Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced on Tuesday he will be adding salons and barbershops to the list of businesses that will be able to reopen in the state this week after two state representatives from his own party got illegal haircuts despite his orders amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
According to The Texas Tribune, Abbott said salons and barbershops would also be able to reopen hours after Republican state Reps. Steve Toth and Briscoe Cain got haircuts at the Tune Up: The Manly Salon near Houston.
Toth said in a phone interview with the paper while he was getting the haircut that “there’s absolutely no reason” salons and barbershops shouldn’t be able to reopen amid the pandemic as long as they adhere to advised health protocols.
“When you’re Greg Abbott and you have people screaming in your ear, you have to find a creative way to communicate with him; he’s going 24/7 right now,” he told the paper.
“We wanted to get a message to the governor — everyone has to take a different tack trying to make sure the governor knows what our constituents are thinking,” he continued.
Cain, on the other hand, told the paper that, for him, the haircut was more “an act of civil disobedience” but added “it wasn’t personal.”
“If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, I was encouraging people to do this — if I was going to encourage others, I should do it myself — to encourage customers to go to any business, whether it’s been deemed ‘essential’ or not, so we can help provide these business owners and employees an income so they can pay their bills,” he continued.
According to the paper, the salon first reopened this past weekend. However, a stylist at the business, Hailey Lankford, told the paper that the shop was closed shortly after facing pressure from local law enforcement to do so.
The report comes after a salon owner in Texas was sentenced to seven days in jail for refusing to close her salon amid the pandemic.