Salon Goes Out of Business After Clash with Pelosi: 'I'm Actually Afraid To Go Back'
The owner of the salon at the center of the controversy surrounding House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s August hair treatment says her salon has officially gone under.
Erica Kious, the owner of eSalon in the city where she has lived for 15 years, told Fox News host Tucker Carlson Wednesday that her business has closed permanently.
The closure comes after Pelosi visited the salon on Aug. 31, before salons in San Francisco were permitted to begin seeing customers.
Pelosi was filmed inside the salon not wearing a mask, but later blamed the scandal on the salon.
Kious explained to Carlson how the controversy has affected her life.
“I started to just get a ton of phone calls, text messages, emails, all my Yelp reviews saying that they hope I go under and that I fail,” she said. “So just a lot of negativity towards my business.”
“I am actually done in San Francisco and closing my doors, unfortunately,” Kious added.
Kious also stated that she is hesitant to return to San Francisco.
“I’m actually afraid to go back, just because of the messages and emails I’ve been getting,” she said. “It’s a little scary and sad.”
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“I do have a lot of positive calls and text messages from clients,” she added. “But other than that, nothing but negativity.”
The salon owner won’t leave Pelosi’s district empty-handed, though.
A GoFundMe campaign to help her recover financially has raised more than $336,000.
Kious shared the video of Pelosi’s visit to her closed salon with Fox News last week and told the outlet that the California Democrat’s visit was insulting, as Pelosi requested a hair blowout from a stylist who rented a chair in her salon.
Nancy Pelosi gets hair done at SF salon in spite of COVID-19 rules https://t.co/chtv2Bb6tu pic.twitter.com/riulDD2hdl
— New York Post (@nypost) September 1, 2020
The visit came as the salon was still ordered closed, as salons in the city were shuttered for six months amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious told Fox News at the time.
When Pelosi responded to being filmed in the salon without a mask over her face, she blamed the business.
“This salon owes me an apology,” Pelosi said, according to KTVU-TV.
Pelosi also claimed the salon visit was “a setup.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
