Two Delphi businesses make community members look their best
By Debbie Lowe Staff writer

'We specialize in you' and have a good time doing it! Country Hair II owner Kathy Dunbar enjoys meeting new customers and serving long-standing ones in her shop on N. Washington St. Dunbar followed her dream from the beginning to own a styling salon. Comet photo by Debbie Lowe

In every community there are businesses devoted to customers' appearance and wellbeing. Delphi is unique in that it is large enough to support several such businesses and small enough to see each one as individual efforts to enjoy. It is always about what services are offered, but in Carroll County it sometimes is also about those who own the businesses and provide the services.

Two Delphi businesses, Country Hair II and K. Weatherwax Photography, are in the business of making people look their best. When a customer walks out of one, they usually have smiles on their faces and look swell. When customers leave the other business, they too have smiles, but for a different reason. One service is for the here and now and the other service is to preserve images for posterity.

Life is art… Set up and ready to go! Karen Weatherwax posed in her studio to demonstrate just how simply art and life can be portrayed. Comet photo by Debbie Lowe

Both are owned and operated by genuinely interesting women who possess strong characters and the fortitude to strive when it would have been easier to quit and go home.

One came to her business from a long-time desire to do just what she is doing. The other one took a less direct route to find what she feels called to do. One supervises several employees and one works alone.

But both are passionate about what they do in Delphi. And both of them followed the little voice, the muse's voice, to arrive where they are today.

Country Hair II

Country Hair II is owned and operated by Kathy Dunbar, who grew up in Camden as Kathy Britton. Dunbar has been in business for the past 23 years. Her shop is located on N. Washington St. across from the courthouse square.

Dunbar said the business started with four stylists and has grown to support six. Each stylist is an independent contractor, with an investment in the business, who has an interest in making the shop run and run well. Dunbar said some of the stylists have been with her for 15 years. She referred to the business relationship as everyone being "in sync."

"We just kept growing," Dunbar said. "It's a real nice mix."

All but one of Dunbar's stylists are Carroll County residents and the one who isn't lives just across the Carroll/Tippecanoe County line.

Dunbar owned the tanning salon adjacent to the business for many years but sold it after being involved in a serious car wreck, which resulted in physical limitations for her. Dunbar said a long-time employee purchased the business and that move pleased her.

"The quality we had for 20 years was still there," she said.

As a proud business owner, Dunbar said the "livelihood of the downtown is vitally important."

Community is also important to Dunbar. She has been married to her husband Greg for 25 years They raised two children who were "extremely active in sports."

Dunbar said her children would visit her at her shop as they were growing up.

"The children were taught respect around the shop," she said. "They were taught to look people in the eye, call them by name and show respect."

"Some customers helped them with their spelling words," she added, noting the community-minded feel of her business.

"We are always looking for new customers," Dunbar said about her business outlook. "There is just an energy around someone new who walks through the front door. We take pride in other people's appearance. It is just an excitement and energy we all enjoy in our job."

The shop enjoys serving not only Carroll County residents but draws customers from Cass County, Frankfort and Lafayette. And the business does its share of supporting the community with donations to schools, breast cancer awareness and has sponsored HOG (Harley Owners Group) riders in the annual MDA ride.

Dunbar said she is very proud of the local businesses and the community. And with the motto, "We specialize in you," she lives that pride every day.

K. Weatherwax Photography

Karen Weatherwax, owner and operator of K. Weatherwax Photography told a different story about listening to her inner voice to be where she is now. Weatherwax, with a computer programming degree from Ivy Tech, is employed at Purdue University in that field. She said she began attending Purdue classes to achieve a four-year degree a few years ago, but realized "I didn't really want to do that."

Weatherwax said she had something creative inside of her that she could not ignore. But she did not realize until the mid-'90s that creative force had to do with photography.

"This is not exactly the first venture," she said. "But I've changed. I now realize working in this medium is what I am supposed to be doing."

She said she took some photo classes at Ivy Tech in the '90s and relished darkroom work.

"It was all film when I started in photography," she said. "I've always taken pictures and I've always had cameras."

"The thing that got to me was that I took some pictures that everybody loved. I've been in pursuit of that ever since," she explained.

As Weatherwax listened to the muse's voice, she said she saw an article in a magazine about how to make money in photography that appealed to her.

"I ordered the information," she said. "There was lots of fluff in it, but I got enough inspiration to see how to develop a business."

"I just thought...okay...I'm going to do this thing," she said.

Weatherwax is a Tippecanoe County resident and graduated from Southwestern High School in 1970. She and her husband, Steven, have two children.

Initially, she established her business out of her home at the Carroll/Tippecanoe County line. She purchased equipment a little at a time, including computers to accommodate the digital age, until the business outgrew her living room studio.

"The official start date of the business was Oct. 1, 2004, when we sold the dining room furniture and moved the living room of the house into the dining room," she explained. "The living room became my studio."

About that time in history, photography was less about snapping shots but more about "making images,"Weatherwax said.

"'Life is Art' is my motto," she said.

Weatherwax decided this year the business had outgrown the living room of her home and a room addition was planned. She decided a temporary studio was needed until the work was completed. Weatherwax decided to move the studio to Delphi, which is closer to her home than Lafayette. She chose a site at 107 S. Union St. However Weatherwax discovered unexpected benefits to the decision.

"It was nice having the studio out of my home," she said. "I discovered that in making the temporary spot into a workable space, it could be the permanent solution."

"This site is more accessible to customers than my house was," she said. "People seem to be very comfortable coming to my new shop. Sometimes people just drop by to see what I'm doing and to ask how the business is going."

Weatherwax primarily makes images of people or portrait photography.

"I love taking pictures of kids," she said. "They are so innocent and interesting. They have pure emotion without a lot of baggage."

"I feel privileged to witness and photograph this," she added.

Along with making images, Weatherwax offers photo-jewelry, custom framing, memory books (coffee table books with family photos grouped or a series of photos with any text desired), photo restoration and custom designed post cards and greeting cards. She also offers a baby plan, which includes one year of photos quarterly for one price.

Weatherwax said she is in the process of retiring from Purdue. She works Mondays and every evening at the Delphi studio. She said within the next five years she will have left Purdue and will devote all of her time to her creative business.

While attending a photo conference last year, Weatherwax became interested, and eventually joined, a not-for-profit organization that provides photographs of infants who have died or are close to death. She explained that in many instances parents have never seen their newborns without tubes and monitors necessary to sustain their lives until it is over.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is a bereavement photography organization dedicated to providing families suffering early infant loss. The organization provides images on DVD and in portraiture, designed to create sensitive images to last a lifetime rather, than memories, which fade over time. The images are designed to serve as an important step in the healing process for families. Weatherwax is the local contact for the organization.

Weatherwax said she is busily establishing her new studio and adding new customers weekly. She can be contacted by calling (765) 564-4626.

No matter what it is called, be it listening to the muse or the little voice inside, both of these women have chosen to follow that which is inside of them to what amounts to them, a logical conclusion. Not following a strictly conventional path can be rewarding, as illustrated in these two examples.