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 be in the medical field I always loved school, I always did really good in school, but once I got to college and I started getting into the nursing classes I was halfway through and I was like I do not like this; this is not for me and I feel like it’s something you need a passion for and I was like I do not have that at all.”
Stepping away from nursing left her unsure of her next move, but she always had an eye for creativity — especially through nails. She loved getting them done, keeping them expressive. “I liked getting my nails done, I always had them really long and you would never see me without them and I was like maybe I’d enjoy doing that.”
That decision opened a door she didn’t expect. Three years later, Walker is the owner of Pink Place Salon Suites — a studio filled wall-to-wall with her favorite color and packed with the tools she uses to bring her ideas to life. She doesn’t just see herself as a nail tech, but as an artist. “I love to do character art, I love to 3D sculpt all of that, sculpting all kinds of different stuff.”
What keeps her going, Walker says, are the people who sit across from her. “Some of them treat me like their daughter, they treat me like their sister, some of them invite me to stuff out of here, that feels good and that’s definitely what keeps me going.”
She says finding passion changed everything. “Im very big on liking what I do and being passionate about what I do because it doesn't feel like I'm working; by the time I get up I'm happy to be here cause I love doing what I do and I'm very big on that.”
From nursing textbooks to nail artistry, she’s carving out her own place in the family story, one design at a time.
