizing that people are going to start taking matters into their own hands,” she says. “This is a stressful time and people want to take control of something. Just like a breakup, they want to do something drastic. It’s not a similar kind of stress, but it’s the only thing that I can compare in my history of doing hair.”
Ortiz-Olivieri adds that whatever people do with their hair during this time of isolation, she won’t judge or shame their choice. Still, after taking a year to refine delicate highlights for one of her clients, she doesn’t want to see her work undone over the next few weeks.
“Please reach out to your hairdresser so you don’t totally make a mess and require color correction, which is our big fear,” she says, adding that she wants clients to steer clear of highlighting or bleaching their own hair. “The consequence can be hair breaking off. Hair bleach, if it’s not used correctly, can cause a lot of damage.”
Cortney and Ian Palmiero, the married co-owners of Scissor and Comb Salon and Georgie’s Barber in Takoma Park, have also fielded concerned calls from their clients.
“We would love for them to be able to wait because oftentimes choosing a box color or buying a toner can be difficult and problematic,” Cortney says.
“Can be disastrous,” Ian adds.
With an absence of customers, Cortney has added a lilac tone to her bleach blonde hair while her husband’s boredom has manifested itself in a well-kept beard.
“I must have trimmed my beard three times in the last four weeks,” he says.
Ortiz-Olivieri is keeping her own hair simple during quarantine, with some exceptions. She taught her husband how to shampoo her hair and when they stopped by their salon to water their plants, she touched up her roots. She’s also placating her clients’ need to freshen their own locks with tutorial videos on her Instagram. She hopes to have one out soon for touching up roots and recommends a root spray for those virtual face-to-face meetings. The trend is catching on nationwide, with hairdressers performing live sessions on everything from braiding and bang trims.
“Part of it is making sure we stay relevant in people’s lives,” she says.
Tamira White, a hairdresser at Jasmine’s Hair Gallery in Southeast D.C., isn’t releasing her secrets online. Instead, White took a proactive approach, supplying her clients with conditioning oils before the quarantine struck. To keep hair and skin healthy, she recommends drinking plenty of water. Textured hair will require more moisturizing than fine hair, but both types should be rinsed with cold water, she adds. When it comes to trying professional techniques at home, like cutting and using chemical relaxers, her response is more severe.
“Would you try to give yourself an eye examination?” she says. “No. We’re doctors of hair. We don’t show them how to do a chemical relaxer, so they’re not tempted to do those things outside of our eyesight.”
Some District residents have no choice but to maintain their hairstyles themselves while stuck at home. Tonya Williams, a Ward 8 resident, is retying her own Sisterlocks, a trademark style of tiny locs that normally take 27 hours over three days to complete at a salon. The process mimics crocheting and Williams uses a special needle for her 500 locs, which will take several days to do herself.
“If I let it go and don’t maintain it all, I run the risk of messing up my parts and my grid and the cost of repair is way more than the cost for maintenance,” she says. “They’re tiny and if I don’t maintain them, they’ll fall out.”
While hairdressers are cautioning their clients to take care of their hair, they also acknowledge that it’s farther down the list of priorities during a pandemic.
“It’s hair, it’ll grow back,” White says. “I know it’s part of our identity, but it’s also just hair. In this day there are more important things to worry about, and that’s coming from a cosmetologist.”
