A lot of businesses have had to get a little creative to keep the doors open during the pandemic. Matt Thurston, who worked in the auto body business for 30 years, is going back to school. Beauty school, that is.
"At 51 years old, I'm a full-time student again," he said.
After three decades working with cars, he switched gears two years ago, opening up the Chop Shop Hair Garage in Gardnerville, a barbershop that caters to men and boys.
"We've had a lot of local support," Thurston said. "We have a great car culture in the Carson Valley and this hair garage really goes with that. Our workstations are toolboxes, we have galvanized siding on the walls, and it looks like a garage."
He'd relied on licensed cosmetologists to do the actual cutting there. Then Covid hit.
"When they shutdown occurred we had to layoff our employees and close the doors," Thurston said. "And when it came time to reopen, those employees didn't come back, and that left us without any way to open."
So now he's taking matters into his own hands. He's enrolled in the hair design course at Sierra Academy of Style in Carson City.
"I never thought that this was going to happen," he said. "I really thought we could run the business by hiring people to do the work, but it didn't work out that way. So I'm here, doing what we have to do to be a successful business."
He's a couple of hundred hours into the course and learning a whole new way to work with his hands.
"I'm improving, certainly getting better," he said. "They say I'm doing great, so it's going well."
He's currently the only male student at the school and says he's committed to doing whatever it takes to keep the doors open at the family business.
"I enjoy it, it's a lot of fun," Thurston said. "The people are appreciative. Everybody wants to look good; I used to make their cars look good, now I make them look good."
He's on track to graduate in March and put those new skills to work at the Chop Shop.
https://chopshophairgarage.com/
