Flick a hair tie in Los Angeles, and for every fit blonde in Lululemon compression tights, you'll hit a trendy hair salon. Which is to say, there's a whole bunch. In fact, the average LA neighborhood sports four or five salons per square mile—each chockablock with scissor-slinging hopefuls waiting, foils ready, for Kate Hudson or Kate Upton (or Kate Gosselin, for that matter) to walk in and choose them to be the one that does their babylights. But we can't all be famous Kates. Luckily, the newest salon to join our well-manicured city doesn't care about that—in fact, it's preferred.
With its matte black, art-accented interiors and team of tattoo-bedecked staffers, Fairfax's The Pretty Pretty Collective (PPC) feels more like an underground rock 'n' roll club than a SoCal salon. PPC was founded by stylist Georgia Rew in San Francisco's Mission District back in 2010, and has since doubled as an art gallery, fashion photography studio and event space. Now, Rew and company bring the same edgy aesthetic and community-driven spirit to a sister salon in LA's Beverly Grove. They've even added a juice bar to the front of the salon for the cold-pressed pleasure of both clients and passersby. Hair salon/art gallery/juice bar—not a ton of those per square mile.
We swung by the PPC's opening night party on Saturday night, where the uniform was black leather, Crayola-colored hair and head-to-toe ink. We didn't get the memo, but it didn't matter. DJ Don Cesar's amplified beats and free 16-ounce cans of PBR put guests at ease as they admired the graphic artwork on display—a selection from 21 artists around the world. "We're here for the creative class," Rew told us through hot pink lips, before ushering us into the salon's "selfie room," where a wall of equally pink lips serves as the backdrop for clients' after shots. "We're not here to do Jessica Simpson's hair." Girl group LA Witch soundtracked the remainder of the evening with their scuzzy, dark country psychedelia, leaving party guests dizzy and smiley-faced for people wearing so much black.
The PPC will host art shows every few months (with pieces available for purchase both in-salon and online). In the meantime, they'll be carving a niche for themselves in LA's hair, art and juice communities, while doing their best to make men and women look, to quote Rew, "fucking stunning."