At Mirror Image Barber on Dock Street, Russell Corbett said customers had been calling all week to try and book an appointment. Corbett said he planned to stay open later than usual Saturday.
Queen Street Barbershop owner Hayden Mingus said his Cargo District shop is booked solid. The store has plans to keep normal business hours to not burn out any barbers, Mingus said.
After two months closed, Mingus said he'd seen several unkept hairstyles on opening day. "A lot of do-it-yourself haircuts; pretty funny," he said. Mingus said it's a huge relief to be working again. "Amazing. It feels great," he said.
Barber Ben Jones said the shop was busy on opening day, and he's happy to be back at work. "This mask is on the steamy-side," he said.
"We both work in public health, and this Covid is serious [stuff]." -Roy Ippolito
For two months, Miracle Dixon attempted to do her own nails. "It was horrendous," she said. "But it kept me from having just nubs when I got here."
At Grand Nails salon in The Pointe, every station is now equipped with a plexiglass shield. "I'm excited that they've done, it looks like, everything to make you feel comfortable," Dixon said.
At Nail Tech in Pine Valley, owner Paul Nguyen joked he had been out of work so long that he had started to lose his touch. "I forgot what I'm doing -- been out for two months. I used to do it when I could sleep, but now I have to open my eyes to do it," he said.
One of his customers, Joanna Puritz, patiently waited for her turn with a half-grown out gel manicure as Vivan Rossignol had her nails attended to. "My nails are such a mess," Rossignol said. "But you know what, you have to think with all the other stuff that's going around, you're worried about your nails. It's a vain thing. I admit to it."
A booth away, Cindy Kuhne was getting her nails done while her pedicure dried. "Jessica is my favorite. Jessica is my girl," Kuhne said of her nail technician, Jessica Nguyen.
While bands began performing live at restaurants again, Jordan Sutherland from local folk rock band Tumbleweed continued his tradition of walking around the Carolina Place neighborhood, guitar strap slung around his neck, playing music with a featured artist. On Saturday afternoon, was playing with Mark Jackson from The Caroliners.
A week earlier, Sutherland was singing a few blocks to the east with members of his own band, Amanda King and McKay Glasgow. A group of residents gathered near Metts Avenue, holding beer koozies while listening to the spontaneous roadside show.
"People need live music," Sutherland said. "And I need to play, too, so why not travel around and see what the people of the neighborhood want to hear and where they want us to go? We try to do two or three songs per household -- sometimes cover songs that they request, and a lot of times I do originals."
After two months of holding online services, Greg Stapleton, an associate pastor at City Life Church on Castle Street, said online services couldn't compare to bringing everyone together under one roof.
"It feels amazing to be able to come together and pray with one another and worship," Stapleton said. "We've been getting together at our house, doing services online. But it's just not the same as being with the people, being able to pray with them. And coming together in unity."
But he said the first service held at the church in months came with certain precautions: the front lobby was closed to social gathering, hand sanitizer bottles were placed throughout the space, and only families were able to sit closer than six feet to each other during the service.
However, many Wilmington-area churches remained closed, continuing online services that have become popular since the governor's stay-at-home order was implemented mid-March.
Meanwhile, most breweries in Wilmington that don't run kitchens remained closed. At Wrightsville Beach Brewery, tables outside were occupied by people happily drinking outside of their homes again.
"From what I've heard, at Friday at 5pm it looked like a wall of zombies walking up like it was the apocalypse. People were dying to come out, ready to go. -Wrightsville Beach Brewery bartender Hannah Soper
Hannah Soper, a bartender at the brewery, said most employees were not furloughed during the shutdown.
"We turned the dining room into a grocery store where customers could pick up groceries on certain days of the week," Soper said. "If you think about it, you're sitting on a bunch of dry goods stuck back in the kitchen. What's the best way to get rid of those dry goods?"
According to Soper, owner Jud Watkins decided to retain most of his employees while selling unused dry goods at discounted prices during a time when the national food supply was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. When the brewery finally opened up again to dine-in customers, she said the regulars came in hoards.
"From what I've heard, at Friday at 5pm it looked like a wall of zombies walking up like it was the apocalypse. People were dying to come out, ready to go," Soper said.
Just after the governor's Phase 2 took effect early Friday evening, allowing restaurants to reopen to dine-in customers, downtown Wilmington was suddenly busy again. The sidewalks were filled with friends and families milling around as musicians played outside bars and in restaurants. Couples sipped wine and ate their dinners on wrought iron balconies overlooking the Cape Fear River.
Tony Peele was standing outside his clothing and merchandise shop, Swahili Coast, early Friday evening wearing a face mask hand-sewn by Tanzanians. He had to shut down his Wilmington retail stores in mid-March, and his wholesale sales also suffered.
"We sell to other retails around the country, and because everybody else is closed too, we saw our revenue go to zero. It's starting to pick back up a little bit," Peele said.
Peele said he appreciates the customers respecting the company policy to wear face masks while inside the store.
At a cooperative he helps run in Tanzania, he has bought a few more sewing machines to begin making face masks using East African fabric. With every mask sold in the U.S., another is given to a Tanzanian, he said.
"There's not a whole lot of money to be made in masks. But it's still revenue; it still keeps our folks over there having money coming in," he said. "We're a small company. We gotta do whatever we can in these wild times."
Credits:
Johanna F. Still, Mark Darrough