Life goes on.
That's the first thing owner Kelly Armstrong learned when her mother passed tragically in March 2016, at age 56. The following month, Kelly opened this salon in her honor — a way to support herself, and a way to build the vision she'd always carried: a salon that could hold hair, art, books, and music all at once. Even her decision to study cosmetology at 17 traced back to her mom.
"Our hair is a way to hide, and a way to be seen. Like young hawks find shelter under their mother's wings, we can find shelter with one another."
The salon first opened as Cook Studio & Gallery in 2016. Kelly kept the name through a marriage and its end, protecting what she'd built — but nearly a decade on, it felt like time. The vision hasn't changed. Neither has the hawk that has visited her, unbidden, again and again since her days in San Diego — now the spirit and symbol of Hair Studio & Gallery.
When you support this salon, you're supporting a family, a working artist, a small Louisville business doing good in the world. It's dedicated to Kelly's mom — and to mothering itself, in whatever form that takes for you.
