A hairdresser and stylist at a popular New York salon said he has been forced to close his business due to Trump’s executive order barring foreign nationals from entering the United States.
Michael Smith, a longtime hair stylist in Brooklyn, said his hair is now on sale for $50,000.
He has not heard from Trump administration officials or other government agencies about the decision, which Smith said he did not know about until he received an email from the New York State Department of Health on Monday.
Smith, who was born in Jamaica and came to the United State as a teenager, said he had not heard anything about the executive order until he saw the tweet.
“I don’t think they were going to say anything,” he said.
“It’s been a nightmare.”
The department confirmed that Smith had been asked to cease his business.
The department’s tweet said that the salon’s license was revoked because it did not meet a “specific and meaningful requirement” to provide safe and clean hair.
The hair salon’s director, Scott Riggs, said the order was the “most extreme example of executive action that the Trump administration has taken,” but that Smith and other hairdresses are not a priority for the agency.
Riggs said the state has been asking for a ban on foreign visitors since May.
“We have been looking at ways to stay in business, but they just don’t work,” he told The Associated Press.
“There’s a lot of people here and we have a lot more business than we have people coming in.”
Smith, the owner of the Brooklyn Hair Salon and Barbershop, said in a statement that he has not received any updates from the state department about the matter.
“As the owner, I have no say in what happens in New York, and I am thankful for the many opportunities that have been given to me to do my job,” Smith said.
Smith’s hair is on sale now for $500,000, but he said he will not stop working and hopes to reopen by the end of March.
“The only reason why we don’t have anything in the back is because I don’t know if Trump is going to do anything, and if he does, I’m not sure I want to open again,” Smith told the AP.
“If I’m open, people are going to go through me.”
The New York City hairdryers union, which represents Smith, called on the Trump White House to “come up with some real solutions to this problem.”
The union has been working with Smith to try to keep his salon open.
“Hair is the backbone of our business and we’re very happy to continue to offer it to our customers,” Smith’s chief executive officer, Mike O’Malley, told The New Yorker magazine in June.
“At this time, we are not shutting down, but we do not have the ability to offer the level of service and care that we do, and that’s the only reason we are closing.”
The Trump administration said on Friday it had no immediate comment on the salon closure.
The Trump Administration has not responded to requests for comment.
