Shelley Luther: the unlikely face of America’s COVID-19 divide about how to safely reopen the country

Hairdresser, dog-owner and musician Shelley Luther isn’t your average political figure but she has become the face of America’s divide about how to safely reopen the country.

Hairdresser, dog-owner and musician Shelley Luther is an unlikely political hero.

But when she was jailed after refusing to close the doors of her Dallas shop, Salon á la Mode, Luther became the face of America’s divide about how to safely reopen.

Until she was freed by an executive order from Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Friday, the mum-of-two was set to spend Mother’s Day and her 47th birthday in Dallas County Jail.

AShelley Luther wears a mask as she opens the door for a visitor to enter her just reopened Salon A la Mode in Dallas. Picture: AP

“Throwing Texans in jail who have had their businesses shut down through no fault of their own is nonsensical, and I will not allow it to happen,” Abbott said, after Luther had spent two days in the lockup.

Before she was sentenced, Luther was given three choices by an overzealous judge: to apologise, pay a fine or go to jail for a week.

“Feeding my kids is not selfish,” Luther said in court, addressing the judge who was ordering her to cease cutting hair.

Kate Lockhart (l), her mother, Julia Lockhart, and Kristi Lisenbee gather with other protesters to call for the release of jailed salon owner Shelley Luther in front of the Dallas Municipal Court building in downtown Dallas. Picture: Lynda M. Gonzalez/The Dallas Morning News via AP

Shelley Luther has many supporters. Picture: Lynda M. Gonzalez/The Dallas Morning News via AP

“I have hairstylists that are going hungry because they would rather feed their kids. So sir, if you think the law is more important than kids getting fed, then please go ahead with your decision. But I am not going to shut the salon.”

With differing restrictions in towns and counties across America, there is an emerging underground offering black market personal grooming and access to everything from New York house parties to prohibition-style speak-easies.

Few have garnered the attention of the punishment Luther was handed, but depending on your perspective, she may actually have gotten off lightly.

Salon owner Shelley Luther after she was released from jail in Dallas. Picture: AP Photo/LM Otero

In South Carolina, nail technician Cynthia Covert, 58, was killed by an alligator during a lockdown-breaking, home-manicure last week.

Kiawah Island police said Covert noticed the gator when she was on a porch doing client Barbara Howell’s nails, and after a glass of wine decided to take some photos of it in the yard.

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Despite being warned by the Howells that they had seen the alligator kill a deer recently, Covert said: “I don’t look like a deer”, and tried to touch the reptile.

Moments later, she was attacked and pulled into a pond, according to a police report.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott freed Shelley Luther by an executive order. Picture: AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Police said she surfaced and calmly said: “I guess I won’t do this again”, trying to grab a rope that the Howells and a neighbour threw to her as she was taken again by the alligator.

Sadly, this is unlikely to be the last tragic story to come out of the clunky, shrieky, gun-toting reopening of this country, which seems determined to make things as headline-grabbing and dysfunctional as possible.

Quiet talk of a pending civil war may be over the top, but the mood is not one of calm and orderly civil obedience.

Originally published as Shelley Luther: the unlikely face of America’s COVID-19 divide about how to safely reopen the country