Ten years of making the cut: Woman-owned and -operated Media barbershop celebrates a decade

Giovanni’s Media Barber Shop is marking its 10th anniversary. 

Owner Nichole Missino named it for her son, Giovanni, 17. 

Missino started as a women’s hairdresser but decided she liked cutting men’s hair more and switched.

“It’s very hard to keep women as clients,” said Missino. “A woman is always looking for a deal, and women don’t come in as often as men do. Men get their hair cut every three or four weeks. It’s easier to build a ‘book.’ Men are just kind of nicer.”

“Men are creatures of habit,” Missino said. “If you cut their hair good one time and you have a great conversation, they’re going to come back to you.”

To transition from hairdresser to barber, Missino worked at a barber shop and apprenticed, eventually earning her barber’s license. 

“I got a job at the Art of Shaving, which was owned by Procter & Gamble, and worked there for four years. It’s a stepping stone to opening your own thing.” 

She started looking for a place and bought her first barbershop on Olive Street in Media from another barber. She now owns two other barber shops, one in Brookhaven and another in Havertown. Eventually, Missino envisions five Giovanni’s Barber Shops. 

Asked how she financed the business, Missino said financing is “really hard to come by.”  

Perhaps, that’s not surprising. 

Athan Koutsiouroumbas, a managing director with lobbying firm Long Nyquist and Associates, recently wrote that Pennsylvania ranks 45th among the U.S. states for small businesses owned or co-owned by women,  with only 32 percent owning businesses.

Meanwhile, women comprise 47 percent of the commonwealth’s workers. 

“The top impediment cited by women to business ownership is access to capital, with women-owned firms being disproportionately more likely than men-owned firms to be denied financing when they apply. Women-owned businesses are considered riskier to lenders,” he said.

Missino took classes with SCORE, a nonprofit that provides mentors to small business owners and entrepreneurs,  to help them learn how to run a business. 

“They’re a great organization,” said Missino.

A partner helps her run the Brookhaven shop, and she has a manager at her Havertown location, who will “eventually buy some stakes in the business.”

“I offer that to all my employees,” said Missino. “That, when they’re ready, I’ll help them get out on their own.”  

The three Giovanni’s locations employ 13 people, including Missino.

Shaving is Missino’s favorite part about being a barber. She uses an old-fashioned straight razor. 

“If I could, I would shave all day,” she said. “I actually teach shaving. I go to other shops and teach classes. I love shaving. It’s definitely a lost art, you know?”

“I hear from people all the time, they go to shops, and it was a painful experience,” she said. “Well, it’s not supposed to be a painful experience.” 

But it’s “not taught extensively in barber school,” she said. “I definitely feel like it’s a lost art.”

But she’s taught it to all of her employees.

“It’s really old school,” Missino said.

Missino lives in Springfield with her son and her husband, John, a facilities manager.

 Giovanni is undecided whether he’ll join his namesake business someday, she said.