Pepper Pastor Salon is Tim Burton Meets Coco Chanel
There's chandeliers, wooden cubbyholes and claw-footed things aplenty at this place
Really, when was the last time you had your hair washed in the same room as a claw-footed candlestick chandelier? Probably never, unless you've been to Pepper Pastor Salon. If you haven't been, you need to go. And if you go, you're probably a devotee, and you've already told all of your friends, and they probably go too.
The theme here is Pepper's brilliantly conceived stylistic mash-up of Coco Chanel (a refined, polishedness abounds) and Tim Burton (again — claw-foot candelabra, granite walls, hand mirrors, flocked-wallpaper-lined dark wooden cubbyholes to hold your stuff, and sick, kinda steampunky clawfoot-and-magnifying-glass wall sconces).
This place feels more salon, as in, "age of conversation," than salon as in "get your hair done." But, thankfully, Pepper and her super-talented staff will most certainly get your hair done, and then some. Stylist Christina Fillorama completely transformed our hair into this gorgeous, I-can't-believe-it's-me, slightly retro wavy look, with a windswept part we'd never dreamed might work on us. (But so did.) It was totally, totally camera-ready but not overly done or fussy. And makeup artist Emma Bazen made our brows about 100 times more presentable than we walked in. And Pepper — who's the sweetest woman and will actually take time to talk to you, unlike at a lot of uppity salons where the owners barely show their face or utter a hello if you're not paying, like, one bazillion dollars to see them — has that enviable "I just stepped out of Gas Food Lodging" air and looks perfect in any and every hair style and color. Sigh.
Anyway, she and her staff are total visionaries — everyone getting their hair done looked fantastic and happy (none of those oh-shit-what-have-you-DONE-to-me expressions) — and she's created a comfy, cozy, full-service beauty hideout in, of all places, the seaport.
An obviously satisfied customer recently left this glowing revue on Pepper Pastor's Facebook, and it speaks volumes: "Dear Pepper Pastor: Thank you for making my outside match how I feel. If Heidi Montag had you for a hair stylist, she wouldn't have felt inadequate enough to want any plastic surgery." (LOVE a Hills reference!) Enough to make Heidi reconsider becoming a blow-up doll who can't really chew? Pepper, we love you like Heidi loves her implants.
223 Front St., New York, NY 10038 tel 212-785-8065 pepperpastor.com