By Genalyn Kabiling People may have to bear with their growing quarantine hair or cut their own locks following the government's temporary ban on barbershops and salons during coronavirus lockdown, according to a Palace official. A day before the start of the school year, young boys have their obligatory haircut at a local barber in the Baseco Compound, June 2, 2018. (Jansen Romero / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the government task force had a lengthy discussion over the controversial issue on barbershops and salons but eventually decided to be on the "safe side" and prohibit their operations due to the difficulty in enforcing the physical distancing rule. "Ito ang pinakamasalimuot na usapin sa IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases). Bawal pa po talaga bagama't nais na nating buksan. Talagang do-it-yourself na lang muna talaga (This is the most complicated topic in the IATF. They are still prohibited even if we all wanted to reopen them. It will be do-it-yourself haircut for now),” Roque said over GMA’s Unang Hirit program Friday. He admitted that the barbershops and hair salons have become a controversial time-consuming, even at times emotional, topic of discussion during the the recent meetings of the IATF. The debate on whether or not to reopen these services have probably taken a total of eight to 10 hours of the recent IATF discussions, he added. "I have never seen any issue as controversial as barbers in the IATF," Roque said in an interview over ANC's Headstart program Friday. "I am telling you there was someone who was teary eyed. Of course we were all meeting online someone almost cried about the issue of barbers because there is no way we can actually main safe social distancing in barbershops and in salons," he said. He said the task force members eventually agreed with the recommendation of Presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr., also chief implementer of the government’s coronavirus response, to decide against the operations of barbershops to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease. "It has been a topic that has consumed so much time. If I were to estimate the amount of time given to this issue, it's probably around eight to ten hours already on barbershop," he said. "I think the decision for now is we went by the recommendation of the Chief Implementer Secretary Galvez and for now barbershops and salons are still not allowed in MECQ," he added. But hope is not all lost on the possibility of letting people get a proper hair cut from their barbers and stylists in areas under relaxed quarantine measures. "Well I think for now, they don't want it because they want to veer on the safe side but I'm not saying that under GCQ it will not be allowed,” Roque said. In the government's guidelines on the quarantine rules released early this week, the task force noted that the Department of Trade and Industry is "reviewing" whether or not to allow barbershops and salons in areas under GCQ. At present, the government has ruled that barbershops and salons will remain temporarily closed in areas under the ECQ, modified ECQ and GCQ as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak. The entire country will be placed under general community quarantine except for Metro Manila, Laguna and Cebu City that are under modified enhanced community quarantine from May 16 to May 31.