The Vince Smith Hair Experience

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Vince Smith opened this utilitarian eight-station salon in Battery Park City in 1990, then a neighborhood where nary a blowout could be found. Today he caters to a regular crowd of downtown office workers and young neighborhood families. Specializing in color—he was trained at John Gunther’s Congress of Colorists in the eighties—Smith is equally comfortable staving off the grays of a middle-age client as he is painting fuchsia stripes into the bleached locks of her teenage daughter. Sturdy red Craftsmen rolling cabinets give the salon an industrial vibe, stocked with products from Redken and L’Anza, a botanical-infused brand that’s gentle on color-treated hair. He trains each of his stylists personally, attracting bargain hunters with a gradational pricing system according to experience (from $50 for a cut by a junior stylist to $110 for Smith himself). But if you’re hoping for the in-the-flesh Vince Smith experience, call ahead to schedule—when he’s not wielding a pair of scissors, Smith doubles as a musician and classical composer. — Rachel Aydt