Look at this smiling face. Why so happy? Maybe because a. The lady pictured is VAIN blogger + front desk superstar Julie K, who is awesome, or b. Because Julie K. knows that our clients might vote for VAIN in Seattle Weekly’s 2010 Best of Seattle Poll.
The poll has tons of categories, from best cupcake to best local dive bar, but you only need to fill in five of them for your votes to count. The ones VAIN would love to get your vote for? Best Salon and Best Colorist (and Best Affordable Art if you’re feeling generous + have bought something in our gallery lately!).
Click here to submit your votes + be entered to win a $50 gift card courtesy of Seattle Weekly. Thank you for being a (VAIN) friend!
♥,
VAIN
ps. On a related note, this is Julie K’s last month with VAIN as she heads off to new adventures. Yay for her, boo for VAIN. Thank YOU, Julie K, for being a friend + taking such good care of our clients + stylists! We ♥ you!
pps. Phantom “thumbs up” arm in photo by fellow VAIN front desk favorite My. Nice touch.
Yes it is true, we have been liberated from our usual ‘Atlantean’ / underwater Winter, and ‘Seattle Spring Sunshine’ has finally arrived!
To protect your eyes from this unfamiliar giant glowing orb of fire, (hopefully lasting through the summertime) – we @ VAIN are here to help with a brand new selection of FRESH SHADES!
This amazing triple threat of functional, fashionable AND affordable can be had for the LOW-LOW price of $10 !
Get them before they are GONE!
(Our sunglasses are available at both VAIN locations)
<3 eli max blü
The next time you get your hair done at VAIN downtown + want to capture the oh-I-look-GOOD moment, VAIN’s got you covered. The VAIN Mirror, located near the front of the salon, is our version of a digital photo booth (behind a perfectly VAIN gold frame, of course) that lets you take your own picture + check it out on the spot on a touchscreen monitor. Don’t like your picture? Delete it + take a re-do if want to. You can also view other people’s pics + vote for your favorites. Images are then uploaded to the VAIN Mirror Flickr page where you can download them for your own use for free. Can you say Facebook profile?
If you’re camera shy + not feeling ready for your close-up, that’s ok: the VAIN Mirror pictures are worth checking out just to see the diverse personal styles + hairdos of our clients + staff on an average day. Case in point:
Who knows? You might just see a picture that gets you inspired for your next cut + color. At the very least, we know you’ll enjoy the bird’s eye VAIN view.
The VAIN Mirror is located at VAIN’s downtown salon- 2018 1st Ave. Don’t have an appointment to get your hair done with us? Stop in + take your picture anyway. It’s free + open to the public! Check out the VAN Mirror Flickr page online at www.flickr.com/photos/vainmirror/.
Winter grey got you down? Looking for a place to shake it out?
Tomorrow night: VAIN’s very own Carly and Valentine are hosting a special night of beats, dancing feet, and hair-styles-so-sweet as part of their weekly “Make It Rain!” event at Havana on Capitol Hill. While the hosts drop some fresh jams, VAIN stylists will be providing Guerrilla Hair for the hotties in the powder room. For an extra special time, dance electro band CMYK will be there to rock the place!
See you there!
xo,
VAIN
Come out Thursday, December 3rd to Havana @1010 East Pike Street. Doors at 9pm//$5
VAIN’s #1 operations manager + super awesome lady Lisa is on her way back from Tokyo (pictured there above with our fave music blogger Kingblind + beloved former VAIN stylist Chieko), and we hear she’s got a camera full of street style + cool hair pictures to show us. Check back here for those soon- if Lisa took ‘em, we know they’re going to be good!
Another day, another VAIN staffer celebrating 10 years of making VAIN a great place to work and get your hair done. Last week it was VAIN front desk mastermind Eli Blu, this week it’s our administrative director Melissa (aka Mel).
We love Mel for a lot of reasons- she’s kind, she’s creative, she really cares about our hairstylists and our customers, and she’s committed to community and forward thinking in a way that we all truly admire… plus she’s got a great sense of style and rocks the red lipstick like nobody’s business.
