Politics

Nancy Pelosi Criticized for Indoor Hair Appointment — Against Local Coronavirus Guidelines

"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," Pelosi's spokesman said

By

Georgia Slater

Published on September 2, 2020 01:41 PM

Nancy Pelosi hair salon — Nancy Pelosi. Photo: Fox news

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi drew backlash this week after having an indoor appointment at a San Francisco hair salon, a service that is prohibited by the local coronavirus guidelines.

Security footage obtained by Fox News shows Pelosi walking through eSalonSF with wet hair and her face covering around her neck. Someone wearing a face mask follows behind her.

According to Fox News, the video was timestamped Monday at 3:08 p.m. — one day before salons in San Francisco were allowed to reopen for outdoor hairstyling services, according to guidelines from the city's Department of Public Health.

Local guidelines state that on Tuesday, services such as haircuts may be performed outdoors, while shampooing and "chemical hair series" such as coloring and straightening are still prohibited.

The guidelines also say "personal service providers [like salons] may not perform any services that requires their customer to remove their face covering." (State recommendations are more lax.)

Pelosi, a leading Democrat and critic of the Trump administration's much-scrutinized coronavirus strategy, was slammed as a hypocrite for her hair appointment — including by the salon's owner.

Erica Kious told Fox News that a stylist who rents a chair at her eSalonSF had contacted her Sunday night with word that Pelosi, 80, wanted to come in for a wash and a blow-dry.

"We have been shut down for so long," Kious told Fox News, adding that it was "a slap in the face" to allow Pelosi to receive such services while other businesses remain closed.

It was unclear why Kious permitted the appointment, though she told Fox News: "I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen? What do I do?” She told Fox she "can’t control” the independents stylists who rent space in the salon.

(A representative for eSalonSF did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment; the salon shares a nearly identical name with an unrelated hair coloring service, eSalon.)

Kious told Fox News that the stylist washed Pelosi's hair and gave her a blow-dry.

"The Beauty Parlor owner must really dislike Crazy Nancy Pelosi," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. "Turning her in, on tape, is a really big deal."

A spokesman for Pelosi, Drew Hammill, says she wore a mask for her visit but briefly took it off while her hair was being washed.

"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," Hamill said in a statement. "The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment."

Pelosi has previously slammed Trump for his own reluctance to wear a mask, recently calling him out for having an audience of mostly mask-less attendees at the Republican National Convention.

During an appearance on MSNBC on Monday, she said that the president "slapped science right in the face" for not requiring face masks during his RNC acceptance speech.

• With reporting by ADAM CARLSON

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