By Barb McKay

After 40 years of beautifying generations of Kincardine residents, Clan Hairstyling is closing its doors.

After 24 years with the business and a decade as owner, Angela Page said its time to get back to the basics of what she loves.

“I want to get rid of the business side and enjoy what I do again,” she said. “I’m leaving with a heavy heart. It’s going to be a big change for me, but it’s the right move.”

Clan Hairstyling will close its doors on March 28. Page will begin the next chapter of her career as a hairstylist at InStyle Hair Studio on April 2.  Her two employees, Erin McNulty and Reina Arnold, both long-time hairdressers, plan to open a salon in McNulty’s home.

Art Campbell first opened Clan Hairstyling in 1973 on Queen Street in the building next to Coffee Culture, which now houses ReMax. Campbell operated the business until 1984, when Judy Showers took over. In 1989, the same year Page joined, Showers moved the business to its current location farther north on Queen Street.

Page, who grew up on a farm in Ripley, had never considered hairdressing as a career choice.

“I took shop (classes) all the way through school,” she said. “I was a tomboy. But my guidance counsellor said, ‘Why don’t you try hairdressing? You like working with tools and you like people.’ I was shocked to hear him suggest that.”

But Page took the advice and enrolled in a hairdressing course in Waterloo and soon fell in love with hairstyling. When she returned to Kincardine she started at the Clan and took over the business in 2002.

“We’re a family unit,” she said. “We’re all team players.”

Page has customers who have been with her from the beginning; some have become just like grandmothers to her and the staff.

“People have been coming here forever,” she said. “It’s a landmark.”

Page added that she’s been blessed with great hairdressers over the years and hopes to keep in touch after the shop closes.