Fiona Hair NYC: A Cut Above the Rest for Styling and Sustainability

Fiona Guidice, who hails from Lakeland, Florida, has been a hairdresser for two decades, first entering the industry at the age of 16. She started doing hair and makeup for theater as a teen and participated in a two-year-long hairdressing program at a vocational school. She passed the Florida cosmetology board exams and became fully licensed by the time she was 17. After working as a head hairstylist and salon manager throughout Florida and on cruise ships in the Caribbean, she moved to New York in 2007 and then to Brooklyn a year later.

Once her state hair license transferred, Giudice began working at Donne Salon on Union St. and other neighborhood establishments. She moved on to own a one-chair salon after building up clientele, and eventually expanded to a four-chair salon two and a half years ago. Though her salon’s name recently changed from “Maven By Fiona” to “Fiona Hair NYC,” Guidice’s still a one-woman show with scissors in one hand and a hair dryer in the other.

Trends and Styles

Guidice says the most popular services are highlights and covering up gray roots, the “bread and butter of most salons.” Due to the nature of these service, a lot of her highlight clients will come in one or two times a year because “it’s the more weathered, grown-out look that’s in,” according to Guidice. But the other latest trend is getting naturally-placed highlights that mimic nature, even if the color selection may be unnatural.

“[It can be] natural-looking blonde and caramel highlights or something more like the mermaid/unicorn sort of colors like fuchsia or rainbow,” Guidice further explains.

The ombré’s become more blended in terms of color gradation from dark to light, and has transitioned more into a sombré (the nickname for a soft or subtle ombré) – meaning the color’s transition is more gradual and less extreme. To imagine this sort of style, Guidice described it like seeing your hair become lighter in color when you go to the beach during the summer – the ends of your hair have been to the beach more times than the hair three inches up from that, and thus are naturally lighter from the sun’s rays. Balayage is a technique that’s used to achieve an ombré by freehand ‘painting’ bleach or lightener onto the hair (versus using foil for the same effect).

“You use this technique to create different looks, like the two above, or to do more traditional highlight looks or to achieve the look of ‘surfer’ or ‘little girl at the beach’ hair. Like painting sunlight on the hair, creating ribbons of light on the hair,” Guidice explains. “It gives a soft, natural-looking blended root that grows out beautifully and makes maintenance more manageable.”

Another trend Guidice has noticed within the industry is returning to older methods of styling; much like what’s old is new again.

“There are rollers out now that you can sleep in [and] give you a soft, tousled effect,” she says. “It’s still a very modern look, but the process is more like what our grandparents did than what our parents did, as far as styling goes.”

Green Salon-Certified

Giudice’s salon became a certified Green Circle Salon a few years ago when it was still under the old business name. Green Circle Salons is a special recycling/repurposing program that ensures hair, foils, color tubes, plastics, irons/dryers, and chemicals are diverted out of landfills and water systems. Since these materials, products and tools are salon-specific and cannot be recycled by the city, they are sent to Green Circle Salons instead. Additionally, Guidice collects and sends in hair clippings (shorter than 10 inches) so that they can be repurposed and used for oil spill cleanups. Boons made of hair are used multiple times, in comparison to synthetic ones that are disposed of after one use, because they haven’t found the end of their life cycle yet.

“That’s what hair is meant to do – to soak up all that oil and grease, get washed and do it all over again,” Guidice says.

Inside the salon, Guidice tries to be as eco-friendly as possible, using only LED light bulbs, making her own flavored beverages with SodaStream, and using reusable K-Cups for coffee. She also carries and uses some organic hair color lines, which many professional companies are now making. Plus, instead of printing out receipts or having a customer loyalty punch card, she sends e-receipts to her clients and handles appointment bookings online.

Other Salon Info

Fiona Hair NYC offers a loyalty program in the form of a points system. Guidice explains that clients automatically get 10 percent back on everything that they come in for. For example, if you get a blowout 10 times, the 11^th one would be free.

“It’s a nice, easy way to make sure that I’m showing appreciation to my clients and [that] they get something back from me that fits how much they’re spending, time- and money-wise, in the salon,” she adds.

The salon’s open Tuesdays through Saturdays with varying operating hours, which extend to late-night hours like 9 and 10 pm on certain days. This, Guidice feels, helps give clients more options that can better suit their busy daytime schedules. For more information, visit fionahair.nyc or call 646-648-3322. Fiona Hair NYC is located in the basement level of 488 Smith St.

Top photo courtesy of Guidice