Medeiros Barber Shop Opens

Senior Ripon barber Gary Medeiros and son Troy were quick to open their downtown “family” shop to their faithful customers on an invitation basis only some eight hours after Governor Gavin Newsom’s Tuesday morning order to allow barber shops and women’s styling businesses to open their doors.

The governor’s order came with caution on just how the shops would open their doors with proper sanitation and guarded social distancing in the process to protect their customers from any possible contagion.

Former Ripon city councilman Mark Winchell was one of the first to sit in Gary’s chair at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening May 26. The father and son barbers had gone without income for over two months and were the focus of their concerned customers, many of whom had prepaid their haircuts or who made donations to help the popular barbering duo in paying their bills.

Following Winchell was a young boy about 10 years old whose hair was obviously in need of a barber’s clippers.

The Medeiros team made it clear that they were NOT open for the general public until next week and were only in an invitation mode for their customers who had been calling on the phone to check on them and asking when they might be open. Wednesday evening they cut hair from 6 until 9 p.m. by invitation only related to the phone calls received over the last two months.

The Friends Hair Salon team on West Main Street was answering their phones and taking reservations for women’s hair cuts and styling, promising to call back when they had an opening with one of their many stylists.