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SEARCHThis year’s competition witnessed salon and spa owners relax enough to let their personalities guide their design decisions, resulting in 20 distinctly different, incredibly creative, and visually witty SALONS OF THE YEAR.
After the recession struck in 2008, the salon and spa owners who were brave enough, and financially stable enough, to launch a new salon or undertake a major renovation in the following years tended to proceed cautiously—making conservative design choices and taking few risks. These salon architects continued to create gorgeous spaces, but as a group, they tended to design for the status quo and often the end results looked quite similar.
But with the entries into the SALONS OF THE YEAR 2013, the SALON TODAY team is officially declaring the design drought over. This year, entries were markedly up—nearly 40 percent over the past five years— and immediately our team noticed that these owners were making bold, creative, and even humorous choices that took direction more from the owners’ individual personalities than they do from global economic pressure.
Today’s owners are continuing to reshape the client experience. Most applicants had a version of the color bar or color table where clients can interact with one another or pull out their iPad, while their colorist mixes their formula. Others chose to integrate their own version of the blowdry bar into their design, capitalizing on that fashion trend. And, many more factored men into their equation, carving out a separate ‘man cave’ for male-specific services.
Check out all of the images the SALONS OF THE YEAR honorees submitted by visiting each of the honoree's stories below.
GRAND-PRIZE WINNER: Posh Hair Studio, Kew Gardens, New York
FIRST-RUNNER UP: Anthony Cristiano, Chicago, Illinois
SECOND-RUNNER UP: Matthew Morris Salon and Skin Care, Denver, Colorado
THIRD-RUNNER UP: Hair Peace Salon and Spa featuring The Lounge Barbership and Shave Parlor, Owosso, Michigan
SALONS OF DISTINCTION:
20 Volume Salon and Spa, Gilbert, Arizona
Aquae Sulis Salon and Spa, Saint George, Utah
Art+Science Wicker Park, Chicago, Illinois
Artistic Image, Westport Connecticut
Bijin Salon and Spa, Prairie Village, Kansas
Blu Water Day Spa and Salon, Kensington, Maryland
Cortello Salon, Jacksonville Beach, Florida
Exsalonce Salon and Day Spa, Chicago, Illinois
Industry 80 Salon @ Depot Square, Tuckahoe, New York
Jon Alan Salon, Nashville, Tennessee
L.A.R.C. Salon, Dallas, Texas
Lanphier Day Spa and Salon, Darien, Connecticut
Panache Salon and Spa, Erie, Pennsylvania
Pin Curls, Chicago, Illinois
Root, Minnapolis Minnesota
The Refresh Bar & Spa, Rancho Cucamonga, California
Stylists Yene Damtew and Jamal Edmonds launch Coil Event, a textured hair event for working stylists with hands-on education, live demonstrations, industry conversation, and networking.
The award recognizes the partnership between Sally Beauty and Manic Panic.
The easily wearable formula delivers XL volume, extreme length, and a weightless, lifted finish without the heaviness of traditional volumizing mascaras.
The International SPA Association recently announced that Jefferson Fisher, Jamie Kern Lima and Zack Kass are the keynote speakers for its 2027 Conference, scheduled for March 3-5 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Life of Riley Salon Supply and Riley Salon Resources are back in the family, as Kelly Huether acquires the professional distributor he co-founded in 2013.
BaBylissPRO and IGK have partnered to launch the BaBylissPRO Studio Trunk, transforming the professional tool brand’s digital Style Studio into a physical experience for the first time in its sixty-year history.
KEVIN.MURPHY's Flawless combines hair repair and styling benefits using KM.Re.Bond technology.
K18 Biomimetic Hairscience has partnered with Beauty Changes Lives to launch the K18 Future of Hair Scholarship, aiming to support aspiring professional stylists by reducing financial barriers to cosmetology education.
Rosy Salon Software integrates with Mya, empowering salons, spas, and barbershops to transform their websites into powerful, automated lead-generation machines.
Known for his buttery blondes and a technique for highlighting hair with more precision that he called chunking, Brad Johns died on August 27. His friend and fellow colorist, David Stanko, shares thoughts on his talented colleague and close friend.
