It’s not often that you find a salon with interiors as cool or as colorful as the extraordinary hair creations being whipped up by its own stylists. But that’s precisely the case at the newly redesigned HAIR Los Angeles, in Downtown L.A.’s Arts District. Stepping foot inside the salon, you’re instantly transported to a magical, happy place where salon stations are shaped like flowers, vibrant artwork is plentiful, and self-expression and creativity are encouraged to the fullest.
But, designing a space this special was no easy feat. In fact, HAIR Los Angeles’ salon refresh was a project five years in the making for founder and celebrity colorist Daniel Moon and his equally artistic fiancée Nicole Reber, a Douglas Elliman real estate agent in Beverly Hills. The couple worked together on the creative direction of the space, handpicking everything from the collective artwork on the walls to the floral Dorothy Draper wallpaper in the bathroom. And, their transformation of the space was so stellar that even Architectural Digest came knocking.
Naturally, we had to see the space for ourselves. So, a few weeks ago, The Tease paid a visit to HAIR Los Angeles to get a tour of the salon and chat with Moon about its eye-catching design. Ahead, he discusses working with Nicole on the refresh, his favorite part of the space, and all of the exciting, new things ahead.
The Tease: The space looks incredible! How did it feel to debut the remodel of HAIR Los Angeles in Architectural Digest?
Daniel Moon: It felt like a dream. You know, it’s a big accomplishment for us, being art lovers, architecture lovers, and just experience and space lovers. My fiancée, Nicole Reber, is a real estate agent and in love with interiors, architecture, and art, as well. So, that’s kind of where we come together. And we’ve been building this space together for five years. It was our baby, so it’s nice to see.
What led you to want to do a whole refresh of the salon?
Moon: The refresh was just a gradual build of investment. You know, it started off with four stations, and it was just me and an assistant five years ago. We’ve grown now to nine stations. After wallpapering the bathroom in Dorothy Draper and the hallway in Dorothy Draper and even some of the waiting room in Dorothy Draper and other pieces of wallpaper in the space, I wanted to kind of elevate the hair salon experience.
I feel right now that it’s just about creating more of a hub—like it’s okay for people to be back together. After COVID and after three years of being separated, I had as much space as possible. And then now, it’s like, “Okay, we can have more people and people are more open to being around each other.” So, we wanted to focus on that—having more of a classic salon experience where you get to go there, run into your friends, run into artists that you like and have conversations, instead of your hair experience being like an independent experience. Like, my focus is more on the environment, especially since we do these transformations. It’s like, “Let’s give you something that will erase the time, so that it’s enjoyable.”
Everything in the space really works so well together. How did you and Nicole decide on the colors and artwork that are featured throughout the space?
Moon: Me and Nicole are very much color junkies, but very specific about it. It just happened to be that when we first met five years ago, I just finished the spot—just painted everything myself and put all the stations in. And, it was just like salon style. So, I went out and met her one night and she was like, “Let me see your logo.” And I was like, “Okay, this is my logo.” And, then she was like, “Let’s do something else.” And, that was just the beginning of our collaboration of being so excited to present something. We’d be like, “What do you think about this? Oh, that’s great. That’s awesome. Oh my God, that’s so sick! We should do the chairs like that.” So, it’s been that growing thing—as we see things, as we meet people, and as we meet artists that we like. We’re always looking together and being like, “Oh, we need a piece from that person.” Like, with some of these original paintings over here [in the waiting room].
Nicole was based out of New York for 10 years. She had her own art magazine called Packet with her best friend, Anthony Cudahy, of which the majority of this wall is Anthony Cudahy. And, there’s Eric Wiley. And, these were all from that era, so she already had all these paintings. And, then with some of these paintings over here—the Petra Cortright’s, I first met Petra when she first moved from Santa Barbara to L.A. And, we were introduced and she was like, “Hey Daniel, would you want to trade hair for work?” And we traded as long as I could until they became too collectible. Then, she just started paying me after that. And, then I have some photographs from my good friends at Little Big Man Gallery. And, there’s Sandy Kim. There’s Ivar Wigan. And they’ve been my good friends for the last 10 years as well. So, when [Nicole and I] met, our collections were just in sync because we just like the same stuff and style. It’s just been that for five years—just mindfully adding things, even if it’s like a plant.
Tell us about these custom flower-shaped stations. What inspired them and how did they come to be?
Moon: For the flower-shaped stations, we worked with Luc Fuller, who’s an amazing artist. And, he was introduced to me by Greg Ito. Greg Ito’s an artist and he has the Sow & Tailor Gallery here in Downtown L.A. as well. When Greg comes in, we cut hair and we just talk ideas. So, I was like, “Greg, I’m looking to create these new stations. We have to be careful. I don’t want it to look too costumey. What do you think?” Then, I asked, “Do you know anybody?”, because he grew up in L.A., so he knows everybody. And he’s like, “Yeah, I know a couple of people.” And then he’s like, “You should just go Memphis.” And I was like, “I know. I knew you were gonna say that.” Memphis design is Italian design from the early days—it’s kind of Italian abstract furniture design. So, I dove deeper into that. I watched some lectures and read some books and then put together some really great references from the Memphis movement and approached Luc.
