House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Monday visited a San Francisco hair salon for a blow-out despite the store being shuttered since March as part of measures to curb the transmission of the CCP virus, security footage shows.
Esalon owner Erica Kious, a mother of two, told the news outlet in an interview Tuesday that Pelosi booked an appointment Sunday night through an independent stylist who rents chair space in her salon.
“I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen? What do I do?” Kious said, noting that accepting the booking was ultimately the stylist’s decision as “they’re not paying” currently.
Kious said the fact that Pelosi received a wash and a blow-dry while salons have been shut since March was like “a slap in the face.”
“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious said.
“We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right?” Kious said. “It is just disturbing.”
A spokesman for Pelosi told news outlets that the congresswoman followed the rules presented to her by the hair salon.
“The Speaker always wears a mask and complies with local COVID requirements. This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business. The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment,” spokesman Drew Hammill said.
Kious said receiving a blow-out goes against current COVID-19 safety precautions put in place for hair salons.
“We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t—it’s a feeling—a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down,” she added.
