For some, the prospect of reopening their stores after months in wait came as welcome news.
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But for Teagan Wing, last week's announcement about the roadmap to reopening only brought more headaches.
The owner and manager of Studio Desire Hair Design is one of thousands calling on the government to amend its reopening rules for the hair and beauty industry.
Once Orange is out of lockdown, be that from the state reaching its 70 per cent double-vaxxed mark or otherwise, businesses classed as 'non-essential' will be free to open once more. This includes Ms Wing's studio in Kite Street.
But although places like pubs and gyms will only have to adhere to the one person per four square metre rule, Ms Wing's business can only have a maximum of five clients, regardless of its size.
"To find out that they've put the cap, it just means you're limited to how many staff you can bring back to work," she said.
"I've got six staff and each staff member does two clients, so we can really only have two staff working."
The square metre rule is far from foreign to Ms Wing who said she and others in the industry are more than happy to abide by it.
She has even spent money on opening up extra rooms to make sure they can operate in a COVID-safe environment.
But she believes there is a double-standard with how the government has implemented its cap at five people, which is less than half the number of clients the Orange hair studio could normally see at a time.
"All we're asking as hairdressers is to have a fair go. You've got gyms that can open up to as many people as they can with the square metre rule and pubs can open fully up and they're only restricted to the square metre rule," she said.
"It doesn't make sense. In a hair salon, you don't have clients moving around.
"When they leave we're sanitising everything that they touch, every client gets a brand new gown and cape that's washed and sanitised. We're constantly cleaning where they can't guarantee that in a gym or a pub that the areas will be clean so there isn't transmission."
Ms Wing and her staff are still trying to wrap their heads around it and hope that the government changes its mind before their reopening date, whenever that may be.
"There's no guarantee on anything. It's just a constant change," she said.
"We're trying to get this lifted before we open back up, otherwise we have to think of ideas like moving clients outside, but then the weather here in Orange isn't realistic, it's not practical for any salon in any NSW town. It's been hard enough already."
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