Toronto hair salon owners are tired of waiting to reopen and many have started to speak out.

Salon owners have watched as the province allowed massage therapists and retail stores to reopen while leaving the stylists in the lurch.

“We don’t have the patience to wait anymore,” said Henry Lam, who owns Nouveau Hair Gallery in Thornhill.

Yorkville hairstylist Norm Wright started a petition to get salons reopened.

In five days the petition had nearly 15,000 signatures. There is also Facebook page dedicated to getting salons back open.

Lam told blogTO he thinks many people are getting black market haircuts and it would be safer to have guidelines in place to get salons opened.

“My opinion is closing the hair salons doesn’t really help the COVID situation,” he said.

Lam is so upset he wrote a blog post on his website saying salons can be very safe if proper protective measures are in place.

Roncesvalles stylist Paul Syme of Babs & Lou agrees.

“I mean we are trained to prevent disease infection — it is part of our job,” Syme told blogTO.

Syme said he wonders why salons are still closed when he hears about patios possibly opening and long lines at retail stores.

“Three months later my income has dried up and I am looking at what else is able to reopen and it is not making sense to me knowing that we have got these safety protocols in place,” Syme said.

Syme said he hears from clients daily wanting to get back in for a haircut. He has all the protective equipment he needs and the salon has enough space for physical distancing.

“It is really frustrating to see how this has been handled,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lam admits he still sees desperate customers.

“I have professional clients — they need to look neat. They can’t look like sheep dog like Doug Ford,” Lam said.

Those in need of a haircut may not have much longer to wait —salon owners were told to get ready to reopen in Toronto.