UPDATE: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

PS celebrates and supports yesterday’s updated guidance from the CDC regarding “Communal Activities within a healthcare setting.” As the CDC states going forward:

• Group Activities
  • "If all patients/residents participating in the activity are fully vaccinated, then they may choose to have close contact and to not wear source control during the activity"
• Communal Dining
  • "If all patients/residents participating in the activity are fully vaccinated, then they may choose to have close contact and to not wear source control during the activity"

We look forward to continuing working closely with our community partners and incorporating this new CDC guidance into our daily salon operations. Our salon professionals will continue to follow the PS Salon & Spa ACCORD – Salon Reopening Plan and our strict surface cleaning, infection-control and hygiene protocols. With that, all vaccinated residents should enjoy the same, now-expanded individual and group access to our salons as they have for Group Activities and Communal Dining.

Our Team of 1,500 Field Leaders and Salon Professionals is excited to continue supporting all of our community partners, residents and families moving forward. We are all STILL in this together!

Thank you!

Since 2008, PS Salon & Spa has delivered over 6.9 Million professional and licensed salon services to hundreds of thousands of senior community residents nationwide. As with all our peers who work within the senior living industry, we have observed with awe the inspiring levels of compassion and service which senior community teams have provided to their residents and families during this COVID-19 pandemic. PS applauds every one of our Partners for their heroic efforts!

Today, we celebrate the fact that COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out to seniors and healthcare workers across the country; with every dose administered, we all move one step closer to bringing this pandemic under control! As good and welcome as that news is, however, we know from experience that none of us who support the Care Continuum of Seniors can let our guard down now. To that end, PS has updated our ACCORD plan with all of the information and education we’ve learned over the last year while successfully operating within COVID’s guidelines and regulations.

As has been the case since March 2020 when we first published this guidance, the ACCORD continues to be our 3-Step plan to reopen AND safely operate senior community salons during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. PS Salon & Spa has always operated in strict accordance with state and local law, leveraging our operating leadership’s 700+ years of industry experience to set the standard for salons in senior living.

The ACCORD 3-Step plan builds upon our existing protocols for salon hygiene, sanitation and infection control and incorporates recent COVID-19-specific guidance. PS Salon & Spa would like to thank each of the following organizations for making information available:

• BARBICIDE® / King Research
• Marlo Beauty Supply
• John Paul Mitchell Systems
• International Spa Association
• Ohio State Cosmetology and Barber Board
• Nevada State Board of Cosmetology
• CA State Board of Barbering and Cosmetology
• Professional Beauty Association
• Graham Company®
• LeadingAge®
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
• Occupational Safety and Health Assn (OSHA)

The 1,500+ Team Members of PS Salon & Spa are grateful for the opportunity to continue supporting the safety, comfort and well-being of our senior customers and their families and caregivers. We were still able to deliver over 640K services to more than 116K residents during the shortened and disrupted year of 2020; we look forward to welcoming all of our customers back to our ‘chairs’ throughout 2021!

We’re now halfway through April and going on as many as 3-4 weeks since we’ve last seen each other, and we hope this note finds all of you and everyone connected to your communities well and in good health. We continue to observe with awe the inspiring levels of compassion and service your dedicated team members are providing to your residents and families during this COVID-19 pandemic. If there is anything which PS can do in support of your needs at this time, please let us know.

Here at PS, our teams across the country are staying connected, participating in advanced infection control training, and trying to ‘keep it light’ as we ride out this temporary shutdown. While we’re getting pretty good at hosting entertaining Zoom events online, we also find that virtual social experiences cannot replace the personal interactions we miss with our resident clients the country over. We know that the feeling is mutual too, as many of our PS Pros are in contact with their resident clients – and the support they’re expressing for each other is wonderful to see!

Hopefully the coming weeks will bring enough confidence for some states to allow for a (likely gradual) safe re-opening of salons. As that begins to occur, we look forward to reconnecting with each of our community Partners and planning the re-opening process. If / as you have any thoughts or questions around salon re-openings, please reach out to us so we can collaborate on the best and safest execution possible for everyone.

Lastly, please know that PS is available to step in and help in locations where we did not currently operate if you find that current salon contractors are either unable to return, or unable to satisfy the potential resource or other operational challenges presented in the post-COVID-19 environment. Nationwide, PS is preparing to ‘be prepared and flexible’ as and when needed, and we’re putting all of our human, technology and capital resources in motion to support our Partners and the broader senior living industry accordingly.

Wishing everyone stays safe and healthy. We look forward to hearing from you, so please either reach out to your local PS District Leaders or Regional Leader, or to me directly at johnpolatz@pslifestyle.com

It has been nine days since the federal government first announced national COVID-19 guidelines, and we want to commend all of our community partners for their inspiring demonstrations of dedication and devotion to their residents and families. Your teams are displaying to the entire world what it means to genuinely serve our senior population, and all of us at PS applaud and support your heroic efforts!

