Twin sisters man the chairs at East Dundee barber shop
Identical twin sisters Liz and Kate Stadie of East Dundee do everything together, including sharing the duties at the Barber Shop, which they've owned since 2010.
The Barber Shop is sandwiched between two larger buildings on River Street in East Dundee. The small one-room shop has been a place for men's haircuts since the early 1900s, according to the sisters.
“My dad always got his hair cut here for years,” Liz said. She and her sister, Kate, 25, feel that keeping the barbershop going is the right thing to do.
“I always wanted to go to barber school because I wanted to work with clippers and cut men's hair,” Liz said. She was the first of the twins to attend barber school.
Both women agree it's great to be in charge. “Sometimes I want to be the boss, and sometimes you want to be the boss,” Liz says, joking with her sister.
The twins share a love of bantering with their longtime customers, many of whom come in every couple of weeks. The conversation and laughter often drown out the sound of clippers and scissors at work.
“I really like the conversations. Everyone that comes in is usually quite a character,” Liz said.
“Sometimes the conversation gets pretty hilarious up in here,” Kate added.
Liz and Kate said they get a lot of repeat customers, and that's important to their business. Both say their male customers are really easy to talk to.
The women tease each other about which hair cutting station they have.
“She started before me, so she gets the better seat,” Kate says of the chair by the window.
“It's kind of like the captain's chair,” Liz says with a laugh.
The women say they're not aware of another barbershop run by women, let alone twins.
“I think (women running a barbershop) brings business in,” Kate said, adding that men are likely surprised when they walk in for the first time.
“The customers might think that it's going to be a crusty old guy (cutting hair), but then it's a young girl.”
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