LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The sign posted outside Rolling Hills Plaza Barber Shop is clear: "Mask required to enter store," and owner and barber Tara Harris said for the vast majority of her clients, it's not a big deal.
"Whatever it takes to get back in business, see our customers and try to get to that new normal," she said.
Harris, who opened up her barbershop Monday more than nine weeks after closing its doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, said clients have just been happy to get a haircut once again and that putting a mask is a small sacrifice to make for a seat in her chair, but there have been a few customers that have pushed back.
"He was set in his ways," she said. "He kept saying, 'Who's making us do that? The man? The man?' Like come on, this is everywhere. I can't believe he's acting this way."
Harris said her and other barbers in Kentucky are regulated by the state's Board of Barbering, which has required masks to be worn by everyone inside barbershops among other rules. Harris even asked a friend to make masks for customers who do not come prepared with their own. But if a customer still refuses to wear a mask, she said she has to show him or her the door.
"He said, 'I'll go find another barbershop,'" she said. "I said it'll be like that everywhere. I don't know where you think you're going to go."
Governor Andy Beshear and Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack both brought up masks during their briefing Wednesday. Right now, Kentucky is only encouraging people to wear masks in public but private businesses can mandate their patrons have masks.
"I wear my mask because of my faith and because I believe I have a duty to love my neighbor and do everything I can to not harm them, and knowing I could be asymptomatic and pass it, it's a very small thing," Beshear said.
"If someone's wearing a mask, it's not a political statement," Stack said. "They may have a child at home who has a chronic medical condition or a compromised immune system or a loved one."
►Contact reporter Dennis Ting at dting@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@DennisJTing) and Facebook.