Luc is very educated on the scene and he was just like, “Oh yeah, totally! I get it.” He came in and looked at the space and kind of got the vibe of the space. Then, he was like, “I’ll come back in a couple of days.” He came back in a couple of days and he was like, “Well, I have two choices for you. Do you want the most artistic, luxurious choice or do you want the other choice?” And I’m just like, “We’ll go with the best one.” So, he showed us the layout in a 3D drawing and we were just like, “Oh, wow! That’s amazing!” He came and measured and then a few months later, he showed up and was working on the bodies of the stations.
[With the stations,] we were originally going to start with one light and then another light on the top. You know, most hair salons are dark. What’s beautiful about HAIR Los Angeles is the light is amazing here. We have a full wall with windows so there’s a ton of natural light. I’m really big on light because we push the hair and we’d like the hair to be in the best shape possible. By having the best light, you just see the hair processing and you’re just on top of that to like the very second. So, when we upgraded, light was very important to me. We need as much as possible because I want the night experience to be just as nice on your eyes and consistent because lighting at night always just goes all over the place. So, we worked with a couple different light options and we came up with [our current design] because we also didn’t want to interfere too much with the shape of the station. And, we were just drooling over pictures for months, so when Luc brought them in the first time, it was unbelievable.
With the salon refresh, how has the response been from your clients?
Moon: Everybody’s just so excited to come in. They come in and they sit down and I’m like, “Oh, how’s everything going?” You know, we’d catch up and they’d be like, “Whoa, wait a second. Oh my gosh!” And then they look around and they’re like, “Oh my God, these things are incredible! These things are crazy.” You know, when you’re sitting in front of the stations, you kind of experience and enjoy the craftsmanship of it. And, there’s a little shock because of the whole experience of parking and walking through this kind of warehouse and finally going inside and there being like an explosion of color. So, everytime people come in, they’re just very amazed. It’s been a really great response and we’ve only started showing people.
That’s amazing! And, I have to say it’s so different seeing the salon in person versus seeing it just in pictures. The space is so energizing—it’s like you can’t be sad here, you know what I mean?
Moon: And, I think with us, it’s the same thing. We often lose track of time because it is such a magical place for the people that work here. We can rely on that energy to keep us going through with these transformations and get as many as we can dialed in throughout the day. So, we too. Everybody here is just having fun as well. And, I like that energy to be shared by both sides—the employees that are working here and by the people that are coming in because then everybody just gets something from it.
What’s your favorite part of the space?
Moon: I think being in the middle is nice. It makes it easier to kind of move from one station to another, but, also, I love the whole space. If you come over to the garden area, I usually come in and just kind of check in on everything—the things that need to be watered and to see how the fish are doing. It’s very relaxing. Even being on the other side and just being able to sit and relax, it’s very nice. Not to mention, the bathroom is also such a creative experience.
Are there any other changes or new additions coming to the space?
Moon: We’re here 10-12 hours a day. So, I’m always just kind of looking around. I’m just like, “What about working on that? Or, what about that? We’ve got space there. We can put some art there.” There’s a Ben Sanders [painting] that I’m gonna be getting as one of our next collective pieces. I’m really looking forward to that. He’s one of my favorite artists. He’s an amazing painter and his colors fit in here perfectly. And then, we probably want to reupholster some different furniture pieces that we have because the patterns are so nice. We like the way it is now, but it’s kind of to add some more splashes of color. And, let’s see, what else will come after that? We will know after that.
You’ve now got this stunning, redesigned salon space. What’s coming up next for HAIR Los Angeles?
Moon: We’re looking forward to adding more hairstylists to the mix. And, that’s happening right now. I’ve had some great applicants, so I need to look over their work and get some people in. And, we’re working on a few other things like more products. We have two products: Major Moonshine, our glitter gel, and then the Major Apron, which is shipped internationally. Those have done well. I’m working on a color line, too—that’s the future.
There’s also education coming—we’re gonna be having a class at the end of May. We’re doing that here for hairdressers. And, then there’s some short films that we’re working on. I worked with George Lewis Jr., known as Twin Shadow, and Austin Smith, on a short film. These two creative minds just have ideas coming out of their ears. And, they’re so visual and they’re so talented musically, both of them.
So, I’m really looking forward to making some fresh content, just for our eyes, and creating stuff that really represents the space. I know that like a model of what we do as hairdressers has kind of been steadily consistent and the same for the last few years. It’s like a goal to break out of that and utilize that opportunity to make art and share it in a different way. I think it’s also a priority of trying to revamp our visuals altogether so that it represents how new the space is, how new the color movement is, and how much thought that we put into the things that we do. So, we have so much fun stuff.
To keep up with all of the things happening at HAIR Los Angeles, be sure to follow @hairlosangeles and @majormoonn on Instagram.
