Local barbershop owner finding creative ways to support veterans

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - Allied Barbershop and Supply in downtown Davenport opened its doors during Covid in 2020.

Other than being the owner and operator of the shop, Russell Maidlow is a big supporter of our military veterans and shows his support in creative ways.

Maidlow was laid off from his job in February 2020 and began a hobby of making soap, which he sold at craft fairs, in the summer of that year, which led to him following his passion and opening his barbershop.

“June of 2020 I actually decided to just go for it and open it,” Maidlow said.

Maidlow said he had a five-year plan to open his barbershop one day, but once the pandemic hit, he decided its time to pull the trigger.

“Covid happened and it was just like, well, I’ve got the branding done,” Maidlow said. “Let’s see what we can do and it’s you know, two and a half years in, the barbershop was actually completed to the name where it finally makes sense.”

When asked about the business, Maidlow said it’s been pretty good but, likes to promote his shop by word of mouth.

“Having people that find this place cool enough to come here and then telling their friends like, hey, you should go check this place out,” Maidlow said. “It leads to like, keeping a pretty cool customer base.”

On June 3 Allied Barbershop and Supply will be celebrating 3 years of business and Maidlow says it was great to see it all come together.

“It’s interesting to see it come full circle in three years and to be able to have done it for three years,” Maidlow said.

Besides being owner, Maidlow is a big supporter of our U.S. military and says that’s part of how this place started.

“My brother served as an Airborne Artillery and came back with some PTSD issues,” Maidlow said. “And it didn’t end well for him, or any of us for that matter, and it’s just kind of, that’s how this place really started.”

Maidlow said he enjoys expressing his support for veterans in unique ways, today he is building a Lego model of the USS Iowa and tells us how that process has been.

“I’ve been working on this thing for probably since the beginning of the year,” Maidlow said. “Like stockpiling the pieces and starting to put it together and it’s now getting very, very close to being done.”

“It’s definitely far and beyond above anything I’ve ever done with Lego before,” Maidlow said. “Especially getting into the, it’s called a moc up, a “maker owned creation”, where somebody designed this boat, it’s not, it’s not a kit by any means, I had to source all legos to build it.”

Maidlow said that this model has 9,700 pieces and he is waiting on nine more to finish the job.

Maidlow said that his barbershop started out on the Hilltop on Harrison Street and moved downtown two years ago.

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