From beauty to transportation, a lack of water and power forces Cubans to change their routines

HAVANA (AP) 鈥� Eduvirgen Zamora hides her hands out of embarrassment these days.

Her nails are down to the quick, except for her thumbs, which feature inch-long talons covered in fancy silver swirls.

Unable to afford a new set of nails as grind on, the 56-year-old cafeteria worker opted instead to do her lashes, a cheaper alternative she hoped would draw people鈥檚 attention upward.

Severe shortages of water, power and money combined with a have deepened poverty and increased hunger across the island as severe blackouts persist. Even those who are more affluent are now eliminating long-established and often beloved routines as they adapt to increasingly dire realities.

鈥淭he Cuban woman likes to look beautiful 鈥� to do her hair, do her nails, do her feet 鈥� and wear perfume,鈥� Zamora said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 look how I would like to look.鈥�

Changes in beauty routines

Melina Col谩s knows the feeling.

The young manicurist who works in Havana recently got long braids to celebrate her birthday but quickly realized it鈥檚 a difficult style to maintain given chronic water shortages.

She used to wear her hair long and straightened but has decided to cut it and wear it natural, even though she thinks it would not suit what she called her short stature and round face.

鈥淏efore, you could do whatever you wanted,鈥� she said of hairstyles when water was readily available. 鈥淣ot now.鈥�

Col谩s also has tweaked things at the salon where she works.

She has learned patience, aware clients show up late because public transportation is scarce.

And she now relies on a mix of water and vinegar in a spray bottle to offset water shortages 鈥� a concoction she said also helps soften clients鈥� cuticles and staves off a growing number of fungus cases because time between manicure appointments is growing longer for many.

鈥淪ome cases are critical,鈥� Col谩s said.

She also lamented how the island鈥檚 economic crisis and shrinking budgets have led to a drop in customers, a trend that hairstylist Betty Ram铆rez Aldana, 50, also has noticed.

鈥淚t really came as a shock to me, because I鈥檝e lost a lot of clients,鈥� he said on a recent afternoon at a makeshift hair salon with bubblegum pink walls. 鈥淣ormally by now I鈥檇 have five, six, eight clients. Look at the hour. And no one has showed up.鈥�

The hair salon where he works recently spent three weeks without water, since electricity powers many pump stations on the island and severe outages are commonplace. He no longer can provide certain hair straightening treatments, so he offers clients options including flattering cuts.

鈥淎 lot of them have opted to embrace their natural curly hair,鈥� he said.

An increasing number of women also have been forced to grow out their roots because they can’t make it into a salon given a lack of gasoline and public transportation, coupled with withering budgets, Ram铆rez said.

Those who can afford it call him for home visits, with the original customer likely joined 鈥渂y her aunt and the upstairs neighbor. I don鈥檛 serve one, I serve two or three,鈥� he said.

A demand to lift the US energy blockade

Beauty aside, also are agonizing over being forced to cut corners on basic hygiene: Some say they are washing their hair only twice a month, and that clothes stay dirtier longer.

Antonia Isalgu茅s Barri茅n, 60, who works for a state-run company running boats from eastern Havana to the heart of the capital, said she hangs her clothes outside every day after working on a boat because she doesn鈥檛 have water to wash them.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very hot here in Cuba; you sweat a lot,鈥� she said, recalling how she used to wash clothes nearly daily. 鈥淚鈥檝e never been forced to hang clothes in the fresh air鈥� and then put them on again.鈥�

Isalgu茅s said she has noticed a surge in the number of passengers as a growing number of gas stations close and only a handful of public buses remain in circulation.

Cuba had spent three months without fuel shipments until a Russian tanker with 730,000 barrels of oil. That amount, once fully refined and distributed, normally would meet less than two weeks of the country鈥檚 fuel demands.

Iv谩n de los 脕ngeles Arias, a 44-year-old boat pilot, often boards the boat for a five-minute ride across the Bay of Havana, keeping his car at home for emergency use only.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the reality we鈥檙e forced to live,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou deal with it as best you can.鈥�

earlier this month to meet with top government officials for the first time since 2016 as tensions remain high between the two countries.

Cuba鈥檚 government has said that the elimination of the U.S. energy embargo was a top priority for its delegation, calling it an 鈥渁ct of economic coercion鈥� and 鈥渦njustified punishment.鈥�

In late January, just weeks after the in a move that halted critical oil shipments to Cuba, President Donald Trump on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, which produces only 40% to meet its needs.

The U.S. has called for an end to political repression, the release of political prisoners and liberalization of the island鈥檚 imploding economy as part of several conditions to lift its sanctions on Cuba.

Arias, the boat pilot, said he didn鈥檛 think the talks will change anything for him.

鈥淚 have no hope,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat means nothing if living conditions remain the same.鈥�

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