Piercings, haircuts and malls: Brantford enters Stage 2 of COVID-19 plan

When Trish Ellis walked into the Lydnen Park Mall in Brantford, Ont., she was hoping it would be "back to normal."

With Brantford entering Stage 2 of Ontario's plan to lift COVID-19 restrictions, Ellis imagined entering a lobby full of other shoppers, all ready to wander, browse and forget about the pandemic that has kept malls and most other businesses closed for months.

Instead, she was greeted by a security guard behind a glass pane in an empty entranceway, asking exactly what store she wanted to visit.

The shops Ellis wanted were open, but the path to them was blocked off. She was given a map and told to to try a different mall entrance.

"You have to go outside and go to the other side and drive around to get to the other stores, it just doesn't make sense," she lamented. "It's very different."

Her friend, Tammy Curtis isn't sure why they even bothered.

"Nothing's open, so what's the point of going?" she told CBC News.

While residents in Hamilton wait for their turn to begin re-entering malls, visiting barbers and watching movies in theatres, Brantford residents say even with those liberties, life still doesn't feel normal.

Some of the rules don't make sense to Curtis and Ellis. While they support a slow re-opening, they wonder why a mall and its stores are far more restrictive than a large store like Walmart.

Angela Kent, who works at Total Beauty in the mall, said while the mall has an eerily different feel to it, she's excited to start seeing clients again — some of whom may not be locals.

"I have clients who are from Hamilton, Burlington, Toronto, they're going to come and Brantford is welcoming them," she told CBC News.

"It scares me a bit because they're from hotspots, but they're welcome and we can't stop them from coming."

It's not as scary for Richard Wright, the owner of Wright Cut Hair Cutters, a street level shop in the city's core — but it is busy.

"The phone has been ringing off the hook, we're booked up until Wednesday," he said.

Joel Goodacre tried to get an early haircut with Wright, but joins the unlucky ones who need to wait until Wednesday.

 "I can't do it the way he does it," Goodacre said of Wright.

Cindy Edwards and Brianna Bartosek couldn't wait for the restrictions to ease.

The first place they headed to was Black Line Design Tatto and Body Piercing — they were lucky enough to be at the front of the line of people also awaiting fresh ink and piercings.

"It feels good to be able to come in and everybody else is enjoying themselves," Edwards said.

She got her nose and septum pierced. Her daughter got a belly button piercing. 

Just down the street Virat Choudhary and his girlfriend visited a hairstylist and stopped to get food from a local burger joint.

Now, they're mapping out their first date since the pandemic began.

"We're going to a movie and a dinner date," Choudhary said. "We're very excited."

There are 7 active cases of COVID-19 in Brantford and Brant County.