Happy 10th to Mel. You make VAIN a great place to be.
xo,
VAIN
VAIN front desk superstar Eli Blü is celebrating 10 years with VAIN today! Since he started with VAIN way back in 1999, Eli has booked literally thousands of appointments, learned the specialties of every VAIN hairstylist, and remembered the preferences, faces, and voices of more clients than we can count. On top of all that, he’s been VAIN’s resident DJ, tech expert, and DIY champ the whole time, all while evolving his own look + hair to new, unmatched levels of blue. And who doesn’t love blue hair?
The newest addition to VAIN’s allstar front desk lineup celebrates Eli’s anniversary.
But above it all, Eli is a true representative of VAIN’s mission to help our clients express their inner style. When asked to describe Eli in a few words, VAIN founder + styledriver Victoria Thomas Gentry said:
“Fiercely unique. Genetically compassionate. Cyborg efficiency. Biggest heart ever!”
We couldn’t agree more. Eli wears his individuality, creativity, style, and heart on his sleeve, and we couldn’t be luckier to know him and work with him everyday.
We ♥ you, Eli Blü! Happy 10th!
xo,
VAIN
To celebrate Eli’s anniversary, our entire staff went blue for a day. Check out the full set of pictures on VAIN’s Flickr page.
VAIN blogger, talented photographer, front desk superstar and runner-of-all-things-VAIN-Ballard Sarah Jurado’s last day as a VAIN full-timer is today (CUE WEEP TRACK). Tomorrow morning she’ll wake up with a fresh new focus on her photography career. Luckily for VAIN, we’ll still be hearing from Sarah here on our blog from time to time: look for more of her great pictures, VAIN True Life posts, and an upcoming hair + street style report from Spain while she’s out on tour with her husband. So while we’ll miss Sarah’s face and careful attention to our clients (if you’re reading this then she’s undoubtedly helped you schedule or reschedule a hair appointment at some point!), we’ll all be seeing her words and images here for a while still.
Here’s to the horizons ahead for Sarah.
-Rebecca Pellman
on behalf of VAIN
Follow Sarah Jurado’s photography + life adventures on her Web site, sarahjurado.com
Continuing our blog series on our “Photo Shoot Me” collaborative day, we bring you the works of Bash, Aubrie, and VAIN assistant + photo model Amy.
Looking at the photo, you wouldn’t know you weren’t in 1977 New York. From the oh-my-goodness-that’s-real Vivienne Westwood bag in the corner, to the flask on the ground, to the hint of defiance Amy conveyed with her eyes, this group gave incredible attention to detail.
Another hallmark of the era as they play around with some sexually charged gender bending.
The group also collaborated with Felicity from Kevin Murphy, and makeup by the Lady Bob. Photos by Sarah Jurado.
Want to have these VAIN stylists create a look from your own favorite era? Call our front desk Downtown at 206.441.3441 and connect directly with ’77… or any time + style.
xo,
VAIN
Lights, camera, William in action at The Paramount. Photo by Erin Pease.
Behold William: VAIN assistant, future hair superstar. In addition to assisting VAIN hairstylists with clients and helping our downtown salon run smoothly (no easy task), he’s on the verge of becoming a licensed stylist himself and unleashing his hair skills and passion for personal style on the world. He recently did hair at a fashion show benefitting The Ruby Room (pictured above), and you’d think he was famous by the reaction his high-impact updos got. It just goes to show you: that person shampooing your hair at the salon or assisting with your blowout could someday be the next best hairstylist you’ve ever had.
The Ruby Room is a non-profit organization that helps under-privileged students look sharp for prom and encourages volunteerism. VAIN fashion hair pros Aubrey, Megyn, and TT also volunteered at the benefit, with waxing specialist Belinda leaving the wax pot behind for a day to pitch in on styling. Check out a Seattle Weekly slideshow for more pictures from the event.
