FROM THE AIR TO HAIR

A 2008 graduate of Trinity High School in Euless, Texas, Jacob Chavez joined the Air Force after graduation and served for four years. After that, he spent another four years working in oil fields in Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Texas as a drilling fluids technician. However, the military veteran says he always had his career sights set on his first love: Cosmetology.

“My mom’s been doing hair for my whole life, so I was always around it, and liked it.”

Eventually, Chavez was living in Corinth and decided to enroll in NCTC’s Cosmetology program, which he completed in December 2018. The 29-year-old also intends to pursue the Cosmetology Operator to Class A Barber Crossover program, but says financial aid fell through last fall, delaying that dream. In the meantime, he manages to stay extremely busy working part-time as an assistant manager at an area barber shop and doing hair as an independent contractor at Legacy Salon Suites in Highland Village.