Clean cut

April 28, 2017

Lenny Davis has been cutting hair for 32 years.

This afternoon, he wears his usual baseball cap and collared shirt. He retrieves a guard from where it’s clipped to the light fixture above the shop’s long mirror and snaps it onto his clipper. There’s often a bit of a line, but the customers say a trim and fade from Webb’s Barber Shop on Eddie Robinson Sr. Drive is well worth it.

The shop has the feel of a classic black barbershop: Clipped hair falls onto checkered linoleum floors. Banter flies back and forth between chairs. Cash tips pile up on the work stations. But this is also a meeting place for black men in the community, from high schoolers to grayed old men leaning on their canes.

Davis brushes off the shoulders of his client, laughing at a joke he’s just heard. He’s the owner of the shop, and it shows in the way he calmly commands the room. He’s got the steady hand you need to keep those edges perfectly straight—and to turn a barbershop into what has become a hub of the neighborhood for years.

At the back of the shop, Webb’s sells candy bars and chips for pocket change. Davis has set up his business as somewhere to build relationships in the community and lead his youngest customers down the right path. Below one of the air conditioning units is a bucket of free contraceptives; above it, he’s mounted one of many “NO CURSING” signs and a framed portrait of President Obama.

Each customer has his own relationship with his barber, slapping palms with Davis or one of the other barbers as soon as they come in the door. Many customers have visited the same barber for years and will eventually pass that relationship on to their sons.

Business cards and clipper guards line the light fixtures of Webb’s, while tips pile up on a towel. The shop is small, with just enough room for four chairs, but it’s cozy. Some men even take their box lunches in to eat while they wait. Everyone’s family here.

This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.