If you were waiting for New York to deem barbershops and hair salons essential businesses, don’t hold your breath. Governor Andrew Cuomo appeared on The Daily Social Distancing Show With Trevor Noah on Wednesday night and shed some light on the road ahead for New Yorkers in regards to the global pandemic. Trevor Noah jumps right in and asks the governor where New York stands on the trajectory of the coronavirus. “Well, the good news is we have shown we can control the spread of the virus, which people take for granted now, but I wasn’t always so sure,†said Governor Cuomo, admitting that he had his doubts about the social-distancing measures we’ve been practicing for the past six weeks. “The numbers are all on the decline, so that’s the good news,†said Cuomo. “How long does it take until that number gets to a small enough level where you can sleep at night and not worry about it? Could be two weeks. Could be three weeks. Could be six weeks.†Six more weeks. Yay.
Whenever Governor Cuomo does decide to reopen New York, don’t expect barber shops and hair salons to be the first businesses to get the green light. Cuomo is in favor of a slow rollout, with the least essential businesses opening last. “It has to be phased in,†said Cuomo when asked whether or not he’d pull a Georgia and open everything at once. “It has to be slow and building and watch that infection rate as you start to open up the valve to reopen … Basically, it’s a matrix. How essential is the business and how high a risk does the business pose?†Makes sense, right? In Cuomo’s opinion, getting your hair done is both not very essential and extremely high risk. “I want to see a person perform a haircut and maintain social distancing while they give you a hair cut,†Cuomo says as Noah begins to chuckle. “And I want to see the haircut that they do after they did it socially distancing.†[Whips out a pair of six-foot-long scissors.] Game on, Cuomo.
Later on in the interview, Cuomo gets candid about his relationship with the president. “The relationship between myself and the president is … the president doesn’t like me. That’s the relationship. It is unambiguous. It is honest. It is open. He doesn’t like my politics,†Cuomo tells Noah. However, Cuomo says he recently had a “granular†and “detailed†conversation with the president on the subject of testing. So, we may not be getting haircuts anytime soon, but (hopefully) we are making progress in regards to getting more tests to more people. More available testing might not sound as sexy as getting a fresh cut, but definitely is more important in the long run.