Women becoming barbers at faster clip, but still have a way to go
When Pisce “BarbHer” McCoy decided to become a barber 11 years ago, she knew she was entering a male-dominated field. But she didn’t care.
McCoy was the only female in her barber school class. She said she was often not taken seriously and felt like she had to prove herself more than everyone else.
She would have more company today. Women make up about 20% of the students at the Ohio State College of Barber Styling, which licenses barbers after an 11-month program, said Carrie Welbaum, the school’s executive administrative director.
McCoy now cuts hair at Frank Cole’s Barbershop, 1502 Mount Vernon Ave. She moved to Columbus four years ago from the Dayton area and at first struggled to establish a client base.
Any barber, regardless of gender, face that struggle until they’ve established their business, McCoy said. But she found her niche.
“Younger people would gravitate toward me,” said McCoy, 42. “Once I got somebody in my chair, that’s when they started to take notice.”
Instagram has opened up a lot of opportunities for McCoy because clients are able to see her portfolio of work easily, she said. She’s most known for making creative patterns with a razor.
“Being a female, you can’t be average. You have to be a step above,” McCoy said. “I’m in a male-dominated field. There’s a lot of obstacles with me being a female, and I can cut pretty decent. Men don’t like that.”
Gayle Prince has been a licensed barber for 36 years.
When she started barber college, she said she expected to be the only woman, but to her surprise, about 75% of her class was made up of women.
“When I walked into the school, I went upstairs and thought this was the cosmetology class,” Prince said. “I went downstairs to a room with mostly men and thought I was in the right place, but it turns out I had been right with the class of females.”
Despite having lots of women as classmates, Prince said she doesn’t know very many female barbers in Columbus.
She has worked at Nini’s Barber Shop, 2088 W. Henderson Road, for 36 years. Next week, she will be leaving to start her own shop called The Annex Barber Shop at 1484 Bethel Road. She said that unlike McCoy, she hasn’t faced many challenges or discrimination for being a woman in the industry.
“I never felt like I didn’t fit in,” Prince said. “I never looked at it like that. It didn’t seem to be a problem.”
Her client base is 75% male, but that might be because the clients are mainly fathers and sons, Prince said. Over the years, she’s seen a lot of referrals to wives who were referred to her by their husbands.
“It’s been in that location for 52 years. It was a lot (of men) when I first started working and was mainly fathers and sons,” Prince said.
McCoy’s clientele is made mostly of middle-school to college-age kids. She said she tells her clients about educational opportunities and encourages them to study hard.
“I like to give hope. I started not knowing anything about anything and I’ve been doing this for 11 years,” McCoy said. “I can’t do none of this without the grace of God.”
Both McCoy and Prince said they love their work and although there may be challenges, they want to see more women in the barbering industry.
“We do need more females,” McCoy said. “Any type of minority or person can come up in this business.”