EXCLUSIVE: 'She's cheap!' Salon owner who exposed Nancy Pelosi's maskless visit to her salon tells how the Speaker tipped in crumbled dollar bills as she posed in front of a blown up photo of incident displayed at famed LA store
It was the $45 blow-out seen around the world.
Four months ago salon owner Erica Kious was in the middle of a media firestorm after she gave security camera footage of Nancy Pelosi at her San Francisco beauty salon to a friend who passed it on to the media.
Caught up with the salon owner and stylist on Tuesday as she made a visit to the window display at Kitson in Los Angeles that showcases a still image of the incident.
'I had to see this for myself!' she said.
In the window was a blown up photo of Pelosi in Erica's salon, with the quote 'Rules for thee not for me!'.
Erica said she loved Kitson's decision to add a Santa hat to the Speaker of the House's head to make it more festive. 'That hair color box is a nice touch,' she said laughing.
DailyMail.com caught up with salon owner Erica Kious on Tuesday as she visited a window display at Kitson in Los Angeles that shows a photo of Pelosi in her salon
Erica, the owner of the e Salon SF, exposed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's maskless trip to her business in August. Pelosi is seen on the leaked security footage
Back on September 1, Nancy Pelosi was quickly branded a 'hypocrite' for not wearing a mask while inside Erica's salon for a wash and blow-out, at a time when salons were closed due to pandemic related state and local ordinances.
Erica tells DailyMail.com that what people didn't realize is how fed up she was at the point she released the video.
Nancy Pelosi was quickly branded a 'hypocrite' for not wearing a mask while inside Erica's salon for a wash and blow-out, at a time when salons were closed due to pandemic related state and local ordinances
She says she had emailed and called her local supervisors about the protocols her salon had put in place and the catastrophic damage of the closures but no one responded.
'I was on a plane to Tennessee when my phone alerted me to movement in the salon. I looked at it and was just like I'd had enough,' she said.
She said she knew ahead of time that Pelosi had booked an appointment.
'What do I do?' she said. 'It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work. We're supposed to look up to this woman, right? It's just disturbing.'
Erica didn't realize she would become the Norma Rae of the beauty industry.
'I was not a political person before, but now I get it. I understand ''Give me liberty or give me death.'' I don't want to live like this,' she said.
She says even her super liberal clients sent their support after the video was released.
'San Francisco was going down before Covid came along, it just accelerated it,' she added.
Erica had said she was forced to close because she was too afraid to do business in San Francisco after receiving death threats
After posing for photos in front of the blown up image, Erica posed for a few in front of the California Governor Gavin Newsom display holding the latest French Laundry cookbook by Chef Thomas Keller
Erica, 44, says that many of her clients were already moving out of the area due to crime and the homeless situation, 'And we're in Nancy Pelosi's district!'
'I would say a good 90 percent of feedback has been good. Almost everyone either has a family member in the [beauty] industry or a friend so they can identify,' she said. 'I had stylists who used to make $130,000 a year asking me for grocery money to eat. It's just devastating.'
Pelosi, 80, was a frequent client to the salon.
While the Speaker's net worth is an estimated $120million and she collects a $223k yearly salary from taxpayers, she wasn't big on letting it trickle down to the service industry.
'She's cheap! One time [after] I washed her hair she took some old wadded up one dollar bills and stuffed them in my hand,' Erica said.
Lawmaker Pelosi later claimed the salon, 'clearly, set her up,' and claimed ignorance when it came to her local laws and restrictions.
After posing for photos in front of the blown up image, Erica posed for a few in front of the California Governor Gavin Newsom display holding the latest French Laundry cookbook by Chef Thomas Keller.
Nancy's famous nephew Gavin was caught maskless as well, while violating his own social gathering, and indoor dining bans when he was photographed at the upscale French Laundry restaurant in the Napa Valley on November 6.
Unlike Aunt Nancy, Gavin later admitted to his 'mistake.'
The eSalon in San Francisco where the speaker had her hair washed and blown dry
At the time, President Trump chimed in to mock 'Crazy Nancy Pelosi' for her visit
Back on December 2, Donald Trump Jr., posted a video of the Kitson Holiday window to his social media and it went viral.
The windows give a shout out to the hypocrites of 2020, on one side, and the notable people of the year on the other.
Kitson owner Fraser Ross tells DailyMail.com he was happy to finally meet Erica. 'She's such a strong person. I feel like she was really the first person in our state to really stand up for what is right and fight back,' he said.
Back in September, a gofundme raised over $300k for the single mother-of-two after she lost her business.
'I plan on working again, setting up stations in both Fresno and the Newport Beach area,' as soon as health restrictions ease up in California, she says of her next step.
She's also been helping out other people in her industry who are being harassed.
'They've reached out to me and I'm doing whatever I can for them. I think I've given people courage to step up and say 'this isn't right.'
