Asian-Owned Nail Salons Across America are Making Masks and Donating Supplies

Many businesses have been forced to close their doors to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Many owners of nail salons in the US have decided to take matters into their own hands to help their communities by donating supplies, especially masks, to facilities in the neighborhood.

These heartwarming stories were covered by major news outlets all over the country.

Some of these business owners are immigrants, who remember the struggle they faced when first moving to the US.

Owner of Premier Nail Bar in Tampa Bay, Florida, Nga Pham, had donated 12,000 medical masks to local hospitals, according to CL Tampa. She is trying to connect with local health care workers to help as much as she can. Pham said that America is great because citizens help each other out of love — the kind of emotion she felt when she first came to the US following the Vietnam War in May 1997.

“Giving and helping others is all part of my Vietnamese culture,” Pham told CL Tampa. “We just want to let people know that the Vietnamese community is here to support.”

Business owner Lien Nguyen of Sammy’s Nails in Holland, Michigan donated 10,500 gloves and 2,330 masks to hospitals and senior care facilities in the community, according to Wood TV. She said she didn’t see the need to keep those items for her store if they weren’t being put to use and were needed elsewhere, citing her love for her community.

“Like just give it to them and then we do something in the future to recoup our losses,” Nguyen said.

Kate Nguyen, the owner of Signature Nails and Beauty in Monroe, Louisiana, had a similar conclusion. Why keep her unused inventory when it would benefit others more?

“People’s lives could be taken away, any minute, any day. What’s the point of sitting on piles of inventory when you know people are dying, people are being infected?” Nguyen said to KNOE News.

Nguyen encouraged other business owners to do the same.

The owner of Sue’s Nails and Spa, Sue Nguyen, decided that donating 2,000 paper masks from her store to a healthcare facility in Nebraska wasn’t enough. She and her employees sewed 2,000 more in the back of her store to donate, according to KLKN TV.

A spa in Gainesville, Texas was so efficient in making masks to fulfill requests in their community and around the state that they received donations of more machines and materials, according to The Gainesville Register.

Owners of I Love Nails and Spa have been getting an overwhelming amount of support from the community, they said.

“We sent out one Facebook post and we’re not too big on social media, but I posted a few things and even though we had 1,300 members, all of a sudden 60,000 people have responded and passed on the message. This community has been together and it’s awesome because of that and a lot of people are stepping up,” owner Jeff Clancy said. They said they were going to keep going until supplies run out or until they are told to stop.

How can we help these small businesses? When they reopen, Lien Nguyen says, customers should simply come in.

Feature images via Signature Nails and Beauty