Barber completes dream of owning shop despite pandemic challenges

(FOX 9) - After years of cutting hair at 3M, Collette Lease thought she’d lost everything at the start of the pandemic, when her flow of regular customers vanished. But after about half of a year without work, the barber created something bigger and better.

"I’m just ecstatic as to how the business is growing," Lease told FOX 9 on Tuesday. "Now it’s like you got the whole ‘kitten caboodle’ that you have to take care of."

After years of cutting hair at 3M, Collette Lease thought she’d lost everything at the start of the pandemic, when her flow of regular customers vanished. But after about half of a year without work, the barber created something bigger and better.

As a barber, Lease’s customers at 3M had become like family over the years, and she couldn’t leave those relationships behind; so instead she moved down the street from 3M’s campus, opening her own standalone barbershop: The Standard.

"I probably have about 40 to 50 percent of my 3M customers coming here," Lease explained. "It was like we had to catch up."

Julian Bangura is one of the outsiders, he drives nearly a half hour for a haircut every other week.

"When you look in the mirrors it’s like damn, the lineup looks good, the fade looks good, so I’m like yeah this is definitely the place," Bangura said. "I feel like this is the best barbershop."

As for Collette, in nearly two years she’s gone from down and out to back on top… sticking around in the community and persevering through the life-changer of COVID-19.

"I didn’t expect this at all," Lease finished.