When Montana native Cheryl Martinson moved from Sheridan, Montana to Boulder 27 years ago, in February 1992, she thought it would be a good, safe place to live and raise her kids. Now, going on 20 and a half years of owning the Hair Depot on Main Street, she not only knows that she was right, but was able to create a sort of second family with her loyal customer base. She is having an open house celebrating the Hair Depot’s belated birthday on Saturday, June 15 to thank her customers and inspire others to open and keep businesses in Boulder.
Martinson opened the Hair Depot with her friend, Shirley Vossler, in October 1998. She met Vossler at Libby’s, a hair salon near where the Elkhorn Cafe now stands. Martinson said that Vossler had retired from working at Libby’s shortly before, and Martinson had wanted to leave Boulder, but Vossler suggested they open up their own place and convinced her to stay.
Between the time Martinson moved to Boulder and the time she opened the Hair Depot, she worked part time both at Marge’s, a salon where Salina’s now stands, and at Libby’s.
Martinson said that at the time, there were only two buildings with vacancies they could choose to house their business. One was the old train depot that had been moved down Main Street in October 1976 and turned into the Boulder Senior Center. At that time the See N Save had been there for a number of years, but there was a room available next to it.
Vossler said that she and Martinson talked to the people at the Senior Center about moving in, did the electrical and plumbing work themselves and opened up shop. Vossler, who still lives in the area, was there for about three years before she retired, and Martinson has continued to run it by herself ever since.
Vossler said that Martinson works hard. “She deserves the recognition,” she said.
The original train depot used to be on the hill where Town Pump now stands, but burned down in 1929, according to old newspaper clippings from the Boulder Monitor. It was rebuilt on Nov. 15, 1930, and stayed there for about 46 years until trains stopped coming through Boulder. After the train depot was moved, the part of the building where the Hair Depot is today was used as the library until it moved into a new building built across the street in 1992.
Martinson keeps the history and tradition of the train depot alive because “it’s important to remember what came before you,” she said.
Inside the Hair Depot, she has vintage photographs of both the old building and the new one soon after it was rebuilt. The people who built the new building were careful to make it look almost exactly like the old one, according to Ellen Rae Thiel of the Boulder Heritage Center. Martinson also has pictures of the new building being pulled across town in 1976. Knickknacks and photos of Martinson’s friends and family adorn the original ticket window, and outside the entrance, on the black, metal sign announcing the name of her business, made for her and Vossler by Vossler’s brother, Jim Richardson, is a cut-out of a train.
Most of Martinson’s customers have been getting their hair done at the Hair Depot for at least a decade. Boulder Hot Springs staff member Toni Hayes said she’s been going there since it opened. Hayes said that before she got her job at the Hot Springs, she would go there about once a month. However, she said that now that she’s working there and can afford to dye her hair more, she goes about once a week to have her hair dyed colors like blue and pink, and sometimes cut and permed. One recent Wednesday she got lavender highlights. Hayes said that Martinson is always ready and willing to follow her whim.
Getting her hair done is one of Hayes’s pleasures in life. “It makes me feel good,” she said.
Martinson said that she likes her job because of how well she gets to know her customers. She said that she likes catching up with people and hearing about their lives. “You start to feel like you know their families, even if you’ve never met them,” she said.
Sometimes, people come in not for their hair but for a cup of coffee and conversation. Martinson’s mother bought the Keurig coffee maker that sits on a table in the main room of her shop, where people are welcome to make tea, coffee or hot chocolate.
In addition to running her business full time, Martinson cuts hair every Saturday at the Intensive Behavior Center in Boulder, every Tuesday at the Elkhorn Treatment Center, and cooks two shifts a week at the Silver Saddle in Basin.
Having grown up in the small town of Lincoln, Martinson appreciates the aspects of life in similarly sized Boulder that can’t be found in a bigger city. When her first husband was in the 82nd Airborne and stationed in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in 1983, she said she felt unaccustomed to living in a big city. “I couldn’t turn on the news without hearing about someone being murdered,” she said.
Cheryl Martin, another longtime customer, said Martinson shaved her head when she got breast cancer and went through chemo. “When that happens, it’s easier to shave it all off,” Martinson said. “Otherwise, it sheds and gets everywhere.”
Martinson raised her three kids in Boulder, and said that while some things have changed since she moved here, much has stayed the same. “I think the biggest change was when all the people lost their jobs because the mine shut down,” she said. Businesses have come and gone and Jefferson High’s class size has shrunk — from about 110 kids in her youngest child’s freshman class in 2004 to about 30 in her oldest’s graduating class in 2013 (2019’s was 48) — but that the small town qualities it possessed then, like everybody knowing everybody, still exist.
Martinson said she hopes more families will move to Boulder, because that’s what she thinks keep small towns going. Her biggest wish is for the city to open a community center that could offer classes, a daycare and other activities.
She said that though opening a business can be hard and not for everyone, it can be done, which is why she’s holding an open house to thank her customers for their loyalty and support.
The open house will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 15 and feature food and drinks. Martinson will also be giving out goody bags containing lotion, nail files and hair clips, similar to the ones she gives out to customers every Christmas.
