Staying indoors for over a month, many people are in desperate need of a haircut.

On China's social media Sina Weibo, the hashtag "If the hair salons remain closed" has a total exposure of 800 million times, with the discussions around the topic totaling 127,000 times. Girls have been complaining about fringes capping half of their faces, while boys have started considering new hairstyles, such as man bun, ponytails or slick back.

With most individual businesses in the service industry still on halt due to the outbreak of novel coronavirus, hair salons have to meet strict conditions if they are to open.

The first batch of 135 hair salons were allowed to resume business this week in Shanghai, according to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, but they also have to abide by probably the strictest instructions ever for a hair salon.

Per the guidelines, the reopened hair salons are only allowed to give haircuts, which means customers in the hope of having more detailed services, such as hair dye or perm, will need to wait for a longer time.

The move is aimed at preventing a customer from staying in the salon for too long.

Moreover, all the reopened hair salons have to be larger than 20 square meters, with each seat covering a space of at least nine square meters, so that the salons won't get too crowded.

The instruction also has a clear requirement on sterilization. The frequency increases in direct proportion to the personnel density. For instance, if there are less than 10 persons in a public area of 100 square meters, the area should be sterilized every eight hours, but if there are more than 40 people crowded in the same area, then it has to be sterilized every one hour.

Meanwhile, the reopened hair salons should keep only one available entrance, and every one entered has to have their temperatures taken.

Furthermore, every customer need to make a reservation through phone call or WeChat, and only one customer is allowed to receive the haircut service at a certain period of time.

The salons should also prepare prevention measures and materials, such as facemasks and sterilizing materials, and the hairdressers are suggested to avoid conversation with the customer as much as possible.

About a week ago, a total of 105 hair salons reopened for public in Beijing after they complied with similar instructions: being reservation only and taking sterilization related measures. Most of the salons opened in Beijing are chain stores, and the tools used for haircut need to be sterilized every time a new customer comes in.

But there are people who can not wait for the salons to reopen – they are helping themselves with a pair of scissors or seeking help from family and friends.

Some of them succeeded, while others will have to live with their disastrous new hairstyle for a while.

Cover image designing: Qu Bo