Beauty Shop
San Francisco, California

A gutted storefront space on busy California Street has been infused with an histrionic setting for conjuring up fantasy hair and makeup transformations, from '50s retro to radical chic to deconstruction and beyond.

The owner envisioned a place suggestive enough for dying hair magenta yet easy enough to encourage blue-tinted white Marcels.

A circulation spine was inserted into the existing space to guide the visitors from the entry / waiting area to the changing rooms at the rear, then back to the various beautification chambers along the spine. The arrangement offers different of public and private areas ranging from exhibition styling at the front window, makeup at the back wall, to shampooing behind fragmented shaped walls. Where the intersections of the spine and the existing walls occur, display cases are produced.

All materials are commonly-used industrial quality. Exposed galvanized electrical conduit and pipes are juxtaposed with bright enameled surfaces, and shiny glass block resides with mirrors and gray auto seatcover fabric.