Longtime Waco barber Henry Williams faced a tough realization in May.
While giving a routine haircut, the 83-year-old noticed his vision had deteriorated, and he knew his days of giving fades were numbered.
“I realized I couldn’t see that hair,” Williams said. “I knew it was time I better give it up.”
![Mr H Barber](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=150%2C114 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=200%2C151 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=225%2C170 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=300%2C227 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=400%2C303 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=540%2C409 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=640%2C484 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=750%2C568 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=990%2C749 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C783 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C908 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C1009 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C1117 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/3f/d3f5f0aa-3583-11ef-b568-3b6c02a38d53/667f0d9277e6d.image.jpg?resize=1654%2C1252 2008w)
Henry Williams’ barbering career started in the 1960s in Dallas before he moved to Waco in 1984, where he has remained ever since, tending to regulars, offering free cuts to people in need and mentoring young barbers including Rocko Bolts, seated. After 55 years, Williams recently decided to hang up the clippers, and family and friends will celebrate his retirement this weekend.
But knowing it was necessary did not make stepping away from the chair and into his next chapter easy for Williams. He said his heart was not ready to put a bow on his 55-year career, but his health gave him no choice. Williams also began a journey of kidney dialysis earlier this summer.
“I like cutting hair and talking to people,” said Williams, who got his barber license in 1969. “People bring all their problems to the barber. … Sometimes we (my customers and I) cry a lot together. We get pretty close.”
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Williams, most known as “Mr. H,” used thousands of neck strips over the last five decades, nearly 40 of those years spent in Waco. Williams opened Mr. H’s Barbershop, a popular spot on Faulkner Lane in East Waco, in 1985, before becoming what he coined a “community barber” in 1991.
From that point until May, Williams made his way around Waco to provide free haircuts to people in nursing homes or hospitals and those confined to their homes due to illness.
“I’d go wherever I could,” Williams said.
Leaving Mr. H’s Barbershop did not stop Williams from giving haircuts to his loyal customers. He said those bonds are what he appreciated the most about the job outside of the money.
“Now, I retired and some of them still call me and talk to me, asking me how I’m doing,” Williams said. “I miss a lot of my customers, and I imagine they miss me too.”
But giving haircuts was not the only thing Williams cared for. He said he wanted to be a role model in the community and would do anything to help the next generation.
He can count Waco native Rocko Bolts among the people he has inspired. Bolts, now the 34-year-old owner of RocMyStyle barbershop, 200 Hillsboro Drive, said he bought his first barber chair from Williams and is grateful to Williams for helping him get started on his journey 14 years ago.
![Mr H Barber](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=150%2C107 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=200%2C143 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=225%2C161 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=300%2C214 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=400%2C285 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=540%2C385 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=640%2C457 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=750%2C535 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=990%2C706 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C739 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C856 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C951 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C1053 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/08/e08499f2-3583-11ef-bf30-f3d09343490d/667f0da788845.image.jpg?resize=1704%2C1216 2008w)
Rocko Bolts smiles as he looks through some of Henry Williams' photos from his 55-year career along with one of Williams' daughters, Shenequa. Williams sold Bolts his first barber chair 14 years ago, and he now runs RocMyStyle, 200 Hillsboro Drive.
“We go to the same church. He came up to me, told me that he wanted me to see something that he had,” Bolts said. “So, I went over to his house, he showed me around, and he showed me the barber chair. And he sold it to me for a pretty good price, and it was an antique so it wasn’t like a regular barber chair. It was a hefty duty barber chair.”
Bolts said that gesture back in 2010 helped him get to where he is now. He said he does not take it for granted, and hopes to pay it forward.
“I think it’s inspirational because it gives me the idea of what I need to do for the next generation,” Bolts said. “I know what it felt like to have somebody to support me when I got started, so that makes me want to support the next person.”
![Mr H Barber](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=150%2C136 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=200%2C182 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=225%2C204 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=300%2C273 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=400%2C363 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=540%2C491 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=640%2C582 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=750%2C681 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=990%2C900 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C940 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C1090 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C1211 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C1341 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/a4/da42a098-3583-11ef-b768-0b2b36194d0e/667f0d9d0ec3b.image.jpg?resize=1510%2C1372 2008w)
Rocko Bolts, owner of RocMyStyle, 200 Hillsboro Drive, is one of the young barbers Henry Williams inspired in his 55-year career, and Bolts said he hopes to pay forward the kindness Williams showed him.
Williams said it brings him joy to know that many people “wanted to be a barber because I was a barber.” He said he attributes that to spending 55 years in the profession, which gave him a chance to cut across as many as three generations in one family.
As Williams reflects on his career, he said he will never forget how he started cutting hair. Being a barber ran in his family, but he did not start hooking up the clippers himself until the mid-1960s when he grew tired of paying for haircuts for himself and his three sons, who tragically have all passed away.
“During this time, times were very hard, so I got the idea of cutting my boys’ hair,” Williams said. “So I went to Sears, I was in Dallas, bought me a pair of clippers. And I was cutting one style of hair, we call it the ‘onion.’”
Then, Williams got his barber license and cut at Graham’s Barber Shops and Lee’s Barber Shop in the 1970s, where he made a name for himself and cut for some famous Dallas Cowboys players.
“We had Rayfield (Wright), Jeff Rohrer, Bob Hayes, (Thomas) Henderson. All of those old guys came into our barbershop,” Williams said. “And I had the pleasure of cutting Pettis Norman’s hair.”
![Mr H Barber](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=150%2C107 150w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=200%2C143 200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=225%2C161 225w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=300%2C215 300w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=400%2C286 400w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=540%2C386 540w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=640%2C458 640w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=750%2C536 750w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=990%2C708 990w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=1035%2C740 1035w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C858 1200w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=1333%2C953 1333w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=1476%2C1055 1476w, https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/wacotrib.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/e/45/e4520a24-3583-11ef-8b11-2723376b612b/667f0dade5081.image.jpg?resize=1702%2C1217 2008w)
Henry Williams, middle, stands with his two daughters, Shenequa, left, and Sherry, right. Shenequa is inviting the community to join them as they celebrate their father’s retirement from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Bellmead Civic Center.
Williams moved to Waco in 1984 and hasn’t left since. His two daughters, Shenequa and Sherry, are helping him as he navigates retirement. They are not letting their father step away from the chair quietly, though, as they are inviting the community to attend a retirement celebration for the longtime barber.
The event will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Bellmead Civic Center, and Shenequa said anyone who wants to support Williams on his way out of the profession is welcome to swing by.
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Henry Williams earned his barber license in 1969 and finally decided to hang the clippers up back in May, capping off a 55-year career.