Postcards From The Pandemic: Back To Work At Black Cat Barbershop

Barbers like Ryan Hardwick of Black Cat Barbershop in Cleveland were some of the first workers affected by last year’s COVID-19 shutdowns.

In 2020, he talked with ideastream about how he was faring in the early days of the pandemic.

“At some point, with the barbershop shut down, my money will dry up,” he said at the time. “I don’t know man, it’s stressful, it really is.”

This year, Black Cat is back open and Hardwick is cutting hair again, looking forward to the day he and his hardcore punk band can play shows for an audience again.

Picking Up The Scissors Again

Truthfully, it was kind of nice to be off with nothing to do for a little bit. But it did kind of run its course. I think everybody was just bored, and I missed the crew.

I remember just getting used to being on my feet all day again and just relearning the whole process. I’ve been cutting hair for eight years, so it’s like riding a bike, you never forget. But just like the movement of it all.

That being said, we opened up longer, so we were doing 10-hour days because of all the cleaning involved. And especially early, like the science wasn’t really out yet with the surface exposure and all of that, so we were really on it.

Reopening The Cash Register

I’d be lying if I said that we didn’t take advantage of all the government grants and loans that we could.

Financially, as like business walking in the doors, I mean geez man, just this past month, we’ve seen it kind of turn the other way. It’s kind of, we’re on the incline now. People are feeling better about traveling, people are getting vaccinated.

Taking The Stage

I just want to do things again. I want to play shows and go see bands.

I play hardcore punk rock, so it’s such a give-and-take, audience participation sort of thing that I don’t that I’m ready to have like 20 random strangers screaming in my face.

The band like kept me sane all 2020, we were still – they were like the only people in my COVID bubble, besides the people in my house, my wife and son, where I would see them once a week. And we’d practice in a big basement, so we were able to kind of distance and we wrote tons of music.

That’s something that has been like the light at the end of the tunnel…Knowing that I’m going to be playing shows soon and stuff, it’s that glimmer of hope of like, OK, we’re going to get through it. And that’s going to be such a cherry on top of all of this year.