Claude's beauty shop moves back to original Omaha location

Beauty school was Claude Smith’s best option after graduating from high school.

It turns out that Smith enjoyed working as a stylist.

By 1963, Smith and his wife, Carol Ann, opened Claude’s in a plaza at 78th and Pacific Streets. The shop has moved a handful of times over the years, but it moved back to its original bay this summer.

Although Smith is recently retired, his two sons operate the business with a third owner. And Smith’s granddaughter is poised to join the family business after she graduates from beauty school next year.

“It’s beyond any expectations,” Smith said of the long-lasting family business. “It’s a pretty special feeling.”

Smith planned on being a coach out of high school. Then he realized coaches usually taught history, and he “couldn’t stand the thought of teaching history” for the rest of his life.

But Smith thought if he were a barber, he still could talk sports in the shop. Then a relative who was a hairdresser offered to pay for beauty school as a graduation gift.

Smith retired two years ago. Now, the shop is run by his sons Ken and Damon as well as Deb King. The trio decided to lease the Pacific Street spot, preferring that over renting spaces in a salon.

The bay didn’t have an ideal salon setup when they moved in, Ken Smith said. Instead, it was set up for estheticians, with individual rooms. The first order of business was taking off doors to open things up.

“We like each other’s company,” Ken Smith said. “We come in and take care of our clients and give them the best we can give them and not have all the superfluous stuff and high overhead to battle with.”

Most clients followed the three hairdressers. The trio knew a handful wouldn’t make the switch because of how far they would have to drive.

Claude Smith said he drops in occasionally, and he has shuffled some of his clients to his sons. He never gave them unsolicited advice or critiques.

His sons said, however, that they learned a lot from being at and working in the salon growing up.

They folded a lot of towels.

“Everything useful I learned, I learned in the salon,” Ken Smith said.

One of the bright parts of being back in the original location, Claude Smith said, is knowing that Damon’s daughter, Avalon Smith, will join the crew once she finishes beauty school.

“We’re thinking we may make this operation last 100 years with her help,” he said.

Avalon was excited when her father first started showing her styling tips and tricks. She’s now looking forward to working alongside him, her uncle and King.

“Hearing all of the clients tell me that I have some of the best mentors in Omaha is really pushing me along and making me really excited to go into this industry,” she said.

The building is still a work in progress. A sign is slated to go up outside, and some walls may come down to further open up the salon.

But the space includes nods to Smith and the original space. One of the original dryer chairs sits in the hallway. Paintings of Smith and his wife hang in the lobby above shelves of shampoo bottles, conditioners and other hair products.

A photo sitting on one of the shelves shows Claude, along with Carol Ann and Damon, perched in front of the “Claude’s” sign on the window.

Family photos, some showing Smith working on women’s hair, hang in the bathroom.

Ken Smith said being back is “absolutely delightful.”

“I compare it to moving into a haunted house with friendly ghosts,” he said. “A lot of people who I really respected that knew me since I was that tall had worked here. It was like coming back home.”