Hair Solano

I love Mercelle Carlson. I have been going to her since she was a junior stylist at Festoon. I have since relocated to LA (before that Providence, RI) and always try to see her when I am in town. It is hard to set up an appointment with her because she works few days and gets booked weeks ahead of time. But she is worth it — awesome colorist and stylist.

Bruno Compin is fabulous! He has been my stylist for many years. I have challenging hair — it’s straight and fine, and difficult to style, and a traditional bob is not flattering to my aging face (I’m in my 60s). But Bruno does wonders with color and cut, and so I happily followed him to Hair Solano from his previous salon. He highlights my hair so it blends the gray in a very natural way and grows out nicely, and his cuts are very flattering. He has cut my hair at different lengths, and I completely trust his advice! Bruno is wonderful, and Hair Solano is a mellow, pleasant neighborhood salon. Five stars for Bruno :)

Professional and friendly. Neighborhood atmosphere with quality work. Love the wood floors. Ann McIntyre does a dynamite haircut if you can get her.

Susan Ferdowsali has been my hair stylist for a little over a year now and she is incredible. She is so passionate about her work and is truly invested in her clients. My hair always looks beautiful, natural, and is so easy to manage after Susan works her magic and the look and feel lasts for months. Susan also uses a natural henna hair coloring technique that enhanced my natural hair color while covering the grays and leaving it looking and feeling healthier then ever. Susan is helpful, talented, and dedicated — she goes above and beyond to make her clients have the best experience possible. Thank you, Susan!

This review is for Susan Ferdowsali at Hair Solano. Susan is an absolute miracle worker. She promised me during my first visit in April of 2013 that I would have a love affair with my hair. I have always struggled with my wavy hair being so fine. Susan has been able to cut and color (henna) my hair and make it look and feel fuller than it has ever been. The Oribe products that she recommends have also helped with the texture and volume of my hair. I have never been happier. Thanks, Susan, for helping me love my hair again!

I am all about my hair. I have thick, curly hair that I wear extremely short and I when I moved to the Bay Area over a decade ago, I began the search for my next forever hair stylist. I tried a few folks, stuck with one for a year or two, and kept up the search. My dream came true when I found Feeny Range at Hair Solano. I found a recommendation for Feeny on the Berkeley Parents Network and the rest is history. I travel the world over and I am noticed because of my very short, very unique platinum grey hair. And it is all Feeny. She is our family hair stylist and we would have it no other way all be our styles one straight and one curly. She also has recently started working with our neighbor with long straight hair and it’s another home run for Feeny. Add to the fact that she is the most authentic, wonderful, dog-​loving, and hip stylist, and you’ve got the recipe for a talented veteran hair stylist whose is among the Bay Area’s most talented. If it takes just a little minute to get an appointment because she’s booked, trust me, it’s worth it!

This is a review for my fabulous hair stylist of 20+ years, Feeny Range. I have followed her wherever she works, which is currently the fine Hair Solano. I always let Feeny do whatever she wants to my hair and am never, ever disappointed. The cut looks great out the door and grows out beautifully. She is creative, lively and an interesting conversationalist.

Upon posting my initial review, I wanted to provide and update. The salon contacted me after reading my review and offered for me to return the faulty product or receive a credit for the purchase price. I understand that the salon doesn’t have a recourse to return products back to the manufacturer when it doesn’t work, but I commend them them for their customer service mindset and willingness to work out a solution with their customer. Cheers! And thank you.
Original review
like supporting local businesses so I decided to drop in to buy some dry shampoo as I’ve heard a lot about it. The rep suggested a powder product from B&B. I’ve used many of B&B products before and decided to give this one a try. After a few uses, I gave up. The product was hard to use. The bottle was hard to shake the powder out onto my head. This was simply bad product design from B&B. However, I tried to bring it back to this salon to see if I can switch it out for a product that I can use. They simply said no. I would like to see them develop a more customer friendly service program to back up the products they decide to carry and recommend. Many other salons I go to have this service. If product have clearly not been used, they will take it back for a replacement or credit. I think this is reasonable. It also shows good will and a positive image. I can understand their concerns with product returns and abuse. But, given how much these products costs, their customers are not going to buy it and return. If so, I can’t imagine the return volume being very high. In this day and age of advanced customer service, I think allowing a program like this where customers can return a product if we are dissatisfied (showing an image that you as a company stand behind products you carry), is very reasonable.

This review is for Feeny Range. I have been going to Feeny for over 20 years now and she is awesome! She is fun, funny and so creative. I am always getting compliments on my haircuts (my hair is short) and I always send them her way! You will be so happy if you let her do her thing!

