In Prairie du Chien, Main Street is bouncing back

After six years of cutting hair in his home country of Macedonia, Mendim Tairi emigrated to the United States and began working in the trade in Wisconsin — in Janesville for a year, then moving to Prairie du Chien, where a close friend from his native land owned a restaurant.

There Tairi took a job cutting hair at a discount salon inside the local Walmart store. But he always hoped to open his own shop. After four years, the opportunity arrived in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic didn’t deter Mendim or his wife, Melissa, a native of the area whom he met and married. “It’s different when you work for yourself,” Mendim says as he tidies up the shop after a customer. “It’s better.”..