Downtown Canby has lost its first business to the coronavirus pandemic. Salon L, a hair salon and beauty shop located next to 4:8 Financial on NW 1st Avenue, announced on its Facebook page Monday that it would be closing its doors permanently.
The post by owner Lizzy Morris does not directly attribute the salon’s closure to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis, but simply said it was due to circumstances outside her control. All salons have been temporarily closed for almost a month by order of Governor Kate Brown, because of stylists’ and hair dressers’ inability to maintain six feet of social distance from their clients.
“Closing was not in my plan, but also not something I felt I could control,” Morris said. “I’ve learned a lot over the past 7 1/2 years and created memories I will cherish for a lifetime. Salon L was my family outside of my kids & hubby. Thank you for everyone that supported us and know it meant the world to me.”
Morris opened the salon in downtown Canby in September 2012. She still remembers signing her first lease, which she asked to be for only one year, “just in case I failed.”
“I signed that lease with no stylists and no idea how to run a salon,” she wrote. “By the day I opened, I had three stylists and still no idea how to run a salon.”
But she didn’t fail. Her business thrived, adding new stylists over the years and even a tattoo parlor. That added an interesting element, with shirtless men sometimes walking through the beauty shop.
“My theory was always do the right thing even if I was the only one doing it,” Morris said. “I wanted a space that anyone could walk into and feel accepted. To me, it didn’t matter if you just came off working on the farm or the CEO of a company. Inside Salon L, everyone was going to find kindness.”
Morris said she will leave the salon’s Facebook page active so clients can check in on where their stylists will be working, once they’re allowed to work again.
