Profile

The near vertical climb to Haime Munoz's second-floor salon overlooking 74th Street leads to a smaller than expected space considering his status as one of the city's mainstay stylists—and worshipped straightening experts—since the mid-eighties. A trail of stately neighborhood ladies well into their golden years (and a celebrity drop-in now and then) keeps the seven chairs on the low-key styling floor in constant use. The salon's cuts are quality but nondistinct; instead, clients flock to Munoz for his color and straightening technique—a less damaging process than the Japanese method that leaves hair sleek, but not stick straight. The space’s Key Lime green and slate gray walls are decked exclusively with coordinating packages of Munoz's Easy Straight products, a home-friendly, more temporary version of the in-salon transformations for kinky manes. A Columbian-born painter who entered the hair industry as a chemical developer for Schwartzkopf while living in Germany, Munoz offsets his reputation for squeezing clients into too-tight time slots by working his warm, touchy-feely demeanor once they’ve been smocked and seated. — Molly Noonan