First of all: Hair Solano is the best salon I have been to in many years. The staff is friendly and warm, and you feel immediately welcomed once you enter. They carry a variety of higher-​end hair products such as Bumble&Bumble, Kerastase, and Oribe. They also has the best prices for these products in the Berkeley area!
IMPORTANT: When you call the salon to book an appointment, the receptionist DOES NOT book the appointments, they are only there to connect you through to one or a few of the stylists. They give out the phone numbers and the rest is your job to call the stylists. I personally like more because you can get a vibe from the stylist over the phone and determine if they’re a good fit for you, and if not, call one of the other stylists! The receptionist gave me three different numbers to try, just incase the others were booked.
Finally: Florence has been my stylists since I was twelve (I am now twenty-​one). My mom originally went to her, and of course when I wanted to try a new funky style, she booked me an appointment with Florence. She is absolutely amazing. She’s highly talented and listens to exactly what you want and then discusses the adjustments she would like to make. I have never been disappointed with haircuts or color with Florence! She’s obviously very dedicated to her clients and will do whatever needs to be done to produce a happy client! She’s extremely friendly, but a little shy at first. Don’t feel awkward or pressured to make small talk if she’s not extremely talkative, she’s just concentrating on her work! She’s fairly priced for the amount of time she spends on your hair– a single wash (sometimes two), cut, & styling! Florence is fantastic and I highly recommend her!

This review is for Florence for the keratin treatment.
She did a treatment for me months ago and I forgot to review her.
She does a REALLY meticulous job and notices where your hair is more curly and less curly so customizes the treatment to your specific hair type, which I really appreciate.
Thank you, Florence!

This review is for Susan Ferdowsali and follows numerous attempts to get her to take responsibility for the mess she made of my color, which she has declined to do over the last several months. I am only posting this negative review here after failing to get help, acknowledgment, or apology by addressing her directly.
I came to Susan in February to have my roots touched up using INOA color, which she was one of only a few local stylists to be certified in using. I had been coloring my hair myself, in a light brown/​dark blonde color. At the end of the long coloring process, my roots were a shockingly DARK brown. She made no comment about this herself. When I pointed it out, she said something like «just shampoo it a few times, it will fade.» (I should have realized something was wrong here, as she had emphasized, earlier in the appointment, that INOA color «doesn’t fade out, it grows out.» This has turned out to be, unfortunately, accurate.) The next day, trusting her, I did shampoo my hair, several times, and used «Malibu C» (a product I had on hand — basically powdered vitamin C — that can sometimes correct a color problem caused by «invisible minerals and oxidizers» or «product build-​up» [quoting from their website]), hoping she was right that the color would fade. When it did not, I wrote her to ask for her help. She wrote back to me the following:
«By taking matters into your own hands and using products that I don’t know anything about and did not professionally recommend for you to use or do at home, both the shampoo and decoloring agent has changed and compromised the integrity of the color and my work and now it is completely some other chemical work on your hair and not my work or my color anymore. I unfortunately cannot try to fix something that has been compromised in such a fashion.»
This reply amazed me, as she had basically told me to take care of it myself. Had she initially offered to work with me to correct the problem, I would gladly have let her do so. I wrote to her again, in a polite, non-​confrontational manner. When she did not reply to this, or another request, I realized I was not going to get her help. I went to another colorist, who has been doing her best to camouflage the strange, dark band that is now growing out of my long, otherwise light brown hair. This is a multi-​step process involving highlights, graduated color change, etc., which is, needless to say, quite expensive. I wrote to Susan one more time, asking her to please, at least, refund the $ 115 I had paid her. To date, no reply, no acknowledgment, no apology. I feel thoroughly hung out to dry.

This review is for Florence Sayparath, the best hair stylist I have ever, ever had. To understand the magnitude of that statement, you need to understand that for as long as I can remember, my relationship with my hair has been very strained. Oh, let’s be honest; I hated – HATED! – my hair. It was too thin, too fine, and I’d just about want to shave myself bald after a plane ride of any length (I looked like Linus with his six strands of hair). I walked on eggshells with my hair, never wanting to upset it for fear it would fall flat or worse, fall out completely.
At my first appointment with Florence, she asked me what I wanted to do. By this point, I was ready to just cut off all length on my hair; keep it short and hope the shortness would lend the illusion of fullness. Florence looked my hair over and suggested the complete opposite. She saw me with longer hair, she said. She shared with me the shape she saw my hair taking, and the way that shape would make my hair look fuller. Did I want to give that a try?
I was secretly dubious, but amenable. In our subsequent appointments, she’d check on the progress of my hair, make sure it was heading in the direction we both wanted (the shape she was envisioning, the fullness I was desperate for), and offer treatments that improved the look and health of my hair: lowlights to give more dimension and depth, deep conditioning to keep my hair looking soft and moisturized, etc.
And now? After all Florence’s hard work, artistry, and skill? I actually love my hair! I’m actually getting compliments on my hair! I love the way it looks, the way it feels, how it frames my face, falls around my head, and sits on my shoulders. Listen, I know we’re talking about hair, not world peace. But I feel about my hair the way I never thought I’d feel. It’s kind of like finding out someone you think is a total jerk turns out to be a pretty good person. It feels revelatory. And I owe that to Florence. I can’t thank or recommend her enough. I’ve sent my sister to see her, and she loves Florence, too.
Florence is magic!
Finally? Florence’s location at Hair Solano is great. The salon is modern and welcoming, the staff are super-​sweet and friendly, and the products on offer (Kerastase, B&B, Oribe) are terrific. Getting my hair done nowadays is a fun and enjoyable process, from which I always walk away feeling a million bucks!

