Gov. Gavin Newsom today is expected to temporarily waive a state law and allow California salons and barbershops to provide their services outside.

The anticipated announcement comes just one week after Newsom signed an order that forced indoor services across a number of industries — including salon and barbershops — to shutter in counties on the governor’s coronavirus “watchlist,” a tally that now encompasses more than 80% of Californians.

The governor’s new restrictions immediately sparked protests and backlash from thousands of salon owners across the state who had just begun serving clients again after monthslong closures imposed by public health orders issued to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Under the state’s Business and Professions Code, all barbering and cosmetology services must be performed in a licensed establishment, nixing any opportunity for salon and barbershop owners in counties on the state’s watchlist to move their service outdoors.

In a letter to the state last week, Assemblymember Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) and Fred Jones, legal counsel for the Professional Beauty Federation of California, argued that salon owners should be granted similar pandemic-related leeway as other industries, such as the California Alcohol Beverage Control’s temporary catering authorization, which allowis restaurants and bars to create an outdoor area to serve food and alcohol.

In response, the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency said in a statement Friday night that it would release updated information “in the next 72 hours” about how hair salons and barbershop owners could “safely offer” their services outdoors.

“We recognize the immense hardship hairstylists, barbers, manicurists and estheticians face in light of the COVID pandemic,” the agency wrote in a tweet. “Some services will be allowed outdoors.”

Jones said he anticipated the governor will announce during his noon press conference today that the state is waiving the regulation that prohibits outdoor personal care services under its emergency declaration related to the pandemic.

While Jones welcomes the anticipated announcement, he also called it a “professional slap in their face” for those in the barbering and cosmology industries.

“It’s kicking them literally to the curb to make ends meet,” he said. “Our salons, at great personal cost, have instituted stepped-up safety protocols within their establishments that are much safer than doing these services in the more uncontrolled outside environment.”

A report published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly 140 people interacted with two hair stylists with confirmed coronavirus infections at a Great Clips in Missouri, yet none of them caught the virus. Both the stylists and clients were wearing face masks.

Although the study does not pinpoint the factors that helped avert what could have become a significant outbreak, it does appear that face mask requirements put in place by the salon and the city where it was located, Springfield, Missouri, played a role.

This story will be updated.