By William Smith
Joan Wail may be the fastest barber in Iowa.
She’s also the most humble.
Wail, who owns and operates His Place Barber at 160 S. Central Ave., is celebrating 43 years of haircutting this year.
When she started, the parking meter required a penny for 12 minutes of parking time. Wail’s efficiency with the clippers made it possible to come in, get a haircut, and get out before that 12 minutes was up.
That resulted in an unintended promotion around Joan’s speed, complete with promo T-shirts with a quick draw cowboy on the front.
To be honest, Wail found the attention to be a bit embarrassing. But it brought in customers.
“I never tried to be fast. But people kept commenting on it,” she said.
Wail is just as efficient and detailed as she was back then, resulting in a massive customer base over the past four decades. She recently shut the shop down due to health problems and returned to work a few months ago, fearing she wouldn’t have any customers left.
That anxiety turned out to be unjust. Before she closed the shop, Wail had 560 customers. So far, she has brought back around 450 of them.
“With the amount of customers I have, they work in my schedule. I’m so blessed,” she said.
God means everything to Joan and her husband, Jack Wail. They’ve been married for 42 years, and she credits Jack with bringing her back to God. They met in a church, but Joan wasn’t conducting herself in a godly way at the time.
“We met in a prayer group. I was struggling at that time with drugs, and he offered to befriend me. I was struggling with wanting to go out and get loaded, and I’d call him, and he’d pray with me, and I would calm down,” she said.
That friendship turned into a marriage, and Joan hasn’t touched drugs or alcohol since. They went on to have three children, and Jack is still her biggest supporter. But she credits her brother for giving her the idea of cutting hair for a living.
“My older brother was a barber, and when I graduated, he said I should get into this,” Wail said.
Stereotypes were changing even then. Once a male-dominated industry, the barbershop profession was increasingly open to women.
“Back then, some men weren’t comfortable with a woman cutting their hair,” Wail said.
Wail saw it as an opportunity and was hooked when she started cutting hair. An Illinois native, Wail moved to Keokuk with her husband before coming to Burlington. She cut hair at an often-forgotten barbershop inside the Hotel Burlington.
After the barbershop closed, Wail stumbled across a business opportunity — a chance to own and operate her own shop.
Wail wasn’t too keen on the idea at first. But her husband was, which was enough to make Wail ask God if she should start her own business.
His plan soon became apparent to her. It wasn’t her idea to open a barbershop. It was His.
That’s how the barbershop earned the moniker “His Place.”
“I felt like God was telling me that He wanted to give me this gift. I didn’t like the gift. I said, ‘No, thank you. That’s not my plan.’ But He won, so that’s why it’s called ‘His Place,’” Wail said.
Wail has come a long way since starting her business in downtown Burlington — spiritually and physically. She’s in the fourth building and has been there for the past 10 years.
“The buildings kind of go out from under me,” Wail said with a laugh. “The first one, the backside of it caved in. So then I went out to Mount Pleasant Street, near the Lincolnville. I was there nine years, and the landlord’s son wanted to put a business in there. So then I moved across the driveway over to this place where Lincolnville Square is. I was there for 15 years. And then the furnace went out,” she said.
Joan and her husband have been longtime volunteers at several organizations, focusing mainly on food pantries. Both are active in the St. Vincent De Paul Food Pantry.
It’s that volunteer work that caused Joan’s health problems. While she was cleaning out an old building, exposure to hidden mold created breathing problems and other health issues that lasted nearly a year.
But she knows it’s all part of God’s plan. Wail returned to her barber chair this past February after a nearly three-month hiatus and has never been happier to be there.
She has no plans to retire. Not anytime soon.
“I would miss my customers too much,” she said.
His Place is open Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon.