Bree Henderson part of industry's growth

LACONIA — Advice from your friendly neighborhood barber: You don’t need to buy those expensive, multi-blade razors.

Bree Henderson, owner of Polished and Proper Barbershop & Shave Parlor in downtown Laconia, said one blade is all you need.

“You have those types of heads where there are multiple blades and they are encased in plastic,” she said. “That’s a safety measure so you can not have your glasses on, you can do it in the shower without a mirror and not hack up your face.

“Straight razors, old fashioned double-edged safety razors, they are basic. They are one blade, which is all you need to take off hair if you’re doing it right. They are the least abrasive way to take off hair because it’s a single blade rather than four going over the same spot twice, and it’s the most cost effective.”

She uses a straight razor in her shop, which has six barbers and is full of customers most days.

A veteran of the U.S. Air Force Security Forces, Henderson is a native Ohioan who came to New Hampshire from Arizona. When she started barber school, there were 600 barbers statewide. Now, there are 3,000.

She opened Polished and Proper in January 2013 at age 23. In 2017, she ran for City Council and finished in a tie for second-place with Mark Haynes. A roll of the dice determined who would advance to the general election. Haynes won and went on to defeat Brenda Baer for the Ward 4 seat.

Henderson considered running again, but decided she would like to move to a nearby rural area outside of the city boundaries, and so would not be eligible.

Henderson often sports interesting hairstyles and colors as a conversation starter. During a recent interview at The Laconia Daily Sun she had a hairdo in the shade of light green.

From her business at 632 Main St., Henderson has had a front-row seat to issues affecting downtown, including parking and homelessness. She’s on the Downtown Tax Increment Financing Advisory Board.

The future of the municipal parking garage is something that city officials have been considering for years. It’s in a deteriorated condition, requiring millions of dollars in repairs, but there’s a faction of people who say this would be like throwing good money after bad.

Henderson’s opinion is that it should be deconstructed.

“I would remove the parking garage and find somewhere else for a parking structure, if I had a magic wand,” she said.

“It’s had negative perception for the last 40 years of its life. Something that’s always had that foundation of perception, it’s really hard to turn around even with fresh coats of paint and a better structure.”

The ground floor of the parking garage is privately owned, and the city-owned structure leaks water into those businesses.

One option would be for the city to buy out the private ownership and knock down the entire structure. Another would be for the city to remove the top deck and leave the first deck in place to serve as the roof for those businesses. Finally, the city could do major work to improve the whole structure.

“The main good to come of deconstructing the parking garage portion would be to remove the city’s liability to pay for the leakage, which has been going on constantly for the private portion,” Henderson said. “I understand that removes parking spots that are currently used, but we’ve had four years of Band-Aids, and it’s less about what’s practical and it’s more about what’s political now.

“It’s not necessarily how much does it cost alone, it’s can you get the votes on the City Council and that’s a totally different level of logic.”

She said there aren't enough all-day parking spots downtown and the ultimate solution will likely be a comprehensive pay-to-park system after a thorough study.

Henderson said she feels safe in the parking structure and in the general area, but understands how some people might have security concerns.

She also understands how some businesses that operate at night might have concerns about the homeless population, but she said that, when her shop is open during the day, she doesn’t see too much of a problem.

“Our homeless population are well known,” she said. “It’s not like a high turnover in new faces. They are the same people, doing the same things, having the same problems, over and over again. They are on a first-name basis with every officer that we have at our (police) department.

“They have their habits. People just choose to do that. They live that way. They don’t want to do anything else. What can you do with that? So, I look at it like everything, it’s a temporary problem. Eventually it will age out.”