Take That LA, NYC
Enter the hair Sanctuary: First Shu Uemura Azur West salon unveiled at West Ave
Houston’s hair cred got a major boost with the opening of the nation’s first and only Shu Uemura Azur West salon. The sleek black and white hued salon in the super hot West Ave opened its sanctuary doors Thursday, unveiling exclusive treatments and lines to the city’s tress-obsessed.
Officially called Shu Uemura Art of Hair Sanctuary Salon, this Azur location embraces the Japanese hair care product philosophy of nature, art and science. Salon owners Nick Brines and Greg Decker mixed and mingled with guests at the opening, but Brines took time out for a tour, which included The Sanctuary, a private treatment room where hair ceremonies are performed. The sound-proof room is equipped with its own song selections, a chair and washbowl for various ceremonies (scalp purification, custom hair treatments) and a stylist’s chair for haircuts and blowouts.
“We use absolute oils in the ceremony for people who need more volume or moisture and we use Shiatsu massage to find the pressure points on the scalp. When it’s done, it feels like you had a full body massage,” Brines said.
Modeled after a Japanese tea ceremony, the sanctuary treatments are $60 and can be added to a service or done alone. Instead of tea though, clients sip on champagne or the salon’s specially made cucumber-infused vodka.
There are other touches throughout the salon suggesting a more sophisticated vibe. Hair dryers hang unobtrusively from the ceiling instead of on a stand and the layout of the salon balances privacy with communal spaces. The salon also carries the INOA Color Bar, an ammonia-free permanent hair color line from L’Oreal.
“This salon is super fashion forward and we would like someday for this to become an education hub for this part of the country,” Brines said.
Two more Shu Uemura salons are planned in 2012, one in Beverly Hills and the other in Bergdorf Goodman in New York, and Brines said the three salons are the only ones planned.
Despite the private treatment room and cutting edge products, there was one thing missing. There wasn’t a famed gravity-defying eyelash curler in sight.
“I asked for eyelash curlers, I really, really tried,” Brines joked.