WHITEHALL — Cheryl Lorenz moved to Whitehall from Chicago after getting her cosmetology license in 1970. After opening her own salon, she opened a door that would create a multigenerational family of hairstylists.
Lorenz did hair for 36 years before she passed away in 2008, but her legacy lives on through Modern Image in Whitehall and a family that has kept the business going.
“I always wanted to do hair,” Lorenz’s daughter and Modern Image co-owner Kim Snellenberger said. “I used to go with my mom to work all the time. I was her shampoo girl and secretary throughout the years.”
Despite growing up watching her mother in the salon industry, Snellenberger didn’t have the opportunity to attend cosmetology school immediately after graduating high school. She later followed in her mother’s footsteps and started working at White Lake Barbershop.
“I didn’t do it right off the bat because I worked at Pizza Hut as a waitress for a lot of years and didn’t really have the money for cosmetology school,” said Snellenberger. “I got married right away and just didn’t have cosmetology school in the budget. My sister Laurie (Davis) found out for me that I could do an apprenticeship with my mom, and then from there I worked at the White Lake Barbershop.”
Laurie was offered a program in high school that would allow her to explore the world of trades, which led her to get in the family’s line of work.
“I debated between construction and cosmetology,” Davis said. “Cosmetology was more fast-paced and I liked the results (being) quicker. I’m also a people person.”
As Snellenberger and Davis grew in their skills, they quickly gained a loyal following.
“After my apprenticeship, Laurie and I opened Modern Image, originally next to where Homestead (restaurant) now is,” said Snellenberger. “The first day we opened, we were immediately busy. We had our regulars from White Lake Barbershop who followed us over. Originally we only did men’s hair and then we learned how to do everything. When we opened Modern Image, our regular guys would ask us if we would (cut) their wives’ and daughters’ (hair). Now we’re probably 60% women and 40% men, when we were originally 95% men and 5% women.”
Davis eventually started bringing her daughter Presley with her to Modern Image. Presley, like Snellenberger, grew up in the salon environment. Snellenberger said Presley would sometimes pretend to be sick just so she could come to work with her mom, rather than attend school.
“I grew up in the salon, kind of the same as Kim,” Presley Davis said. “I was a receptionist, I washed hair, cleaned bowls and ripped foil. I’ve done that since I was probably eight years old, but I would come to work with my mom every time I had a school break or on the weekends. I was always here. Then they offered that same program while I was in school, so I actually went to cosmetology school while I was in high school. I was probably four months out of high school when I got my license.”
Many think separating family life from work would be difficult. But the three have found the benefits of working together outweigh the disadvantages.
“I have people that will say, ‘how can you work with your sister and your niece, don’t you always fight?,’ said Snellenberger. “Very rarely. It’s usually a sisterly fight that will last 30 seconds and if it lasts longer than that, we don’t bring it in here. We just pretend we’re only coworkers.”
Laurie Davis said working together has actually made the three of them closer, rather than causing rifts in their relationships.
“We’re always working, so we actually get to hang out,” Laurie Davis said. “If anything happens, we have each other’s backs.”
“I think we’re way closer than we would be if we didn’t work together,” said Snellenberger.
