The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?

Tattoo shops, barbers, hair salons to close in NY & elsewhere amid coronavirus

UPDATE: Governor Cuomo has since signed an executive order requiring all workers at non-essential business in New York stay home to help slow the spread of COVID-19, as CNN reports. It takes effect Sunday evening (3/22). “These provisions will be enforced,” Cuomo says. “These are not helpful hints. This is not if you really want to be a great citizen. These are legal provisions. They will be enforced. There will be a civil fine and mandatory closure for any business that is not in compliance. Again, your actions can affect my health. That’s where we are.”

Coronavirus restrictions have shut down music venues, nightclubs, movie theaters, and bars in NYC and beyond, and restaurants and other eateries have been restricted to only providing take-out and delivery service. While the “shelter in place” order that de Blasio said he wanted to declare for NYC earlier this week hasn’t been enacted, there has been another new rule put in place about what businesses can operate right now. NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an executive order on Friday morning (3/20) closing tattoo and piercing shops, barber shops, and nail and hair salons in NY, CT, NJ, and PA starting Saturday (3/21) at 8 PM.

Before you rush out to get one last hair cut (or tattoo) while you can, we’d like to point out that it’s impossible to do so while following social distancing guidelines — how is your barber supposed to give you a trim standing 6 ft away? When in doubt, grow your hair out.

Video game retailer Gamestop, meanwhile, is instructing its store to stay open even as other non-essential retailers shutter, Kotaku reports. A staff memo they obtained reads, “due to the products we carry that enable and enhance our customers’ experience in working from home, we believe GameStop is classified as essential retail and therefore is able to remain open during this time. We have received reports of local authorities visiting stores in an attempt to enforce closure despite our classification. Store Managers are approved to provide the document linked below to law enforcement as needed.” Seems like a stretch, but… did you get your copy of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” yet?

In slightly better news, the deadline for paying any taxes you may owe had already been postponed 90 days, and now Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has moved the filing deadline back from April 15 to July 15, as CNBC reports.