Many states, local counties and cities around the country have now issued various orders requiring businesses which provide nonessential services to temporarily cease operations. In the interest of everyone’s health, wellness and safety, PS is, of course, complying with every order to its fullest extent, and we will continue to monitor all amendments or updates to those orders accordingly. As soon as we are authorized to begin our operations again, we will immediately communicate and organize with each of our Community Partners.

Please know that our national operations and leadership teams across the country continue to work (from home!) on your behalf, making use of the downtime to further enhance our operational preparedness by completing advanced, online infection control and sanitation awareness courses.

Our 1,500+ PS Professional salon team members miss your residents, and they are posting messages to them on our PS social media sites! Please visit us on Facebook and LinkedIn and find a message tagged for your community’s residents!

Thank you for your attention! We welcome having dialogue with or receiving questions from you, so please reach out either to your local PS District Leader or Regional Leader, or to me directly at johnpolatz@pslifestyle.com.

We appreciate your partnership and wish you well as we all do our part to halt the spread of COVID-19.

Kind Regards,

The health, safety and comfort of our customers and our employees will always be our highest priority at PS Salon & Spa. As a well-resourced and nationally-supported salon company, we want to reassure all of our senior community partners across the country that maintaining safe, clean and hygienic salon operations for your residents, families and staff will always be a natural part of our daily routine. Our leadership is confident that PS is well-prepared to continue supporting all of our community partners throughout this process, as we have the systems, the people and the expertise in place across our national network.

We will continue to closely monitor this situation, adapting and responding to new and relevant information as it becomes available. We are working diligently behind the scenes with all of PS Pros to ensure that everyone is supported and is ready to step back in to service the residents at the over 1,000 salons we serve.

In the meantime, we would welcome having dialogue with or receiving questions from you, so please reach out to me directly (johnpolatz@pslifestyle.com) or via our social media channels. We will also continue to post updates to our website as well.

As a company, a culture and a partner, we believe we are going to come out the other side of this situation stronger than ever, with more opportunities available to all of us.

Thank you!

All of us at PS Lifestyle are #psproud to walk in lockstep with our #seniorliving partners throughout this evolving #coronavirus situation. We're now adding #covid19 online training and education courses to our already industry-leading salon and spa infection control, sanitation and hygiene protocols. Continued investment in awareness and best practices will only lead to better outcomes for all of us and, most importantly, our #seniors clients. Good luck to everyone - we're all going to come out of this stronger on the other side!

The health, safety and comfort of our customers and our employees will always be our highest priority at PS Salon & Spa. As a well-resourced and nationally-supported salon company, we want to reassure all of our senior community partners across the country that maintaining safe, clean and hygienic salon operations for your residents, families and staff continues to be a natural part of our daily routine. Our leadership is confident that PS is well-prepared to continue supporting all of our community partners throughout this process, as we have the systems, the people and the expertise in place across our national network.

Our field-based and home-office leadership teams are monitoring and assessing the evolving situation around the COVID-19 virus in real-time, and we are taking extra precautions as necessary and in concert with our individual community partners accordingly. Some of these actions include, but are not limited to:

• Complying with enhanced health screening protocols
• Asking PS employees to stay home if they feel sick or are showing symptoms
• Restricting and limiting travel to, from and within areas affected by COVID-19
• Continually restocking/resupplying all salons with the same licensing-required disinfection, sanitation and cleaning products that have always been a part of our salon supplies

Fortunately, at PS we also have many state (healthcare/cosmetology) agency regulations and commercial salon industry best practices related to cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing salons already codified and maintained in our operating protocols. Our PS Professional employees have always been supported with ongoing, required training in each area, as well as provided the tools, environmental-awareness and most effective products necessary to meet and exceed each state’s board of cosmetology requirements in infection control, hygiene and sanitation.

Resources always available to our PS Pros include:

• Workplace safety and cosmetology rules and regulations training and documentation
• State-specific cosmetology rules posted in our salons (where applicable by state)
• Our partner, Marlo Beauty, a market leader in product and equipment distribution, provides our teams with specific product use guidelines and training
• Informed, credible sources of public health information such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Additional, basic hygiene best practices followed by all of our salons including:

• Wiping down surfaces on our salon shampoo/styling chairs, manicure / pedicure chairs and tables, POS platforms, etc. with our Barbicide/disinfectant wipes after each service performed
• Regularly and thoroughly cleaning of hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or washing with soap and water
• Coughing or sneezing into an elbow or a tissue (discarding tissue immediately)
• Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth

Rest assured that we will continue to closely monitor this situation, adapting and responding to new and relevant information as it becomes available. In the meantime, we would welcome having dialogue with or receiving questions from you, so please reach out either to your local PS District Leader or Regional Leader, or to me directly (johnpolatz@pslifestyle.com).

Thank you!