Wash, rinse & mask up (repeat): Moses Lake beauty school adjusts to pandemic ‘norms’

MOSES LAKE — Gloves. Masks. Face shields. Plexiglass barriers everywhere.

Things a year ago few of us even thought much about have now become necessary and normal goods, essential for work, and things we take in stride, albeit uncomfortably and uneasily, perhaps wishing most of the time we didn’t have to.

“It’s a little hard to work with the mask all day, but it’s to protect the people and protect me,” said Carmen Alcaraz, a hair stylist and an instructor at Char-Glo School of Beauty on South Pioneer Way.

When Gov. Jay Inslee allowed salons and barbershops to reopen in June, after being closed for nearly three months, Char-Glo found itself in an interesting position. It wasn’t just a place to get hair and nails done. It’s also a school, so in addition to meeting the COVID-19 safety guidelines for salons, it also had to satisfy school-related regulations.

“We had to figure out what we were going to do and how we were going to get it done because at the beginning, it was very hard to get personal protective equipment,” said Nicholas Harle, 30, who manages vocational education at Char-Glo.

Founded 42 years ago by Charles and Gloria Determan, Char-Glo normally teaches around 40 students — including those studying cosmetology at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center — but right now, Harle said around 16 students are taught because of the need to maintain adequate social distancing in class and on the salon floor.

At first, Harle said, it meant transitioning all students to online instruction, just as the local districts did. But after Sept. 28, Harle said the school was allowed to have in-class instruction again, which meant individual tables for each student, much smaller class sizes and the awkwardness of face shields when doing hands-on teaching.

It’s been a costly process, Harle added, and led to much smaller class sizes.

“We’ve not had to turn anyone away so far,” Harle said. “If we had too many students at one time, we would have to.”

Kiley Anderson, a junior at Moses Lake High School in the CB Tech cosmetology program, styles the hair of Ephrata High School junior and fellow CB Tech student Alayna Perez. She works on clients, but she also practices.

And she’s taking working in a mask in stride.

“It’s been fine, it’s kind of just like everything,” Anderson said.

Zenaida Perez has been coming to Char-Glo for 31 years, and says she loves going there to get her hair done.

“I enjoy the people that own this place,” she said. “They’re very nice people and I enjoy what they do for me.”

She also said she’s perfectly OK with doing whatever she needs to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Charles Determan said things have been going reasonably well with both the school and salon portions of Char-Glo, though he was worried about having to continue to pay taxes despite having little or no steady income for several months after being closed.

“It was a little nerve-wracking there for three and a half months,” he said. “Luckily, we were in shape to handle it. We’re doing OK.”