Hensley's has run with two chairs since the doors opened in 2018. Matthew owns the shop. Riley has been here since 2022. That's it — no rotating staff, no chain-shop turnover. The guy who cuts your hair today is the same one who'll be here next month.
Matthew started cutting hair on the south side of Lincoln in 2018. Two years later he opened his own shop with a single chair, a window facing the morning sun, and a hand-painted barber pole he found at a flea market in Beatrice.
The reviews call it the best fade in Lincoln. He won't say that himself — but he won't argue with you either. What he will tell you is that a fade isn't a haircut, it's a few hundred small decisions made in the right order: where the line lives, how the temple blends, what the crown does when it grows back out. Six years of that work, every day, is the thing the reviews are responding to.
Matthew is on the chair Tuesday through Friday evenings and most of Saturday morning. Walk-ins are welcome when the chair is open; he books up first.
Riley joined Hensley's in 2022 — the second chair filled. Quieter than Matthew, faster than you'd expect, and the one to ask for if you want a beard line-up to remember.
Apprenticed in Omaha, certified for straight-razor work, and the kind of barber who'll spend a full minute getting the corner of a sideburn right because it'll bug them all week if they don't. Hot-towel shaves are the specialty. Beard sculpts a close second.
Riley works Tuesdays through Saturdays. Saturday spots book about a week out.
We picked the storefront on South 10th because the bay window faces south — the morning light is what good cuts need. We picked the chairs because they're old and they've outlasted four shops. The brass coat-rack came with the building.
We're not a salon, we're not a chain, and we're not going anywhere. Walk in. Sit down. Tell us what you want. We'll do it right, or we'll tell you what we'd do instead. That's the whole shop.
Book whichever chair fits your schedule. Walk-ins welcome when the chair is open.