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Six chairs, two rooms, and one rule about honesty.
Six chairs, because the person who consults on your colour should be the person who mixes it.
About the studio
Mara Solano opened Atelier Sol in 2019, in a former upholstery shop with good north light and terrible plumbing. The plumbing got fixed. The light is why the colour is right.
We kept it small on purpose. Six chairs means the person who consults on your colour is the person who mixes it, and the appointment after yours isn't stacked on top of yours. It also means we say no sometimes — to a cut that won't hold in your texture, to a blonde that would cost you your ends, to a Saturday we genuinely don't have.
What you get instead of volume: an hour that belongs to you, a price you saw before you arrived, and an opinion you can trust because it occasionally disagrees with you.
Standards
The boring parts we don't cut corners on.
We use ammonia-free lines where the result allows it, keep a fragrance-free option in every treatment, and everyone on the floor holds a current California license. Tools are disinfected between clients, capes and towels are single-use per guest, and the treatment rooms are sanitised between appointments — not at the end of the day.
ProductsTwo colour lines and one care line, chosen because they perform — we don't stock anything we wouldn't use on our own hair.
RetailNobody here works on retail commission. If we recommend something, it's because your hair needs it.
WasteFoil, hair clippings and colour tubes go to a salon recycling program. Towels are laundered on site.
In their words
Clients, on the record.
Named, with the service attached. We don't publish anything we couldn't point at an appointment for.
I brought in a photo of hair that was never going to work on me, and Mara said so — kindly — then gave me the version that did. Six weeks later it still looks deliberate.
First place that asked about my scalp before selling me anything. Dominique found the actual problem in ten minutes and it cost me ninety-five dollars to fix.
Ines cut my curls dry and then taught me how to do it myself. I have not straightened my hair since March.
I spent two years looking for somebody who would cut a fringe without me having to explain it twice. Eli got it on the first try and wrote down what he did.
They quoted two hundred and sixty-five for full dimension and it was two hundred and sixty-five. That has genuinely never happened to me at a salon before.
Booked the facial for a Thursday evening because the spa runs late, walked out at eight, and my skin stayed calm for a week. I have rebooked it three times.
Come see whether we're right for your hair.
The consultation is fifteen minutes and costs nothing. Worst case you leave with a straight answer and a price.
