A cut above

Disco’s Chop Shop, located at 108 W. Main St. in Campbellsville, Kentucky, is a great spot for Campbellsville University’s male students to pop in for a haircut. The barbershop has been around for 17 years, and was founded by Matthew “Disco” Rogers.

Although Disco said he’s been a certified barber for 19 years, he first started cutting hair in middle school using beard trimmers in the bathroom. It wasn’t until his high school chemistry class that he figured out barbering was his calling. Disco said he had a teacher that gave him an assignment to come up with a career plan after high school, so he chose barbering because it was something he already knew how to do.

 

“I even went in and interviewed a barber and all that stuff,” said Disco. “Now X amount of years later, who knew I would be doing that?”

After high school, Disco said he attended CU and acquired a Bachelor of Science degree. During his time at the university, he continued to cut hair in the dorms and then in the shed behind his girlfriend’s house.

Once he finished college, Disco said he applied to a number of jobs that required his degree, though none of them hired him because he didn’t have the years of experience they were looking for. Then in 2005, he went on a mission trip to Lima, Peru, with the Vineyard Church in Campbellsville.

“I had never felt the presence of the Lord like I had up until that point,” said Disco. “While I was praying, I saw this barbershop in my head. It was like a vision.”

While on the mission trip, Disco said he spent time cutting hair for the locals of the community.

“People were coming in that were sick,” Disco said. “I wasn’t doing anything but cutting their hair, and they were leaving not sick.”

As it seemed barbering was his true calling, Disco returned home from Lima, consulted his wife Lori, and decided to attend Bailey’s Barber College in Lexington. For the next 10 months, Disco drove from Campbellsville to Lexington every week from Tuesday to Saturday. At the time, he said it was a challenge because of how much time he had to spend away from his family.

“For 10 months we saw each other in passing in the hallway of our house,” said Disco. “I would wake up at 6 a.m., drive to Lexington for barber college, and I would come back at 4 p.m. or 5 p.m., then [my wife] would leave for work and work the night shift.”

When Disco finished barber college, he applied to work at all the barbershops in Campbellsville, but he said none of them wanted to hire him because they were afraid he would take all their customers. In 2007, Disco landed a job working at Town Barber in Columbia. During his time there, he said he dreamt about opening his own shop. When he would get off work, Disco said he used to drive home and park across the street from where his shop is now.

“At the time it was an empty building, and I would dream about what [my shop] would look like in that building,” said Disco.

A year later, Disco’s Chop Shop opened, but it wasn’t in the building he had been hoping for. His first location was next to The Messy Bun on First Street, where he was forced to rent due to the state of the economy. Five months after opening, he moved his shop into the same building as Domino’s on Broadway Street.

Since all his clients lived in Columbia, Disco said he had to work hard to reestablish his brand in Campbellsville. Though he had friends in town that helped support his business, Disco said it wasn’t enough to keep the business going. Then in December of 2012, his hard work paid off and he bought the shop he had been dreaming of owning. After completing all the renovations in January, he opened his current location on Feb. 1, 2013.

“The most challenging part about running the business is it doesn’t stop,” said Disco. “You have to worry about getting customers in, then when you get too big, you have to worry about getting barbers in there to cut the hair. We as humans are limited. We can only do so much.”

Even though he had finally acquired the shop he dreamt of owning, Disco said it hasn’t always been great being the owner.

“As the business owner, if there are problems with customers, I deflect and I take the brunt,” said Disco. “At the end of the day, everything that happens in the shop is on me.”

Another challenging aspect of owning his own barbershop is his ability to manage his barbers.

“I have poured sweat, blood, and tears into creating Disco’s Chop Shop,” said Disco. “When I bring other barbers in, even though they are their own boss in a sense, they wear my name. But I have to treat them a little differently because they are not my employees. It’s a weird dynamic.”

Disco said the other barbers that work in his shop aren’t his employees, they’re contract laborers. Currently, there are three other barbers working at Disco’s Chop Shop: Zach Milby, Zach Bottoms and Shane Coffey.

“Those barbers have put in the work, and I’m not taking anything away from them, but the shop has enabled them to be able to provide for their households,” said Disco. “That, to me, is really cool.”

A third challenge Disco has faced is retaining his barbers. He pointed out many of the barbers that have applied to work for him wanted to open their own shops, which Disco said makes it harder on him. Since the start of Disco’s Chop Shop, he has worked with 10 to 12 other barbers, and three of them went on to open their own barbershops.

Aside from all the challenges, Disco said the people and conversations he’s had are the highlight of his business.

“A haircut is more than the act of actually cutting hair,” Disco said. “It’s the relationships I build while I have the guy in the chair. As guys, we need a spot to be able to talk about things that maybe we can’t talk about with other people.”

River Terry, a senior at CU, said he really enjoys getting his haircut at Disco’s. One of the things about the shop that Terry said makes it unique is the retro atmosphere.

“I went in the other day and it was butter,” said Terry. “I always have good convos with the dudes. I like how you can pick the barber you want too, but it really doesn’t matter who cuts my hair there.”

Another CU senior, Ian Roemer, said he’s a regular at Disco’s. Roemer said one of his favorite parts about the barbershop is the affordability.

“I mean, I’m from Vegas so all the haircuts I get there are mad expensive,” said Roemer. “But I’ll go to Disco’s and it’s like $15, and they do just as good of a job as the Vegas barbers.”

When Disco first opened his shop, he thought CU was going to be the meat of the business, though it never turned out that way. He said he was glad he didn’t have to rely too heavily on the university, as the business would have suffered every summer and winter during the breaks.

“It’s like the topping, the whipped cream and the cherry,” Disco said.

Disco said the relationship he has with CU definitely helps business though, as many of his student clients will refer other students to come to his shop when they see their clean haircuts.

“The reach that Disco’s Chop Shop has had because of the university is huge,” said Disco. “I joke around sometimes how we’ve gone international, but we have. We’ve touched countries that we wouldn’t have been able to touch because of CU. I would love to have a flag from every country that we’ve touched.”

Outside of the relationships he’s built with CU students, Disco said another one of the highlights is doing a person’s last haircut. He will sometimes perform haircuts on people in the morgue before their funeral. Though it can be sad, he said it means a lot to him.

Disco said the most rewarding part of his job, however, is cutting hair for kids. He said even though they can be difficult at times, they bring him lots of joy because they are much more expressive when they see their fresh cut.

Looking back on his career, Disco said he’s glad he didn’t have a plan B or C.

“When you cut out B and C, what do you do? You work A until it works out,” said Disco.

As the father of Disco’s Chop Shop, he said it’s just like having a kid. While he’s now a proud father of four boys, Disco said he’s really a father of five.

“No one thinks of Disco’s like their kid except for me,” said Disco. “They may like their job, they may love their job, and they may love the shop, but it’s not their kid.”

To all aspiring barbers wanting to run their own business, Disco’s advice is to show up, put in the work and be kind to everyone that comes in.

“Everybody is going through stuff,” said Disco. “If you’re kind, guess what? Sometimes they’re still gonna be a jerk. But you might catch them on a day where that kindness finally penetrates, and you figure out why they’re not happy. For the most part, a lot of people aren’t happy, which is sad.”

To some people, a barbershop may seem to just be a place to freshen up your look. To others, it can be a safe space to talk through problems and get life advice.

“There’s something about the sound of the clippers which kinda mutes everything to everyone around,” said Disco. “There’s also the ability to talk and not have to face the person you’re talking to. It’s needed.”