Doing hair is an art.

Amy McComsey-Nelson, owner of Amy’s Whoopti Do Hair Salon in Vermillion, S.D., has been practicing the beauty of art for more than eight years.

“Back when I was younger, I was very artistic,” she said. “I was in art from kindergarten all through my senior year.”

Cosmetology always interested McComsey-Nelson, but she didn’t initially pursue it.

“I went to school for four years to be a teacher, and then I decided this is not what I want to do, so then I went to school to do hair and I just knew right away,” she said.

Although she loves being her own boss, she is responsible for keeping books, laundry, cleaning bathrooms and maintaining relationships with clients.

“There’s things that people tell me a lot, like personal things about their lives, and they know a lot about mine as well,” she said.

Whoopti Do is open Tuesday-Friday and services include hair, nail, waxing, facial and laser hair removal.

Melanie Gilkerson and Meredith Moriak are student journalists at the American Indian Journalism Institute.