When Joey Martinez was in the U.S. Army, he started cutting the hair of his fellow soldiers.

That gave him the idea to open his own barber shop.

“I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I just capitalize on this?’ That was always fun.”

And so he did. Martinez is the owner of The Barber Battalion, which is located at 123 W. Washington St., Suite 106, in downtown Oswego.

He opened his business earlier this year and recently opened a second location at 201 W. Hydraulic Ave. in downtown Yorkville.

Martinez, 43, is a 20-year U.S. Army veteran, serving from June 2004 to August 2024.

He lives in Yorkville and grew up in Carol Stream. He is a Glenbard North High School graduate.

Martinez was stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, part of the global war on terror that followed the 9/11 attacks.

Being a barber in the Army gave Martinez the chance to connect again with his creative side. He also is a musician.

“I got to use the artistic side of my brain again,” he said. “And if I did do a good job, their faces would just light up. And I love that feeling. I love giving people that.”

Along with being a barber, he also is a single father. Martinez has two children – a 9-year-old daughter and a 8-year-old son.

Business has been good.

“I did not expect for this to blow up the way it did,” he said. “I was expecting to struggle this first year and we are not doing that. I can’t even express how blessed we are. Everybody that sits in this chair, I want them to feel like a million dollars.”

His customer base includes fellow veterans.

Along with looking good, Martinez also wants to make sure his customers smell good as well. He sells his own cologne as well as apparel as part of his business.

“I’ve always been into colognes since I was a kid,” he said. “I thought that if I want to be different, if I want to stand out just a little bit, why don’t I come up with my own cologne? Why don’t I come up with my own hair products? What’s stopping me?”

Martinez makes his own cologne.

“What I did was that I found a couple of companies that I could outsource with,” he said. “It’s exciting. I’m trying to be a one-stop shop.”

More information about The Barber Battalion is available at its website, barberbattalion.com.