Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was jailed this week for defying the county’s stay-at-home order when she opened up her business, joined Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night, where she got an unexpected surprise.
After describing the situation with the Democrat activist judge who ordered her to serve a week in jail and pay a $7,000 fine, Luther said that she opened her business because she was behind on her mortgage and her stylists were also struggling to make ends meet.
“I’m two months behind on my mortgage and my stylists were telling me that they wanted to, you know, what do you think if I do underground and go to people’s houses?” Luther said. “And I just said, you know, that’s not a good idea because we can’t control the environment there. We don’t know if it’s been disinfected or anything like that. And I just decided I would open to create a safe place for the stylists, and to make sure I wasn’t the reason they weren’t making money.”
“We tried to use the gloves at first and that’s kind of hard for the hair stylists,” Luther continued. “The nail techs of course did, but we made sure that I had no clients waiting inside the salon at all. So I had chairs six feet apart outside of the salon so we had no one waiting, and when a stylist was ready, wearing a mask of course, didn’t let any clients come in without a mask. They instantly sanitized their hands. The hair stylists sanitized their hands and they came in, they did the cut and that person left. And so there were no magazines and there were no drinks. And of course everybody had to wear a mask to come in.”
A few moments later, Hannity told Luther that he was going to be making a donation to her shop because he wanted her and her employees to be able to make it through the economic crisis.
Video and transcript below:
TRANSCRIPT:
SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: Shelley Luther, thank God you’re free. How are you doing?
SHELLEY LUTHER, SALON A LA MODE OWNER: I’m doing a lot better now. Thank you so much.
HANNITY: When the judge said to apologize, we had your boyfriend on last night. So it reminded me of William Wallace in “Braveheart”. The prisoner would like to speak a word. You need to apologize — what where you thinking when he said you need to apologize to the politicians. I was like, what?
LUTHER: I don’t — I think he was referring to Clay Jenkins, the, you know, county commissioner. That was the last thing I was going to do honestly because the way that he has acted during this entire thing is just ridiculous. So I — I just couldn’t — I couldn’t bring myself to apologize.
HANNITY: A good — I admire your courage. How was jail? I’m sure it wasn’t pleasant. And I heard there’s corona virus in that jail.
LUTHER: It’s definitely not pleasant but fortunately I had a cell by myself. It had a rec area that had other individuals in there. The worst thing was that I didn’t get to call anybody when I got there the whole first night and that’s kind of scary because I have, you know, a daughter that just turned 17 at home. And if my boyfriend wasn’t there to tell, you know, talk to her or anything she — I wouldn’t have come home and she wouldn’t have known where I was.
HANNITY: That’s pretty scary. Tell us why you decided to open? And what measures for safety did you take?
LUTHER: Well, it wasn’t, I mean, we were shutdown March 22nd so it had been several weeks that, you know, the government was kind of telling us the money was coming and the — actually the Dallas County Judge — Clay Jenkins kept pushing back the date of when we would open. Weeks out in advance before even hearing any new comings of what was going on with masks or whatever and when he finally pushed it back a final time I just said — I just woke up one day and I said, I have to open. My stylists are calling me. They’re not making their mortgage. I was — at — right now I still am not caught up.
I’m two months behind on my mortgage and my stylists were telling me that they wanted to, you know, what do you think if I do underground and go to people’s houses? And I just said, you know, that’s not a good idea because we can’t control the environment there. We don’t know if it’s been disinfected or anything like that and I just decided I would open to create a safe place for the stylists. And to make sure I wasn’t the reason they weren’t making money.
HANNITY: Which I had heard you did. This thing is real. I’m in New York. I see this from a different perspective. What we — when you opened were you all wearing masks? Are you planning to wear masks? How do you plan on doing it? But as I saw, like, I was actually impressed with Georgia they have this nail salons. They have this plexiglass, everyone’s in masks and gloves. You were using all that I heard.
LUTHER: Yes. Yes — we weren’t using — we tried to use the gloves at first and that’s kind of hard for the hair stylists. The nail techs of course did but we made sure that I had no clients waiting inside the salon at all. So I had chairs six feet apart outside of the salon so we had no one waiting and when a stylist was ready, wearing a mask of course, didn’t let any clients come in without a mask. They instantly sanitized their hands. The hair stylists sanitized their hands and they came in, they did the cut and that person left. And so —
HANNITY: With a mask on I understand —
LUTHER: — there were no magazines and there were no drinks. And of course everybody had to wear a mask to come in.
HANNITY: How many people work for you?
LUTHER: They don’t work for me but I usually have about 19 stylists in there at a time.
HANNITY: I’m going to make a donation to your shop. I want you and your workers to at least get over the hump. You can pass that on to our producers. I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m glad you’re free and we’re praying that every business can open safely soon. And you showed a lot of courage, you’re an inspiration. Thank you.
LUTHER: Thank you so much.
HANNITY: More Hannity after this.
LUTHER: I really appreciate it.
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