Beauty Mark: Blackstones’ East Village Cabinet of Curiosities

The power of a new 'do -- plus the right hair color and cut -- has to bring you back to feeling like yourself. And a 'do done right by rad people who can chat you up about interesting things, have their own serious style but can understand your own, and really just get "it" ... isn't that what a city salon experience is all about? There's a lot of inherent anxiety in the act of stepping into a new salon, even one as reputable as, say, the elegant and perhaps too imposing John Barrett in Bergdorf's. Then there's Blackstones, a veritable cabinet of curiosity-cum-salon seated comfortably in the East Village. From the Victorian wigs on the wall to the collection of taxidermy (fish, foxes and more), it's clear the establishment is very conducive for recalling your own personal style prowess. But the badassness really emanates from colorist Joseph Mullen and owner/stylist/taxidermist Joey Silvestra, two sharp shooters who at once make you feel at home and force you into remembering the time when you were one fly chick, before you got all busy, lost your groove, and let your hair get drab. Just me?

Color - Mullen took down my story first. I’m lazy when it comes to touch-ups. I’ve had a few heavy-handed colorists who maybe had no clue what they were doing or no clue of what I wanted. My piece-y highlights made my hair look thin and drab. I wanted the color to pop. I wanted my hair hues to be less multicolored clown wig, more cohesive. Instead of immediately separating my too-long hair, Mullen artfully searched through my layers and color botch-jobs. He went over some options with me and asked about my lifestyle and what I really wanted. Yes, the man asked me what I wanted, and not only that, he launched into a dialogue about misconceptions about color, and the oft-wrong idea that you should go darker in the winter months. “Usually I think you could go lighter ... if you have the right color it really complements a wintry skin tone.” As Mullen “painted” the highlights on, sans foils and using only a few pieces of saran wrap to separate and help process the color, he admitted that he was trying to become more “green” by cutting down the amount of foil and plastic wrap usually necessary to do highlights. “Hopefully soon I’ll get it down so I wont have any trash at all.”

Cut - Silvestra approached me with an idea he already had formulated in his brain. I wasn’t planning on getting a cut, but after we had a conversation about his history and his colorful background, I was hooked and immediately trusting. He talked me off the ledge (me wanting to loose five inches, him promising me I didn’t have to) and started dropping ideas within my comfort zone. “I’d like to do a Bardot bang, do you know what I mean?” Did I? Did he know I had a black and white photo of the hair icon hanging on my cork board? After my hair was washed in front of a repurposed church cabinet (still bearing bible labels), and before the color was completely visible, Silvestra snipped my wet hair and dried it. After it was dry, he gave me the classic dry cut—a method he learned from his time at Tony & Guy.

Verdict - It is the best color/cut and salon experience I have ever had.