Nancy Pelosi filmed using hair salon shuttered by coronavirus lockdown for blow-out

'She feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was seen getting a wash and blow-out in a San Francisco hair salon on Monday despite it being shut since March to slow the spread of coronavirus.

The hair-raising misadventure was captured on security camera footage obtained by Fox News, which showed the Democratic congresswoman without a mask as she strolled through the eSalon in San Francisco.

Salons in San Francisco have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic, with limited outdoor operations beginning only on Tuesday.

Owner and single mother, Erica Kious, said one of her hairstylists, who rents a chair at the salon, opened the business for the California power broker.

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"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," Ms Kious told Fox News.

"We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can't -- it's a feeling -- a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down."

A spokesman for Ms Pelosi, Drew Hammill, responded to the outlet that the speaker always wears a mask and complies with local Covid requirements.

While the stylist can be seen wearing a mask in the footage, Ms Pelosi appears to have a mask or something similar hanging around her neck.

"This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business. The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment," Mr Hammill said

Ms Kious said blow-drying hair was against the coronavirus safety precautions she had received for hair salons.

"I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen," she said. "I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income."

She added: "We're supposed to look up to this woman, right? It is just disturbing."