Dream salons

Check out the world’s trendiest, classiest and most opulent salons

Urmi Chanda-Vaz

Making people beautiful is not limited to cutting and styling hair or applying makeup. It is about offering an experience. Therefore, the business of beauty is best conducted in a beautiful space. Any experienced stylist or esthetician will know and understand the importance of gorgeous spaces. It is therefore no wonder that the world’s best stylists have the world’s prettiest salons. We bring to you the most amazing salon spaces from around the world.

1. Color – a salon by Michael Boychuck, Las Vegas, USA
Perhaps one of the most opulent salons of the world is Color by Michael Boychuck. The stylist was recently named the Las Vegas Colorist of the Decade by leading hair care company Schwarzkopf Professional. And his salon inside Caesar’s Palace also walked away with the coveted “most beautiful salon in the country” by EsteticaDesign’s highly respected Whitebook.

“It’s truly an honor to have Color recognized by such an esteemed publication,” said Boychuck in a statement sent out to the press on Friday. “Our world-renowned designer Faye Resnick, my incredible staff and the remarkable team at Caesars Palace have made Color one of the finest salons in the country.”

2. Cristiano Cora Studio, New York, USA
The Cristiano Cora Studio is a hairdressing salon in New York, is one of those salons riding the architectural Renaissance wave. It was designed by architect Avi Oster, who created a new essence of salon environment that meant to capture the balance between modern architecture and the needs of the hair dressing industry.
On the second floor of a sleek sexy building, the modernist design of the studio with its clean lines and sensuous curves is the perfect setting for a designer whose signature look is both functional and beautiful. The furniture that has been designed by Ross Lovegrove, lends the studio a futuristic yet luxurious look.
Pics: Mikiko Kikuyama

3. Cabello Salon, Belgrade, Serbia
The Cabello Salon in Belgrade, Serbia, is a predominantly black space with a rather interesting design element. In order to overcome the uneven ceiling of the original property, the designers, Studio: a2arhitektura, hung “hair”, or black plastic threads!
In addition to black tones, the interior has furniture made of natural wood-ash brushed, which emphasises natural materials. Despite the predominant black, there is a particular shade of purple light, which marks the visual space reminding one that it is a women’s hairdressing salon. Although in its interior measurements, the salon is small, these small touches add a new visual identity to the space.
Photos: Vladimir Andjelkovic.

4. Boa Hairdressers Salon, Zurich, Switzerland
Another ‘hairy’ salon is the Boa Hairdressers Salon in Zurich, Switzerland. Designed by Zurich-based Claudia Meier the interior features a series of white translucent fibres hanging from the ceiling, with light filtering through them over the workstations. Meier has used varying lengths of the fibre to give the impression of cut hair. A slight movement circulates in the fibres created of the hairdryers blowing air through the space.

In another point of resemblance to Cabello, this salon uses natural materials for furniture. However, the natural materials in this case are tree stumps meant for use as side tables and stools. With such effects Meier was certainly able to execute her brief of creating a “new world”.

5. Haarwerk, Cologne, Germany
Less salon and more set from a futuristic film, the Haarwerk hairdressers shop in Cologne is a fine specimen of contemporary design. Designers Hackenbroich Architecten designed this salon, which is situated in an old factory building. The most amazing aspect of the otherwise stark interiors is the light installation. There are 75 light bulbs extended on black flexes from a central point. A cloud of lights expands through the store. With the visible wires they form a spatial texture like a distorted chandelier. The lights can be controlled and dimmed in five circles to allow a smooth transition of various illuminated conditions.
The architects used wallpaper to make the functional elements of the shop appear to be extruded from the back wall. The idea was fluctuating the appearance between a refined and rough appearance.
Pics: Via dezeen.com

6. NE Salon, Osaka, Japan
NE, located in central Osaka, is a hair dressers shop for a young couple that started up their own business. The austerely-designed salon is fairly small, but has been architecturally conceived as a narrative sequence of abstracted objects and volumes. An iconic stair, free-standing box-like mirrored screens, and a brick room among other things makes NE stand out.
Japanese designer Teruhiro Yanagihara designed this place in a manner that would hide different areas of the salon so as not to reveal the function of the space. This place is a beautiful combination of esthetics and functionality.
Photographs are by Takumi Ota.

7. Fujitsubo, Japan
Fujitsubo, the salon in the Omote-sando area of Tokyo, represents one of the trendsetting centers for the metropolis. Designed by Japanese Archivision Hirotani Studio, the salon is covered in copper sheets. The copper sheets, which change with the passing of time, have been used to express “Time” in an area where information and environments change rapidly.
The building has three roof openings, which funnel light down into the interior where it penetrates to the storeys below due to slit-like glass panels in each floor. The interiors are white and geometrical offering the much-deserved spotlight to the exterior.

8. LIM (Less is More), Singapore
This beauty salon with faceted walls is located within a hotel in central Singapore, and was designed by Japanese designer, Teruhiro Yanagihara. This outlet of the salon chain called LIM (Less Is More), has an interior space divided into three different zones – reception, cutting and shampooing areas - by the faceted structure.
Movable panels with mirrors on them fold out of the wall in the cutting area and can be moved back to create an open space for events and concerts.
The salon can also double up as a gallery, with a small dedicated space located in the timber reception area.
Photographs: Choo

9. Nafi, Basel, Switzerland
The space of this salon is subdivided into two zones, which are being separated by a sharp border. The two areas strongly contrast in their function as well as in their spatial atmosphere. The ceiling and the walls of the entry zone are seamlessly covered with photocopies on packaging paper made from Vogue magazines from the 1920s until today. Opulently furnished and bathed in warm light, the entry is an invitation for a rest, for purchasing products and for discussing the newest styling – trends. In the white working area nothing distracts the work of the hair stylist.
SÜDQUAI patente.unikate. in collaboration with ZMIK have refurbished this hair
Photos: Eik Frenzel

10. Lodge Salon, Hiroshima, Japan
Japanese architects Suppose Design Office created the Lodge Salon in Hiroshima along with architect Makoto Tanijiri, who wanted to design a space without any stereotypes.
The hair salon offers two spaces, one is close and the other is open, to meet demands both of customers and workers. The place is divided in three spaces with a mirror and shelves, and there are no walls just as dividers. To control the height of the partitions made the hair salon possible to have the two types of spaces for both of customers and stuffs who have opposite demands to a salon space. Moreover, the mirror stainless plate also functions to create a flow of the space, and the surface combined mirror and vibration finish could emphasize the movement more. We like!

This article appeared in the May 2012 issue of StyleSpeak - The Salon & Spa Journal.