Hair Creations in Mathews County is celebrating 40 years of business this week. Owner Valerie Bass opened the business on Feb. 26, 1982 with her late friend Janice Lee Mitchem.

“I still don’t know what I’m doing,” joked Bass as the local beauty shop is set to turn 40 this Saturday.

Bass said the pair of them were young and foolish when they opened the business at 19. She said she remembers when the two of them went to apply for the loan, the banker told them that friends shouldn’t go into business together because they would end up hating each other.

“I think we did okay,” said Bass.

When Hair Creations first opened, the pair rented space at Twigg Motor Company on Mathews Main Street. The business would move twice in its 40 years; first they moved one door down to share a building with Mitchem’s father’s business, Stewart’s Tile and Carpet Center. When owner Richard Lee Stewart moved the business to its current location in 2010, Hair Creations went along with it.

Bass s...