LAFAYETTE PARISH — For Kennedi Walker, the path to becoming a nail artist didn’t begin with polish or designs — it began with watching her father build something of his own. “Of course my dad is a barber so I’ve always watched him growing up and seeing him have his own place, he had his own barber shops and stuff so when I started to get good at it I realized this is what im going to do then I thought maybe I will open my own place.”

Her father, Jason Walker, now owns the Louisiana Barber Academy — and Kennedi’s studio sits just one door over. But unlike her father, her journey wasn’t always clear. Walker grew up loving school and says the medical field seemed like the natural choice — until she started the program and felt herself pulling in a different direction. “I had always wanted to

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