Hannah Bernardy, center, opened up her own hair salon with her good friends Kelly Dahl, left and Deanna Kulla in downtown Marshall.

Sometimes the well runs dry for a columnist.

That happens every so often when I did reporting in Barstow, California. When that happened, I would take a stroll in the downtown area. Besides checking out businesses that might be closing or opening up, I’d talk to homeless people with interesting stories. After all, they weren’t homeless their entire life. Some where once in the military. I recalled a man who played college football for a major program.

Eventually, I would make my way to the barbershop located on Main Street. Carl the barber always had the scuttlebutt on city hall, the schools, etc. Often times you could just sit down and listen to his customers talk about this and that.

I would always walk out the doorway with a good story or two to pursue.

Looking for something to write about for my Main Street Chatter column this week, I decided to take stroll down Main Street in Marshall. I walked past the Wells Fargo Bank, MainStay Coffee and Fuzzy’s until I took a peek inside one of the retail spots that was once empty. Address 240 to be exact.

Inside looked like it was recently renovated and there were some people talking. I walked in and introduced myself. Hair stylists Hanna Bernardy, Kelly Dahl and Deanna Kulla introduced themselves.

“When did you open?” I asked.

“Today,” they said with laughter.

Bernardy is actually the new owner of Bloom Hair Salon. She revealed that opening up her own salon has always been a dream of hers for years.

“I worked in town for six years at my last salon. I always kind of just been looking around to see when the right place came up for rent or for sale or whatever,” Bernardy said. “I guess I’ve always wanted to start a hair salon downtown. And then we just had a pretty short amount of time to kind of get it ready. So my husband and my parents and my in-laws have helped get it going.”

And as it turns out, it’s a good thing she got that help.

“I’m very pregnant,” Bernardy said.

She’s very grateful to her husband, Cody, who did the major construction work.

“My husband was here until 12 most nights for the last month. He did all the walls,” Bernardy said.

Her parents, Doug and Barbara Hagen, along with in-laws Ralph and Maria Bernardy, did most of the painting. While it was “a good group effort,” she said everybody is now relieved all the work is done and happy the salon is open.

“Everybody’s very happy that we’re not spending nights here because it’s been like every day. I would pick up our son from day care and then we would all meet here. It was like, OK, we’re gonna be here to eight or nine or 10 or 12. Then I would have to leave because I had to bring my son home and get him in bed,” she said. “There were a few weeks there I was ordering pizza.”

I asked Bernardy what was it like to wake up that morning and know the was about to leave to open up her salon for the first time.

“It was crazy. I can’t explain it. I’m actually going to my salon. I can’t even believe that I’ve been wanting to say that for — I don’t know — six years, five years. Yeah, it’s crazy. I don’t think it hit me yet,” she said.

Barnardy is also happy her salon is downtown.

“I’m just so excited to be downtown because I’m hoping, you know, just having another business here will help. People will grab a coffee (at Main Stay) before they stop in, grab some tea at Southwest (Nutrition) and stop at Noble Woman Boutique or you go to Columbia Imports afterwards or Third Street Floral. I love downtown for that reason. Just to be able to support other businesses as well,” she said.

As we were chatting, local marathon runner Kate Bucher walked in. There was lots of laughter and greetings.

“I’m actually doing her wedding this weekend,” Bernardy said.

Meanwhile, Dahl and Kulla are thrilled to be joining Bernardy at the new salon. The three of them worked together at Savvy Salon near Aldi.

While Dahl liked the convenience of a dedicated parking lot, she’s excited to be working downtown in Bernardy’s hair salon.

“They’re good friends of mine, so it’s kind of nice. It just worked out really well that way,” Bernardy said. “I want Kelly and Deanna to feel like their room is theirs and it’s comfortable for them and that’s really important. And they can express their personalities.”

Both Dahl and Kulla shared their delight to be working at Bloom.

“It’s a wonderful spot. She did a great job with the space,” Kulla said.

All three have their own longtime clients.

“We don’t do walk-ins,” Bernardy said. “Our clients normally pre-book.”

Dahl said they were slightly concerned when I walked in.

“We thought you were going to be a walk-in,” Dahl said with a laugh.

No worries, I told them. And pre-booking wouldn’t work for me. I’m kind of walk-in type of guy when it comes to getting my haircut.

I also discovered there won’t be any sharing of city scuttlebutt with a nosy news reporter at Bloom.

Each hairdresser has their own areas separated by walls.

“We have private rooms because your clients share a lot of life updates — good and bad,” Bernardy said. “So they like the private rooms because not everybody is hearing your business.”