Gayle, the Barber
How does it feel to have your three cousins sit still in a chair for you and do whatever you tell them to do?
The answer is “awesome!” Gayle Prince, a female barber, did just the same thing to her three cousins when she was 12. And since then, she found out her real passion.
Gayle Prince went to the Ohio State Barber College in 1982. On the first day in the school, Gayle surprisingly found out that the number of female barbers in school was higher than the male ones.
“I was kind of nervous because I thought it would be the only woman in Barber College,” Gayle said. “The first floor of the building had all men cutting hair and the upstairs was where they told me to go. So I went upstairs and there were mostly women cutting hair and very few men. So then I didn't ask anyone anything, but I went back downstairs. I thought I must, I must need to be downstairs. And they said, no, this is the cosmetology school, the barber schools upstairs.”
Gayle watches TV news after work when she is posing for a portrait.
"What makes me passionate about barbering is I enjoy making men look and feel confident about themselves when they're around women.
I am a woman that I know what other women are looking for."
Gayle Prince (left) and Dave Dolder (right) cut hair for their customers.
Gayle Prince (left) and Dave Dolder (right) cut hair for their customers.
Gayle Prince tries to get the hair out of her skin.
Gayle Prince (left) and Dave Dolder (right) cut hair for their customers.
After graduation, Gayle quickly began her career at Nini’s Barbershop where she has remained loyal for the past 36 years. However, most of her classmates in school pursued jobs beyond this major. There were only a couple of other female barbers that she met in school.
Gayle had to face her first challenge in this job right after she started working in Nini’s Barbershop. She could not get older gentlemen to sit in her chair to get a haircut. They weren't going to allow a woman to cut their hair. Until one day, one of the customer said “Oh hell, I might as well try it once before I die.” He sat in her chair and never sat in anybody else's, just like what others did later.
“I mean the audience will know like what you are really talking about. I am a woman that I know what other women are looking for,” said Gayle. “And they kept coming back to me and saying ‘my wife will never believe I did this.’”
“'I am very detail-oriented and I think they liked that. I think their wives like that when they come home because they've told me before,” said Gayle.
Now, Gayle and one of her customers, Michael McComb, are planning to open her own Barbershop. As a female barber in this male-dominated profession, Gayle is going to open a new chapter of her life.
There is hair everywhere in the barbershop, especially on barber's hoodie.