Beauty and the Best
Chapel Hill has a down-home, quasi-Mayberry vibe that’s the very definition of Southern hospitality. In the southern portion of this classically southern town, at Glen Lennox, you’ll find Citrine Salon, which offers its own unique brand of Southern hospitality, with a touch of southern New York.
Over the past decade, Citrine has made Elle’s Top 100 Salons list four years in a row and racked up multiple “Best Of” awards and nominations in yearly competitions in both Chapel Hill and the broader Triangle. Citrine’s online reviews are peppered with rave comments from long-time customers offering anecdotes about favorite stylists, masterful styling, color wizardry and stories of magical rescues for “hair emergencies” which the client acquired elsewhere.
The salon is a sleek, light-filled space designed by Philip Szostak of Szostak Design Inc., an award-winning architecture firm whose work includes iconic area structures such as Durham Performing Arts Center and Capitol Broadcasting HQ. Upon entering the salon, there’s a pronounced precision and crispness to the design that says, “we mean business” as well as “…and we have fun doing it.”
The salon offers all the requisite services one would expect from a highly regarded beauty facility – cut and color, waxing, brow and lash color, skin peels and facials, all performed by a lighthearted but deeply experienced staff of stylists and aestheticians in a gracious, welcoming atmosphere. As an added incentive, Citrine distinguishes itself as a relatively guilt-free indulgence: it was one of the first area salons to embrace eco-friendly LEED certification in its architecture, construction and operation, and uses and recommends only organic and sustainable hair- and skin-care products.
Glen Lennox has been home to some form of hairdresser since the pioneering work-live-play community was established in the late 1940s, back when such establishments were called “beauty parlors”. The first was in the original Glen Lennox shopping center, and Citrine fulfills on its predecessors’ mission just a stone’s throw away, in East 54.
Citrine Salon has gained lots of local fans – along with a few who profess that a three-hour drive is totally worth the experience – by offering a brand of hospitality that fits perfectly in a town some call the Southern Part of Heaven.
