photo by: Lauren Fox

A manicure took place at Nails by Tracy, 935 Iowa St. Suite 8, on June 12.

Close contact businesses such as tattoo parlors, nail salons and barber shops are seeing a return of their client bases, and owners say they believe the community is starting to feel more relaxed about getting out and about.

Tracy Meisenheimer, of Nails by Tracy, 935 Iowa St., Suite 8, said that since reopening on May 18, at least 90% of her clients have returned.

“It’s been good,” she said, “a lot better than what we had anticipated.”

Meisenheimer has been in the business for 28 years. She said that she has built a good rapport with her customers and that everyone seems to feel comfortable with her procedures. On Friday, Meisenheimer said she was booked for the afternoon.

photo by: Lauren Fox

Tracy Meisenheimer, of Nails By Tracy, gives a client a manicure on June 12.

At the Lawrence Tattoo Company, 949 E. 23rd St., office manager Patricia Barnes said that while walk-in clients are not allowed, the business has been getting a lot of calls and emails to schedule appointments.

“A lot of people are like, ‘I’ve been sitting here thinking about these ideas for months,'” she said of clients eager to return and get new tattoos. “It seems like people are open to being out in the public again and being around people.”

Through the windows of his Downtown Barber Shop, 824 Massachusetts St., Suite 2, owner Jon Amyx said he’s been “gradually starting to see a few more people downtown. I think people are relaxing.”

Amyx said that on May 18 — the barber shop’s first day back after reopening — the waitlist peaked at about 65 people.

“The first day we were opened I think people were just like, ‘get this hair off,'” he said.

Now, Amyx said, the business has “worked the crowd down” and is back at a normal pace. Amyx said he is also starting to see more elderly customers, who were at first leery, inquire about coming in.

At Salon Di Marco & Day Spa, which offers hair, nails, waxing and massage services, the hair and nails part of the business has ramped back up nearly to pre-COVID-19 levels, co-owner Carlos Castillo said, but the waxing and massage services have not been as busy.

For hair and nails, Castillo said that on any given day at the salon, 733 Massachusetts St., they are 90 to 95% booked, whereas waxing and massage services are about 70% and 50% booked, respectively.

Dale Wheeler, a massage therapist who runs Massage Professionals, 843 New Hampshire St., is also seeing a less drastic return of clients. He said that his business — “that’s definitely very close contact,” he noted — has been “really slow” since reopening. At least 50% of his regular clients have chosen not to come back yet, Wheeler said.

Like most owners the Journal-World spoke to, Wheeler said clients were eager to come in the first week back after reopening, and he saw a normal amount — for Wheeler, that is six to eight appointments a week. But the second week he only had one massage, and the third week only two.

Wheeler is also struggling because prior to the pandemic, 60 to 70% of his revenue came from corporate massages, but now that business has disappeared.

Wheeler doesn’t “get a sense right now that people are coming out purely just because they want to get a massage,” he said. There’s typically some underlying issue, like hip or neck pain. People have been coming in because they think they need to alleviate that pain, Wheeler said. But what Wheeler has really been noticing is how stressed everyone is.

“That seems to be what everybody really has — deep-seated stress,” he said.

Responding to questions about COVID-19 and the public’s opinion of the virus, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Director Dan Partridge wrote in an email that he is not losing confidence in the public’s efforts to remain smart and safe with reopening. He said he has recently visited neighboring counties, and drew a comparison between how Douglas County residents are following guidelines compared to those in other counties.

“Personally, I have noticed a stark difference in people’s practices here like wearing masks in public and maintaining a safe social distance from others, and that gives me confidence,” he said.