Before she became a stylist, a business owner, a wife and a mother, Tabatha Libla was a soldier in the United States Army.
The Operation Desert Storm veteran and owner of The Salon said recently she began considering how her time in the service affected the rest of her life.
"If I would have done this right out of high school, my business wouldn't be what it is. I wouldn't be the woman that I am so I thank the military every day," she said.
After watching her eldest son graduate from high school last month, Libla said she still has no idea how her mother found the strength to let her then-18-year-old daughter board a bus bound for basic training in New Jersey.
"I mean, I look at my child and I can't imagine letting him go," she said. "So I can't imagine how hard that was on her."
Libla grew up in Naylor. She graduated in May of 1989 and left for basic training in September. She said she believed joining the Army was a stepping stone toward her dreams.
"My parents owned a little restaurant in Naylor, but I always wanted to do hair," Libla said. "I knew I was going to do hair. That was my plan. As I was getting to the end of high school, I wanted to go to beauty college, but it was $3,500 which might as well been a million at that time."
Libla said she left the recruiter's office feeling confident she was making the right decision. Not only would she earn money for herself, but the Army would foot the bill for beauty school.
"While I was there, the recruiter asked me why I wanted to go into the service and I said, 'Because I want to go to beauty school,' and he drops his pen and says, 'Well, I can promise you I've never heard that before,'" Libla said.
Basic training went okay, she added, comparing herself to Goldie Hawn's "Private Benjamin." After basic, she was stationed in Germany. Libla said having never previously flown made the trek an adventure she will never forget.
During her time in Germany, the war broke out. Less than two weeks after her 19th birthday, she was sent to Saudi Arabia where she drove trucks through the desert from Dec. 1990 until July 1991.
"That was intense," she said. "I also went to my first sergeant and said, 'This is not what I signed up for. I signed up to go to beauty school,' and he said, 'Well you can go when you get back.'"
Libla said she was in "one of the first units of women to actually be in war."
On particularly stressful evenings, she said the women took turns braiding each others hair to relax. Libla commented on the universal solace the women found in the feminine pastime despite the harshnesss of their circumstances.
"We were considered nomads because we went from station to station," she said. "So we would go to the port and pick up supplies and take them wherever we needed to take them."
Libla said because of her experiences and the conditions during the war, she decided not to re-enlist. She said four years of being in the minority as a woman added unanticipated challenges to her daily routine.
"I wanted to re-enlist, but... It was very hard to be a woman there," she said. "You were always put in your place. So I promised myself when I got out, I will always be the top."
Libla said after the war, her unit in Germany closed and she came back to the States where she was stationed in Alabama. Coincidentally located outside her unit's gates, she said, was a beauty school.
"I would go there at night and I got my degree in Alabama," she said. "But I didn't take my finals there. I thought I'd wait until I got back to Missouri to take them. But when I got here I realized I was 300 hours short."
After the setback, Libla said she spent three months planning her next move. She eventually enrolled in beauty school and finished her degree. She also met her future-husband, Jeff. They married before moving to Texas where Libla continued her education until becoming a color expert.
"Color is my favorite thing," Libla said. "Anything to do with hair color. Anything to make you change within a day. It was very rigid when we were in the service. You had to follow all this and I like change."
After the family moved back to Missouri, she opened a salon next to her mother's house in Naylor. She worked by herself for 13 years and her business consistently grew. She said it never should have worked, but it did.
After her mother died in 2010, she said going to work every day was hard on her emotionally. In 2014, she bought The Salon.
"It was very interesting trying to get paperwork on that," Libla said. "I'd say, 'I need paperwork for my salon,' and they'd say, 'What's it called?' 'The Salon."
Libla said she now employs eight stylists and added another business within The Salon called Aesthetic Nirvana, a medical spa providing injection services with four employees.
Libla said owning her own beauty business is everything she dreamed it would be.
"I'm very lucky. I have a really talented group of girls, a very passionate group of girls and a very small family of girls," she said.
Becoming a business owner has allowed Libla to perform her duties as a mother by attending various sporting and school events.
She describes herself as part-visionary, part goal-oriented.
"But I don't always stay right on the path you would think I would take. Sometimes I take a few detours," she added.
Libla said her military experience carries directly into her daily life and managerial style. She feels her time management skills, ability to address concerns and issues head on and the strength to keep pushing forward are the result.
"I don't think if I wouldn't have had some of those struggles through being a woman, I wouldn't have the power to stand up when things start getting chaotic," she said. "Now I can say, 'Okay wait, you're not going to push me all over. I got this.'"
Libla said she hopes her boys, Mason and Blayne, take away from her the notion that they can be and do anything they want.
"But that doesn't mean it will be easy," she added. "They'll have to put in the work."