Susan Ferdowsali is a fabulous hairstylist — and person. I’d seen her once before, and she gave me a great haircut (adding body and cool layers to my stick-​straight hair) and multidimensional highlights that cover my grey and look completely natural. I balked at the cost (in the neighborhood of $ 200 for cut + color) and so had been trying to make do with cheaper cuts and colors since, but nothing was as good.
I’ve been going through a serious rough patch in my life recently, and decided to do the «if you can’t change your life, change your hair» thing. Susan returned my phone call quickly and was able to fit me in the NEXT DAY. While she worked, we talked about our lives, and she managed to make me feel better about my life, options, and choices, all in the course of a few hours. And my hair looks fabulous. A serious pick me up all around!
Susan was great at picking up on my vibes. When I came in, I kind of just wanted to be quiet and read, and she didn’t try to chat with me. As I started to feel more open, she picked up on that and started asking me questions about my life, and opening (in a totally appropriate way) about hers. I so appreciated that she listened to me – both in what I wanted for my hair, and for how I wanted to be treated while I was in her chair.
Yes, she’s expensive, but well worth it. Thanks, Susan!

Susan Ferdowsali does henna, and it is amazing! I have been coloring my hair for 15 years with chemical products, and recently, I’ve been doing steps to be healthier, and as a result, using chemical hair color made me feel sick.
As a result, I sought out henna, and I am so glad I found Susan. The henna has NO negative impact whatsoever (unlike chemical colors) on my head or my body. And the color is a brown/​light blond. I use it to cover grays, and it works like a charm and matches my other hair which is also brown/​light blond.
There are 15 shades Susan can make your hair. I only wish I had found her years ago…

Took more than four years to find someone who can cut naturally curly hair … Teri is an excellent stylist and my hair has never been more manageable and easy to care for … color looks natural for my age and compliments abound! The salon is attractive and meticulously clean … something new each appointment!

Huge shout out to Danielle Pimm for being sweet, friendly, and visionary. I needed my crazy long hair chopped to shoulder-​length, and made an appointment with Danielle on the recommendation of a good friend. I brought along a photo and some thoughts, and Danielle took what I had in mind to the next level. She took her time, asked plenty of questions and offered all imaginable options to make sure I was getting exactly what I wanted (only, ya know, better). Danielle’s such a fun person to spend a couple of hours with, and this may be the best haircut I’ve gotten in my 34 years on the planet. I actually sort of skipped out of there and was in a fabulous mood for the rest of the day.
Jenny Lund (another stylist there) is also a genius and a sweetheart. Highly recommend them both.

Christina Lameraner — Hairstylist at Hair Solano (Berkeley) & Zindagi (SF) salons
For consistently beautiful color and natural looking hair, I highly recommend Christina Lameraner. She’s been my hair stylist for the past eight years. When she was working as an assistant for my previous stylist (at Festoon) it was clear to all (including the salon owners) that she had a natural talent. She’s had great training and continues her hair education on her own so she remains current with styles and trends which I really appreciate. She listens to her clients and pays great attention to detail so that the cut and color lasts a surprisingly long time in a natural looking state. I have curly hair and love that I can do so much with it and am not limited by it’s texture or type. I frequently get complimented on my hair and am grateful to have Christina to recommend.

Bruno Compin has been saving my hair for nearly 10 years. I started to see him while he was training at different salon. Even as a «newer» stylist, he had a passion and clarity that made me want to jump on whatever bandwagon he was suggesting.
I left the area for many years, and returned to Bruno (even though it was a 50 mile drive) after other people made my hair very, very unattractive. He always listens patiently while I explain what I am looking to do, and then somehow makes something even better happen.
I highly recommend his talent!

For Florence Sayparath – who styled my hair for my wedding – I give five stars for: her neurotic perfectionism yet laid back personality; sense of style; warm yet quiet nature; telling me that she’d dream about my hairdo every night the week before my wedding; being wonderful the day and giving me the subtle updo I wanted!
I had her come to the hotel, which was a lot more expensive than going to Hair Solano for the updo, but I couldn’t manage it with a SF wedding.
P. S. Although i didn’t end up using flowers in my hair, Florence has some crazy Ikebana skills, which I learned in my two trial runs (second one complementary because I decided I wanted a different style closer to the date) – in the first, but discarded, hairstyle, one well placed orchid verged on the poetic
PPS. I have been seeing Bruno for the past 5 years, though not at Hair Solano, and can also vouch that he’s pretty awesome.