Shawano barbershop offers ‘old-school,’ urban feel

Cheryl Hentz

Contributor

October 6, 2025

SHAWANO – For those looking for a barbershop in Shawano, they’ll find only one: The Shawano Barbers.

Owner Jesse Krajenka said he and a partner opened the small-town barbershop in 2018 under a different name, renting space in the back of the former Pingel’s Meat Market at 526 S. Main St.

Business was thriving, he said, and they were quickly outgrowing their original location.

However, about 14 months after opening, Krajenka said unforeseen circumstances resulted in him buying out his partner and quickly looking for a new name and larger space.

As luck would have it, he said he found and purchased a historic building full of character just four blocks away.

A storied space

Dating back to the 1800s, Krajenka said the building has seen a lot of businesses and people come and go over the decades.

Most recently, he said it was home to Euphoria Nutrition Center; before that, it was The Flower Bucket.

Krajenka said he even found documentation indicating the building was a Masonic Temple once upon a time.

Coming up with a new name, he said, was almost as easy as finding a place.

Acknowledging that he likes simple, “old-school” things, Krajenka said he wanted a straightforward name, and decided The Shawano Barbers was about as simple and straightforward as he could get. 

Ironically, soon after officially choosing the name, he said he learned that a barbershop once operated in the Murdock Hotel basement in Shawano and had informally called itself the Shawano Barbers.

Learning this, Krajenka said, inspired him to not only pay homage but also to revive the building’s history through the barbershop’s interior – creating a space middle-aged and older clients would recognize and appreciate.

“I thought if I could bring back some of the history of the building, it would be awesome, because most of the buildings in Shawano are either painted over or modernized in some way,” he said.
Krajenka said restoring the vintage look and feel of his building would set it apart from other buildings downtown.

“Many people remember what the old barbershops looked like, back in the day,” he said. “I wanted to bring back a historical feeling about that for people, including my clients.”

Krajenka said he found some pictures of what the building looked like in the 1800s, which he used as a reference to restore the original brick exterior and bring the building back to its former glory.

Besides restoring whatever he could, Krajenka said he used a graphic artist to create a mural on the front of the building – one that harkens back to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Krajenka said Spencer Young, owner of Forever Young Designs, used stenciled colors and spray paint – mostly blue, red, black and white – to create images of celebrities from that era, such as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, on the building’s facade.

Young said he describes the mural as “classic vintage, with a little grunge.”

“We wanted celebrities from that era because a lot of barbering comes from that old-school, classic time period, even though it’s actually been around for thousands of years,” he said.

Adding such a mural on his building front, Krajenka said, makes it stand out from most everything else around in the Shawano and surrounding areas.

Though he doesn’t have one of the most iconic aspects of barbershops of yesteryear outside the shop – the old-fashioned barber pole – Krajenka said he does have one on display inside, serving as an anchor for his collection of memorabilia from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.  

Some of the memorabilia – which is displayed on shop walls and in display cabinets/counters – Krajenka said he collected himself, but most came from his grandmother, who left him her collection of items from that era and earlier – primarily featuring Johnny Cash and Elvis memorabilia.

“It fit in really nicely with the shop, so I put it in here once I had the inside done,” he said. 

With the most recent tenants being a nutrition store and a floral shop, Krajenka said before The Shawano Barbers opened for business, the entire space was renovated – including the upstairs apartment.

That, he said, was a major project – mainly because there was no heat, no electricity and no plumbing upstairs.

Following months of work, Krajenka said the shop officially opened in September 2019.

Affordable quality

Though barbershop service prices aren’t as low as they were in the era the shop’s design reflects, Krajenka said he aims to keep his rates affordable and reasonable.

“The quality at my shop is much better than most, especially for the price,” he said. “People love the casual, happy atmosphere. Everyone just kids around with each other, and we all have a good time.”

Krajenka said he has four mostly full-time barbers working at the shop alongside him.

As independent contractors renting chair space, he said they set their own schedules.

As a classic barbershop, Krajenka said The Shawano Barbers offer a wide range of styles – from traditional, old-school cuts to unique, customized looks – and take pride in delivering whatever their customers request.

Krajenka said a few customers have requested truly unique cuts – one featuring a barber pole design shaved into the back of his head, and another with a spooky pattern perfect for Halloween.

Beyond haircuts, Krajenka said the shop provides mustache and beard trims, facials, waxing and a 24-karat Gold Facial – known for its skin-enhancing properties – which includes a charcoal mask treatment.

“Just like women go to the salon or spa to treat themselves, a man can come here and treat himself,” he said, explaining that they don’t provide any services that require chemicals. 

In addition to design cuts, Krajenka said another specialty service offered at The Shawano Barbershop is straight razor shaves.

“A lot of people quit using the straight razors, so we’re one of the only ones in the area that actually still use them,” he said.

Though they also cut hair for women and children four and older, Krajenka said The Shawano Barbers primarily serves men, holding a captive audience as the town’s only barbershop.

“I would say women make up about 15-20% of my business,” he said.

Hours of operation for The Shawano Barbers, per its Facebook page, are from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

The next cut

Looking to the future, Krajenka said he would eventually like to expand and open another full-time shop somewhere “within an hour or so of Shawano.”

“I’d need to have someone I could trust running that one,” he said, “but it’s so hard to find barbers these days who actually have a license. I’ve been open seven-and-a-half years, and I just filled all five of my chairs in the last two years.”

Krajenka said he believes some would-be barbers may think that Shawano – because of its smaller size – would not afford them an opportunity to make decent money.

That, he said, is definitely not the case.

“We stay fairly busy all the time,” he said. “You get to meet a lot of different people from all walks of life. And, if you like what you do, the pay is phenomenal.”