The owner of eSalon in San Francisco, Calif., said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used her salon Monday to get a wash and blow-out, even though the shop has been closed for months due to coronavirus restrictions.

Pelosi can be seen on a security camera walking through the salon with wet hair. She was not wearing a mask. 

Erica Kious told Fox News Tuesday that independent stylists were renting chairs in her salon. “One of the stylists who rents a chair from me contacted me Sunday night.” The stylist sent Kious a text that said, “I’ll be there at 2:45 tomorrow. Pelosi assistant just messaged me to do her hair.” Kious replied, “Pelosi?”

“I was like, are you kidding me right now? Do I let this happen? What do I do?” She explained that she can’t control what her stylists do. But she does consider Pelosi’s actions a double standard. 

“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious said. She added that she “can’t believe” the speaker wasn’t wearing a mask. She said it was “disturbing.”

In addition, local rules state that hair salons can’t “blow dry hair,” because of safety issues with the virus. “We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t — it’s a feeling — a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down.” Kious worked 12 years to build her business and has been fighting for six months to reopen it. “I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income. … The fact that they did this, and she came in, it’s like a slap in the face.”

Salons in San Francisco were notified that they could reopen September 1 for services to be performed outside only. Kious could not reopen her business because her salon uses chemicals and using chemicals outside is not allowed. 

“This is for everybody,” she said. “I am sharing this because of what everyone in my industry, and my city, what every small business is going through right now.” 

Although Kious received a $12,000 Paycheck Protection Program loan because of coronavirus, she will still be forced to close her salon permanently. “No one can last anymore. I have also lost 60 percent of my clientele because everyone is fleeing the city.”

Other shops in her area are closing too. “Every other storefront is completely vacant and shut down and boarded up. … And because of the shutdown, and the store closures, we’ve lost people, my clients, and my employees, and that is due to the politics in San Francisco.” She went on to say that the homeless population is all over and defecating everywhere.

“It has gotten so extreme. It is so night and day from what it was a year ago that everyone is fleeing.”

Nancy Flory is an associate editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.