By the time Laura Mattingly arrived, just after 7 p.m. on Monday night, all the lights in the R Bar had dimmed but one — a spotlight shining on a red leather barbershop chair, not far from the entrance.

It sat empty, ready for her.

She grabbed a broom, tossed her clippers onto the bar and plugged an extension cord into an outlet above the ATM. Then, as music played and patrons drank, Mattingly began giving haircuts.

But before the haircuts, hugs.

Here, every Monday night, $20 gets you a cut, a shot and a moment with Mattingly who, with her steady hands, easy laugh and "badass" reputation, as the bartender put it, has become as much a fixture as the chair.

Since she started cutting hair here in 2011 — with one long, notable, difficult absence — the Marigny neighborhood has gone from wo

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