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When Lynda Larocque went in to check the phone messages at her Coiffure Louis Robert hair salon Saturday, it turned into a full-time job. There were more than 100 calls from customers with bushy manes and off-coloured coifs desperate for a little hair care that would also help to restore their souls. Monday morning brought 30 more phone messages, and the first of many customers at her small salon in Montreal West. What was deemed a non-essential service and shuttered since Dec. 25 to quell surging COVID-19 numbers is apparently considered fairly indispensable by many. Larocque’s salon was among legions of Quebec businesses, retail stores, spas, libraries and museums that reopened Monday after being forced to close once again, this time for nearly a month and a half. Theatres, restaurants, bars, gyms, cinemas and concert halls remain closed in Red Zones, however, which contain 90 per cent of Quebec’s population and include Montreal and Quebec City.