Renee Atwood opened Honeycomb in November of 2019 with one chair, one barber (her), and a hand-painted sign her dad made in his workshop in Burnsville. Six weeks later the world shut down. She kept the lights on by cutting hair on porches all over West Asheville for the better part of a year.

When the shop reopened, the regulars came back and brought everyone they knew. Renee added Jamal in 2021, Casey in 2023, and Wes — fresh out of the Toni&Guy academy in Charleston — at the start of 2025. Four chairs now, all of them booked most days.

What hasn't changed: the coffee is still ground fresh every morning, the dog water bowl is still by the front door, and you'll still see Renee's dad stop by every Friday to check on the place and sit on the long pine bench for a while.

If it feels less like a barbershop and more like someone's living room — that's the whole idea.