Aces of Trades: One changes course while another comes aboard at Katie's Klipper
DUNCAN FALLS – After years on the job, she’s making some changes.
“My childhood was one that taught me you were entitled to what you worked for,” recalled Katie Imlay. “My parents made sure we understood that hard work and dedication were the keys to success.”
The second of three children, she graduated from Philo High School in 1989 and went on to attend the Hair Experts Barber School and Belmont Technical College to study real estate. She’s been a barber and owner of Katie’s Klipper for 26 years.
“My heart is here because of the relationships I’ve built with my clients,” Imlay noted. “My community has been the backbone of this business. I come to the barbershop, and it’s my place I feel at home. I know I give the community a service, but what they give me is more than that. They’ve become my extended family. I look forward to seeing them, watching their children grow and getting a few moments to be a part of their life. They’ve given me more than an income, they’ve contributed to my life’s blessings.
“As I was finishing high school my plan was to become a teacher,” she continued. “But life had its own plans for me. I became a mother and worked at First National Bank as a teller. My mother knew my career was not what I wanted, and she suggested I become a barber. I thought, ‘Why not?’ We had a barber in Philo and my mom thought he may be retiring soon, and the need would still be there. So I enrolled shortly after that conversation and here we are 26 years later.”
But, she said, “I’ve cut down on my hours to pursue my goal of being a Realtor. But I’m still here part-time and Laken is the new full-time barber here.”
That means Imlay and Laken Ault now run Katie’s Klipper together.
Ault, the middle child of six, grew up in Blue Rock.
“My mom would often refer to me as inquisitive,” Ault recalled, “leaving nothing to the imagination and insisting all my questions be answered. My mother has worked for Dave at Imlay Florist for 25 years as a floral designer and manager, so my first job was working for Imlay Florist, part time. I held this job for 10 years. I also worked for four years in the wholesale beauty supply business. While I was working this job, I took an interest in barbering. Katie and I started talking and planning for both our futures as well as the future of Katie’s Klipper.
“As a kid I dreamed of being a cosmetologist,” Ault continued. “I studied at Mid East and graduated with a certificate in banking and finance. I worked for four years in the wholesale side of the beauty industry. Being there shifted my dream from cosmetology to barbering, so I enrolled in barber school and graduated.
“I would change nothing,” Ault concluded. “All the pieces and parts mean something. From my education in finance, to learning the ins and outs of running a small business from Dave Imlay, to extensive knowledge about wholesale, which led me to Prince Fields and Prince’s Barber Academy, it’s all been a path I was born to travel.”
Katie’s Klipper Barber Shop is located at 179 Main St. in Duncan Falls. For more information, call 740- 674-4085 or look on Facebook.
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at trnews@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com.
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: As Imlay pursues a second career, a new staffer joins Katie's Klipper
