Barbershop changes owners but clients remain “in good hands”
by Melissa Martin
As Kenny Lampton sits in the lobby of Hinckley Barber and Styling, he can’t help but smile as he looks around, reflecting on the space that’s served as his second home for the past 27 years.
“We’ve definitely raised a lot of kids in here, that’s for sure,” he recalls proudly. “There have been so many who came in here for their first haircuts. At first they come in screaming and crying, not wanting to even sit in the chair. But by the time they come back for their second or third visits, they run through the door ready to go.”
Though his first pint-sized clients have now grown into adults, Lampton said several remain loyal patrons and have started bringing their own children along with them for haircuts.
“They’ve become my family over the years and it’s been fantastic to watch them grow and be a part of their lives,” Lampton says proudly.
Amber Nicole Smith says that old-fashioned, family atmosphere inside the 60-year-old barbershop was the number one selling point when she was looking for a job as a stylist back in 2016. Being welcomed into the family with open arms over the past five years, however, is what ultimately convinced her to purchase the business from Lampton this past month.
“Everybody talks to everybody when they are here and there’s a whole lot of good conversation,” Smith said, adding that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, clients would come in, sit in the lobby and read the paper just to soak up the exchange. “There’s also so much laughter in this building every day that it’s impossible not to fall in love with the place.”
Though Lampton, 63, has no plans to hang up his clippers any time soon, he admits he is approaching retirement and wanted to make certain his longtime clients are “left in good hands” once he decides it’s time to call it quits.
Smith, he says, is just the person he was looking for.
“She fits right in here and she has since day one,” Lampton said, adding that he has elected to stay on as a barber for at least the next two years even though Smith, a Brunswick resident and mother of two young boys, has assumed the role as the shop’s owner. “She’s going to do great.”
Though buying and reinventing a business during a global pandemic wasn’t necessarily ideal, Smith, 30, said she knew it was an opportunity she couldn’t let pass by. Though she has plans to remodel the shop inside with a new coat of paint and the purchase of new equipment and tools popular in the trade, for the time being she plans to focus on continuing to operate under the numerous safety protocols Lampton implemented this past year.
In addition to sanitizing chairs in the lobby and in the cutting area itself between every client, it’s also become the shop’s policy that every client be draped with a freshly laundered barber cape while in the chair. Additionally, Smith says, she will continue to forego walk-in clients for the foreseeable future and will require all customers to schedule appointments in order to keep the number of people in the business to a minimum at all times.
“Our business and the industry as a whole took a massive hit due to COVID, and we’re working hard to bring people back,” she said, noting that the shop was subject to a mandatory state closure early on in the pandemic. As a result, several of the shop’s clients continue to shy away from the business in fear of being in such close proximity to other people while another handful passed away from the virus. “I want people to see that we will continue to keep them safe – pandemic or not – whenever they walk through my front door.” ∞
Feature Image Photo Caption: Amber Nicole Smith is the new owner of Hinckley Barber and Styling, located on West 130th Street in Hinckley. Photos by M. Martin
