A day in the life of an Old South Baton Rouge barbershop
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.
This article was originally published in the May 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.
