Lincoln barber cuts hair for 5 generations of Nebraska clan

Dean Korensky, (top left), who works at 33 Street Hair Studio, has done haircuts for five generations of the Anderson family. From bottom, Callum Anderson, father Dalton Anderson and great-grandfather Gary Anderson.

Callum Anderson greets barber Dean Korensky after getting his first haircut Thursday while his mother, Courtney Anderson, holds him. Callum's great-grandfather Gary Anderson (third left) and father, Dalton Anderson, look on.

Callum Anderson gets his first haircut from barber Dean Korensky as he sits with his mother, Courtney Anderson, on Thursday at 33 Street Hair Studio. Callum was the fifth generation of the Anderson family to get a haircut from Korensky.

Callum Anderson gets his first haircut from barber Dean Korensky as he sits with his mother, Courtney Anderson, on Thursday, at 33 Street Hair Studio. Callum is the fifth generation of the Anderson family to get a haircut from Korensky

Callum Anderson had no idea of the significance Thursday held. Such revelations are often lost on 17-month-olds.

So when he was seated — alone at first and then in the lap of his mother, Courtney — in Dean Korensky's barber chair at 33 Street Hair Studio, 2300 Winthrop Road, he couldn't help but notice all the fuss in his vicinity.

His parents were there. So was his newborn little brother. And his great-grandparents, who took turns circling the chair, distracting him with snacks, while Korensky worked quickly to give the towhead his first haircut.

And with the trim, which took less than 10 minutes and no more than that many passes with his silver scissors, it marked five generations of the Anderson family that have found themselves in Korensky's chair.

"I've done four generations many times, but never five," said Korensky, the Geneva native who came to barber college in Lincoln in the 1960s and has made it his calling for more than 54 years. "I won't make it to six generations."

Never say never.

This family journey started innocently enough in the 1980s when Gary Anderson, then the principal at Nemaha Valley High School (now Johnson County Central), made the drive from Cook to get a haircut.

He found Korensky at the Clipper Barber Shop at 12th and O streets. He liked the experience so he kept going back.

"I always said that I wished there was a barbershop closer to home," he said.

There likely was, but Gary Anderson had found his barber. Korensky knew his craft and the conversations came easily. So every five or six weeks, he found himself in Korensky's chair.

A few years later, he brought his father, William Vernal Anderson, with him. Korensky gave each a haircut.

Shortly after that, his son Spencer found himself in Korensky's chair. And when Dalton — Gary's grandson and Callum's father — got his first haircut from Korensky, that marked four generations.

On Thursday, Callum became the fifth generation.

"It's special," Gary Anderson said. "We wanted Dean to give (Callum) his first haircut, to make it five generations. It's a special thing for us."

The significance isn't lost on Korensky, who has marked time by the hair he has cut. He remembers his first client and the day he gave that first haircut. His first day of work — in 1969.

He also mourned the death of that first client, who died five years ago at the age of 90.

"I guess I'm at that place where a lot of my friends are meeting that situation," he said.

Korensky left his chosen trade for about 18 months in the mid-1980s to pursue something else — an opportunity in the insurance industry, but realized he missed cutting hair.

He had little trouble getting his clients back and eventually changed shops a couple of times. He's been at 33 Street Hair Studio for four years, but has cut his workweek down to two days.

"I'm slowly sliding out but don't want to completely let it go just yet," he said.

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Reach the writer at 402-473-7391 or [email protected]

On Twitter @psangimino

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