Hair Salons in Boston

Strike a pose after taking advantage of today's Groupon to Mizu Hair Salon, voted a Best New Salon in the country by Vogue. For just $65, you get a cut, style, and blow dry—48% off the normal $125 value. Treating yourself to a hair styling at one of the world's best salons is usually quite a splurge, costing thousands of dollars in passport forgeries alone, but today it's so affordable that if you pass up this chance, you might be doomed to a lifetime of not-fantastic-looking hair.

The combined effects of a top-notch haircut and shoeshine are undeniable. Here's a small sample of benefits:

Stepping into Fia Salon/Spa is like stepping into a Mad Max fashion show. Away from the hustle and bustle of the city proper, the owner and namesake has spread her European roots and visionary eye, carving out a landscape that swirls together industrial sensibilities with a steam-punk edge highlighted by gunmetal-gray roses. Yet despite hard accents, the studio space is surprisingly inviting, balancing the chrome and steel with gold and copper and an open layout that gives visitors space to breathe and think. There, perhaps drawing inspiration from the metal spin-lock door or perhaps imagining a vault behind that door filled with toupees, clients dream up fantastic hairstyles that Fia and her staff make into reality.

International training with the likes of Toni & Guy and Vidal Sassoon has helped Fia cultivate a team of skilled master colorists and stylists. To stay swimming in the rushing current of fashion, the team regularly undergoes training on the latest techniques and uses products by Coppola, Sebastian, and Wella to transform looks. Several staffers draw from experience working in salons on Newbury Street and in the greater Boston area, and Boston magazine, which named Fia Salon/Spa the Best in West Boston in 2007, touted the spot's "Newbury Street panache minus the hassle of driving in from the ’burbs." The staffers’ know-how has also earned them recognition on WGBH's Boston A-List, including the award for Best Hair Highlights in 2011. When the team is not tousling hair into the last trend, Fia Salon/Spa's team pamper visages with luxurious skincare treatments aided by Dermalogica products.

Harnessing techniques passed down from their family's first generation of haircutters in Italy in the late 1800s, the Zona clan continues garnering acclaim for its hairstyling prowess, including a spot in the hair salon category of Boston Magazine's Best of Boston 2009. Today, the family of hair experts trims tresses alongside graduates of the salon's three-phase training program. Trainees also brush up on shearing skills at advanced academies in London and New York before adroitly shaping their clientele’s hair, fashioning stylish updo's, and executing full color transformations with an extensive stock of Aveda products. The salon's three locations bring their styling prowess to neighborhoods around town, making it easier to look good than to persuade others your split ends are intentional.

For more than 20 years, Forever-French Salons' staff members have beautified clients' fingers and toes with everything from familiar nail treatments to its signature French-style acrylics. The popularity of the pink-and-white acrylics and gels stems from their glossy, natural look and dependability; they can last for up to four weeks without fading, lifting, or breaking. At the salon's locations in Franklin and Norwood, the staff performs a varied assortment of pampering nail services, including mani-pedis with warm paraffin treatments, hand-painted nail art, and no-chip gel manicures. Both locations round off their menus with waxing services, and the Franklin venue also provides haircuts, color, and keratin smoothing therapy.

Helaine Marie has refined her hair-coloring technique over the last two decades and now creates rich tapestries of color with her certifications in Wella and Framesi. She opened her eponymous salon in 2004, inviting massage therapist Philip Davidson, LMT and other expert aestheticians to grace the rooms of an intimate, fairy-lit space draped in lilac curtains. A certified Master Colorist, Marie specializes in complex corrective programs and foils, including her signature highlight treatment. The Foliage Foil evokes the glow of the woods in autumn with blends of copper, crimson, and the deep gold of slowing photosynthesis caused by winter's Midas touch, each mixed individually to warm clients’ natural hues. To remain a well-rounded stylist, she earned two certifications in re-texturing and trained her shears with KMS California, mastering their cutting techniques to become a style council trainer. Helaine Marie is also certified in the Ouidad cutting technique and the Pureology system and carries both product lines in their entirety, in addition to offering the ammonia-free, oil-based Chromatics Color Line.