I visited my mother’s salon. The first thing I smelt was a bunch of chemicals, fragrances, and food. The first thing I felt was heat. The first thing I saw was people in masks and clients sitting with a chair in between every other client. It felt so weird to return to my mother’s salon after so many months. Seeing how everything changed felt weird. Just a few months before I was sitting in a chair waiting for my mother to cut my hair wearing no mask with my friend standing right in front of me. And now I see people sitting so far from one another. Barely anyone was able to hold a conversation with anyone because tensions were so high. People are scared about Covid-19, or of the election. Some were scared for how loved ones from back home were dealing withe Covid-19. That was it. Most conversations that were spoken, either were about Covid-19 or the upcoming elections. The conversations were more secluded, spoken softly, and more private. It felt wrong. At the salon all you ever heard was talking. Usually about, gossip, rumors or what the best facial treatment was. There was also so much food. After working, many of the employees would go out and get lunch to eat back at the salon. The masks make the salon feel so sterile.The salon is no longer a place of laughter but now a place of caution. The masks make me feel unsafe and that one wrong move could get me infected. However, the smells remind me that life can be normals again. The smells of the salon bring me back to a time before Covid-19. Where we could all sit next to one another and be free to closely talk and eat. Before a time where wearing a mask was not mandatory and was never thought about.