Lisa Coberly has spent 21 years working at the Solon Barber Shop, and last week was her last.
An Eastern Iowa native, Coberly trained at the Cedar Rapids School of Hairstyling, and earned her barbering degree in 1988. Before Coberly’s move to Solon, she worked at and co-owned a salon in Center Point. From there, Coberly and her husband purchased the 128 E Main Street building in 2003 and began the process of remodeling. In January of 2004, the Solon Barber Shop opened its door to customers.
“I hope that the city has felt that the business here has been beneficial to the community and it has brought in a lot of people from outside of Solon,” she said. “I got a lot of customers from Mount Vernon, Lisbon, West Branch, North Liberty, and Iowa City.”
As far as what has set Solon Barber Shop apart, Coberly says that it’s the family owned, small town atmosphere, as well as the unique scheduling system.
“I would say what makes the shop different from a lot of shops in the area is the walk-in schedule that I use rather than the appointment schedule,” Coberly explained.
Coberly added that what people would be most surprised by after spending a day in the shop is how busy it can get.
“It’s usually nonstop busy here a lot of days, so just a fast pace of the business,” she said. “There’s not a lot of downtime with the business.”
Coberly says that besides the fast-paced environment, she is going to miss seeing her customers after her retirement.
“My customers have been great to me,” Coberly said. “You know, a lot of them have been with me for the whole 21 years that I’ve been here. They keep the job interesting because you’re always getting to visit with somebody new, and every haircut’s a new story and new person to visit with.”
Furthermore, as far as what advice Coberly would give to barbers new to the job, it’s simple: “Don’t be afraid to work hard,” she said. “Put in the effort of satisfying your customer.”
Although Coberly faced some challenges being self-employed, she says that she overall has never regretted her time in Solon owning the Solon Barber Shop.
“The challenges for being self-employed and for being just a single chair shop was when the kids were younger and involved in activities, having to choose between keeping the door open to the business or attending their sporting events or activities that were going on for them.”
As far as post-retirement plans go, Coberly says she is looking forward to spending more time with her husband and scheduling some fun family vacations for the future.
“We’re just trying to get through reselling the building here, so just trying to get through that process, and once our schedule frees up a little bit more, then we’ll sit down and plan a big trip,” she said.
Coberly adds that the decision for her to retire this year was rather spontaneous.
“It’s been a pretty quick decision for me,” she said. “I started off thinking that I was just gonna cut back a little bit, and then we found out that my husband was going to be retiring here at the end of this year. I just decided that I would also retire, because we both love to travel, so we want to spend more time doing that.”
Both of Coberly’s children live in nearby Cedar Rapids, which was another reason that Coberly decided to pursue retirement. The process of selling the building has also been another step in the process, which Coberly says has gone well. Overall, Coberly is excited for this next phase, and is thankful for her long career here in Solon, as well as her amazing customers.