Founded 2011. Quietly.

How we got here

The original five-chair salon opened in March 2011 above a flower shop in the East Village. Maya cut and coloured five days a week, did her own books, and slept above the salon for the first eighteen months. The first hire — Reza Esfahani, our senior colourist — came in 2013 and is still here.

The salon expanded to twelve chairs across two floors in 2018. We’ve deliberately not opened a second location, despite repeated investor approaches; the model relies on senior stylists training apprentices in the same physical space, and that doesn’t multi-locationalise well.

What we believe

• Longer appointments do better work. 90- and 120-minute slots aren’t a luxury — they’re what colour and cuts actually need.
• Education is the salon’s job. We pay for 40+ hours of continuing education per stylist per year. Our team gets better; you get the benefit.
• Cleaner products without performative claims. Davines, Olaplex, K18, Living Proof. Vegan + cruelty-free across the board. We don’t advertise ‘clean’ because the word means too much and too little.
• The space matters. Adjustable chairs, weighted blankets, low-light treatment rooms, no overhead retail bombardment. Calm by design.
• Tipping is optional. We pay above industry average; you’re not expected to top up our team’s income on top of the service price.

What we won’t do

• Pressure-sell at the chair. We’ll recommend products if asked; we won’t bring them up unprompted.
• Run an industrial cadence. Stylists do six or seven services a day, not twelve.
• Cut corners on consultations. Ten minutes seated, every colour appointment, no exceptions.
• Use AI for hair colour matching or virtual previews. We use a colour wheel and our actual eyes; that’s the work.