This month, in celebration of Black Business Month, Capital B Gary is publishing a series of stories highlighting businesses, business owners, and entrepreneurs in the city.
At 12 years old, William “Bill” Coker came home from the barber college with a haircut he hated. Disappointed, he grabbed the clippers his mother kept in the house and fixed it himself. What began as a personal fix quickly became more: first, he paid people to let him cut their hair, then, before long, kids were paying him for his services.
Forty years later, Bill Coker is no longer the boy who once paid for practice cuts. At 52, he presides over one of Gary’s most enduring barbershops. Running Billco Barber Shop for nearly three decades, Coker has upheld a tradition that stretches beyond just fades and crisp lineups. In Black communities, barbershops have long served as gathering spaces — places where people come not just to look good, but also to connect. That tradition continues at Billco’s, making it both a business and a cultural anchor.
“I didn’t know it was going to be my destiny,” Coker said. “And now I’m actually walking in my destiny.”
During his teenage years and into early adulthood, Coker spent as much time as possible perfecting his craft.
After spending a year in college, he returned home and worked, while cutting hair as a side hustle. Eventually, he realized he didn’t enjoy his job and decided to focus on cutting hair more.
Taking a leap of faith, he offered $5 house calls, requiring a minimum of four people. There was just one problem: He wasn’t licensed.
Then, when a client walked him to barber college, the rest was history. He graduated in 1994 and began working at his mother’s salon.
“I think I was chosen to do this; it just came out of my spirit,” Coker said. “I’ve always had a passion for it, and I never not wanted to do this.”
Coker worked with his mom for a while; together, they opened a shop called Top of the Hill. Yet, wanting to branch out, he set his sights on opening a shop of his own to grow as both a barber and an entrepreneur.
He got his feet wet with his first shop, located on 38th Avenue and Broadway, but soon outgrew it. Needing more space, he opened the first big Billco’s in the plaza on 11th Avenue and Broadway, with nine barbers.
“That was the best time of my life,” he said.
When leasing no longer made sense, he searched for a building he could own. Driving down Broadway one day, he spotted a storefront that once housed a clothing shop called Just for Me.
“This used to be a clothing store called Just for Me,” he said, sitting inside Billco’s current home on 24th and Broadway. “I just thought that was too ironic because I was looking for a building called Just for Me,” he said jokingly.
In 2005, he purchased the building. Two decades later, the building houses eight full-time barbers on one side and six suites for small entrepreneurs on the other.
“It’s very rewarding to see just the city thrive, and you be a part of it,” he said.
Barbershops have long been pillars of Black communities. And Coker wants his barbershop to be just that: a community.
“We’ve created a family-oriented, righteous atmosphere here,” he said, gesturing around the shop. “We welcome so many walks of life. I only want to create a positive and pleasant environment.”
While the Gary native no longer lives full time in the city, he still dedicates time to the shop and his craft.
“One of my goals as a barber was to work less and make more,” he said. “When I moved to Houston, I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want to be put in a barber box.”
That change came when he attended a hair replacement class in Dallas. It opened a new niche, which quickly took off. Today, he visits Gary monthly while balancing his work in Houston, relying on his team to keep Billco’s running.
Deedra Jones, also known as Dee Dee, is the first face customers see when they walk into the shop.
She has been a part of Billco’s for almost a decade. Unlike her boss and friend, the 33-year veteran didn’t have the immediate call to the craft.
She enrolled in barber college in 1991. Her mother paid $1,800 for tuition, and Jones said she didn’t want to waste the opportunity or her mother’s money. She obtained her license, completed her required hours on Saturdays, and landed a job at a shop seeking a female barber.
“I’ve never wanted to quit; this has been my only job,” she said.
Jones floated between shops in the region before joining Coker, whom she had known for years.
“This is home; I’m done,” she said, calling Billco’s the last shop she’ll work in.
Carl Blakely, another longtime barber, said he returned to Billco’s after running his own shop in Michigan City for a decade.
“It’s deeper than just trying to get some money from you,” he said. “I like creating something from nothing. You come in looking one way, and you leave transformed.”
Similar to Coker, he started cutting hair as a preteen and has continued for 30 years. A “student of the game,” as he states, he learned from watching his barber cut hair for hours before his appointment and practicing on friends and family.
Through the faith of one family member, Blakely was encouraged to attend barber school before joining his cousin, Bishop, at Billco’s years later. Having his cousin working at Billco’s, he saw firsthand the community behind the shop and knew that he wanted to be a part of it — especially the jokes and environment they created.
Jones and Blakely said Billco’s is committed to service first. Customers who can’t pay aren’t turned away.
“We look out for them to make them feel good about themselves,” Jones said. “We’re not gonna take it as a loss, like we just lost haircut money.” Having built those relationships with clients, they know that they’ll come back and take care of it.
For Coker and his team, barbering has never been just about hair. It’s about community.
“I believe the barbershop is one of the most important things in the [Black] community, next to a church,” Blakely said.
