Windsor nurse, family craft homemade hair covers to protect against COVID-19

Tricia Acchione says she was inspired to make hair covers to help protect against the spread of COVID-19 during a conversation with colleagues at work.

Acchione, who works as an ER nurse at Windsor Regional Hospital Met Campus, said she noticed that she and her colleagues would often inadvertently touch their faces whenever they moved hair out of the way.

"You get the potential to spread germs to your face, so I thought if we can have a hat like they do in [the operating rooms], then that would be helpful to eliminate touching our faces as often," she said.

Over the course of a single weekend, Acchione, her mother-in-law, father-in-law, husband, two sons, as well as her brother-in-law and niece, made a total of 87 cloth hair covers, spending between 10 and 12 hours each day on the project.

"It was a big family effort," she said. "My boys were cutting the material out of the pattern, my husband was ironing the edges for me, my mother-in-law and father-in-law were sewing and I was putting the trim on the edges and sewing the strings on."

Acchione said the hair covers which come in a variety of colours and patterns and are also washable and reusable have been a huge hit with her co-workers.

"They're very helpful, we don't have to do our hair," she said. "There's no salons open, so it actually works out very well."

And it's not just fellow medical staff who have latched on to Acchione's hair covers. She said even some managers are wearing them.

"The nursing staff, some of the EMS ladies were wearing them, even the men some of the respiratory techs are wearing them," Acchione said.

Acchione was clear that she didn't choose to make the hair covers due to a lack of protective equipment available for hospital staff. Instead, it was a way to help protect her co-workers, while also lifting spirits.

She added that other nurses are also making homemade hair covers.

"One of the girls at work, her sister is going to make some, so everybody is contributing in some way," Acchione said. "We're going to have a lot."

Self-isolating in a home away from home

While Acchione uses the hair covers as one extra step to prevent the spread of COVID-19, she's also taking extra precautions to protect her family at home.

That's because, almost a week ago, Acchione moved into an RV owned by her cousins as a way to distance herself from her family.

"I go to work, I come home, I shower in here and live my life in the trailer," she said.

Though she said it's lonely, Acchione said living in the RV won't be a permanent arrangement.

"We can live with that," she said. "My kids are older, they're 20, so they understand. A lot of the nurses that work have little kids and I feel bad for them."