The Nantucket Board of Health on Aug. 21 granted a one‑year variance to Wicked Island Bakery, allowing front‑of‑house employees to operate without wearing formal hair restraints for the coming year, while requiring the operator and department to meet before the board in January 2026 to decide whether staff should be formally classified as waitstaff and thus exempt from the hair‑restraint requirement.

Why the variance: Heather Woodbury, owner and general manager at Wicked Island Bakery, told the board the bakery has operated for 14 seasons and that front‑of‑house staff keep their hair tied back and do not prepare food in the kitchen. “I am respectfully asking that the Nantucket Health Department grant us a variance for the hair restraints for our front of house employees only or allow our front of house to be qualified as wait staff,” Woodbury said. She said the bakery’s food production is handled by kitchen staff who wear hats.

Board staff cited the Massachusetts food code provision about hair restraints (referenced in the applicant packet as “FC 2‑40211” in materials) and noted that the regulation excludes counter staff who serve beverages and wrapped foods and waitstaff who present a minimal risk. Health department staff recommended denial on the grounds of maintaining a consistent island standard, while other board members raised practical enforcement and business‑burden concerns.

After discussion the board approved a one‑year variance by vote. The motion, amended during discussion, specified a one‑year approval to be reviewed as an agenda item in January 2026. During the hearing the board and applicants agreed the health department and bakery staff will use the intervening months to document practices and meet with department staff to consider whether front‑of‑house employees meet the definition of waitstaff in state guidance; if so, the classification could make the variance unnecessary going forward. The board recorded the vote in the meeting roll call and approved the variance by unanimous voice vote.

What the bakery must do: The bakery agreed to keep current best practices—tying hair back, using gloves or bakery tissue to handle unpackaged items, and ensuring kitchen staff continue to wear hats. The board required the variance be brought back to the January 2026 agenda for formal reconsideration and possible reclassification of front‑of‑house staff as waitstaff.

Bottom line: The board granted a temporary, one‑year exemption to the hair‑restraint requirement for Wicked Island Bakery’s front‑of‑house staff and set a clear follow‑up: a January 2026 agenda item to finalize classification or renew/deny the variance.