Cutting-Edge Style at Aaron Emanuel Salon

By Alicia Bynum Aaron Emanuel Salon on the Upper East Side is not only a salon where you get a high level of customer service and the latest in hair trends-you will also be intellectually stimulated. Before coloring, cutting or styling a client's hair, salon workers ask, "Who do you want to embody?" If you bring a photo of how you want your hair to look, they will replicate it down to the precise detail. The salon is open seven days a week to serve patrons no matter what their schedule is. Their clientele includes visitors and newcomers to the city as well as native New Yorkers. How often people come in "varies from three times a week to once a month," Emanuel said. For this stylist, the art of making ordinary people look like celebrities is in his blood, and his passion for hair took flight at a young age. "My mother is a hairdresser, and my father is a barber," Emanuel said. His mother has styled hair for the majority of her life in their Brooklyn home. A French stylist trained Emanuel, and he set himself apart by memorizing hair-color formulas and other techniques that most stylists do not know. Before he was a stylist, Emanuel was a high-end jeweler. He has owned his shop for almost two years and said that his styling technique as well as the people he has hired to work at the salon have helped it stand apart. Some of the stylists who work at the salon have been in the business for more than 30 years, while others are just starting out on their hair-styling journey. "It's very modern and has a different kind of vibe than other salons," said Ana Cibotari, assistant to Emanuel. She said that the products at the salon are top-notch, and she's glad to be working in a friendly, learning environment. When he's not at the salon, Emanuel is like any other family man. He loves to spend time with his wife and kids and to take them to museums as well as doing their hair. His favorite part of owning the salon is the interaction that he gets from running into patrons. "I see us starting another place in the near future," Emanuel said. For more information, visit aaronemanuel.com.