BUSINESS
Wallowa County Chieftain
A6
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Local native returns to set up beauty shop
BIZZ
BUZZ
MICHAEL’S ON MAIN
What: Beauty shop
Who: Michael Ferrell
Where: 107 E. Main St., Enterprise
By Bill Bradshaw
When: Call for available ap-
pointment
E
NTERPRISE — There’s a
new hair stylist in Enter-
prise, now that Michael
Ferrell has opened Michael’s on
Main.
“If you’re a woman, you have
a hairdresser in this area. I’m
just going to say that I’m coming
in here to join the show already
in progress with all the regu-
lar, talented hairdressers who are
already here,” Ferrell said during
an interview Wednesday, Feb. 16.
“I’ve been told that Enterprise
and Wallowa County has a real
need for another salon. People are
booked up way out and they can’t
get an appointment. So, enters
me, stage left.”
He does everything
Primarily specializing in hair
color, Ferrell feels he has a real
knack for beauty.
“It’s easy for me to make
women pretty — and then they
hand me money,” he laughed,
describing his talent as a “gift.”
But it’s the primarily natural
colors that he specializes in.
“I’ve got $5,000 worth of
color waiting to be put on some-
one’s head,” he said. “I do beau-
tiful cuts, too, but I’m a colorist.
You need to do cuts, too. I used
to work for several color compa-
nies and did platform work for
them.”
And he doesn’t go cheap on
the colors he uses.
“My color job is to look as
natural as possible,” he said. “I
use the most expensive color I
can buy. It really is Italian color.
It’s $10 a tube (for 4 ounces). ...
I can run circles around anybody
Phone: 971-322-7333
Email: wallowaboy@gmail.com
Cost: Highlight/color/cut $130,
Women’s $40, Men’s $30
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Michael Ferrell, owner of the new hair salon Michael’s on Main in Enterprise,
sits outside his display window that show all the curios he has to decorate.
He said displaying the curios “backfi red,” misleading some people to think
they are for sale.
with that color.”
He said the COVID-19 pan-
demic, which was particularly
hard on businesses such as his,
made some real changes in the
beauty industry.
“COVID has changed the face
of everything. COVID has taught
women, No. 1, that they can do
it themselves,” Ferrell said. “We,
as hairdressers, basically kept
this lie going for a long time that
if you even touched your hair, it
would turn green and fall out.”
Calling himself primarily a
salon owner, Ferrell does the full
range of beautifi cation.
“I’m a manicurist, a cosme-
tologist, a makeup artist, a hair-
dresser, barber, you name what
you can be and I’ve got a license
for it,” he said.
Decades of experience
“I started doing hair in 1973
— almost 50 years,” he said.
Ferrell said he got into hair
styling when a friend said, “Let’s
start a hair salon. It’ll be a kick.
“I walked into those hallowed
halls of the fi rst beauty school I
went to and I never looked back.”
That was Phagans School of
Hair Design in the Portland area,
where he also used to teach.
In addition to the Portland
area, where he had fi ve diff erent
salons, he also worked in Califor-
nia and Hawaii.
“I also had an off er to go to
Amsterdam, but I turned that
down,” he said.
He also was a headliner at the
Northwest Women’s Show.
There, he told clients, “I don’t
do kids. I don’t do trims and I get
to do what I want. If that’s OK
with you, come on down.”
There was a certain amount
of salesmanship that went along
with his work at such a show.
“You imply that the color is
why the model looks so fabulous,
but she looked fabulous before,”
he said.
He sees his latest venture at
314 Main St. as a bit of a book-
end to his fi rst salon.
“Ironically, my fi rst salon was
Michael’s on Main (in Tigard,
a suburb of Portland) and now
this is what will likely be my
last salon and it’s Michael’s on
Main,” he said.
His new shop has quite a dis-
play of items in the front window,
so much so that they have misled
passersby.
“That kind of backfi red on
me,” Ferrell said. “I put them in
here to attract attention to the
business and all it did was attract
attention to the artifacts. Every-
one thinks I’m opening up a
curio store. … They come in and
say, ‘That little piece there, how
much?’ I was told to give them a
price,” but he doesn’t sell them.
Deep roots here
Ferrell is far from new to
Enterprise.
“I was pretty much raised
here,” he said. “I got my
fi rst driver’s license at the
courthouse.”
His family here spans
generations.
“Grandma homesteaded here.
Mom was one of the original
‘49ers at the fi rst Chief Joseph
Days Parade,” he said. “So this
is my home. I went away to ‘sow
my wild oats and seek my for-
tune,’ so I came back to take care
of Mama. She said, ‘I want to
go home.’ When your 90-year-
old mother says she wants to go
home, you take her home, which
was her house in Wallowa.”
His mother, Diane Sweek,
lives with her husband, Harvey
Sweek, in Wallowa. Ferrell lives
on the 360-acre ranch her mother
homesteaded off Dunham Road
north of Enterprise. He said his
grandmother willed the ranch to
her children and his mother suc-
cessfully bought the shares of her
siblings. Another farmer sublets
it now, but Ferrell plans to keep
horses there in the future and
appreciates the value of it.
“It’s a 360-acre ranch with one
of the oldest springs in the area,”
he said.
Ferrell doesn’t plan to spend
all his time at the salon, hoping to
be on the homestead.
“My sister says I’d better have
good access to back braces for
when you break your back at 68
years old,” he joked.
Ferrell may have roots here,
but Michael’s on Main is his fi rst
business venture in the county
and he sees it as a way to get
reintegrated with his hometown.
“It’s been a wonderful gig; I
thought I was going to come here
and be done, but after sitting up
on Dunham Road for a year, I
thought, ‘This ain’t cutting it; I’m
not meeting new people.’ So now
I’m meeting all kinds of fun peo-
ple,” he said. “I’m not trying to
prove anything. I’m not trying to
burn down Enterprise. I’ve had
fi ve separate salons in Portland.
All were great.”
———
Bill Bradshaw is a reporter for
the Wallowa County Chieftain.
Have a business tip? Contact him
at 541-398-5503 or bbradshaw@
wallowa.com.
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10. They’re often found in
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Joseph United
Methodist Church
Grace Lutheran
Church
3rd & Lake St. • Joseph
409 West Main - Enterprise
10 AM Worship
Online AND In Person
SUNDAY
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SUNDAY
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2 at 5pm
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starting March 10
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Pastor John B. King Jr
phone (message): 541-426-4633
web: gracelutheranenterprise.com
Enterprise
Christian Church
St.
St. Patrick’s
Patrick’s
Episcopal
Episcopal Church
Church
85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449
We have ‘In-person worship” @ 9:00 am
(Guidelines observed)
Sunday School at 10:30
Parking Lot Radio/Facebook @ 9:00
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
David Bruce
Pastor, Enterprise Christian Church
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Summit Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
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