Over the weekend, Deanna and I were lucky enough to be invited to review Riccardo Maggiore’s new salon location in the flat iron district. What a beautiful salon — and conveniently located just a short walking distance from Penn Station. Upon arriving at the salon (about a half an hour earlier than scheduled) the staff was extremely friendly and accommodating. We were taken right back to meet our stylists, Marcus & Saniye.
My appointment was for a full highlight with Marcus. After a very thorough consultation, he started to work his magic. Marcus was very friendly and held very pleasant conversations with both Deanna and I while he was working but still managed to put get a full head of foils in place quickly, efficiently and very VERY neatly! What really stood out to me about Marcus was his attention to detail. He really listened to what I didn’t like about my current style and, from that, was able to place the foils perfectly to give me the more subtle highlight I was looking for all while blending in the existing chunky highlight. After I processed for about fifteen minutes, he mixed up a gloss to compliment the highlight and brighten up my existing highlights. Marcus had his assistant shampoo me and apply the gloss, and let me just say, I am sure glad he did. The assistant gave an extremely relaxing shampoo, complete with a neck massage, which absolutely took the services over the top. As a licensed stylist, I am usually never 100% satisfied with hair services and have become a bit of a salon snob, but this time I would not have changed a thing.
Luckily, between Deanna and I, we were able to experience a lot at this salon. She was scheduled for a single process color service with Saniye and was able to review the salon from more of a consumer perspective. Deanna, whose current stylist has been using semi-permanent color on her, came well prepared with an arsenal of photos for the stylist to look through as she was ready to take the plunge into permanent hair color. After a color and cut consultation, Saniye set off to mix-up her magic color potion. Both of us were more than impressed with how quickly she was able to get the color applied (I was particularly impressed, knowing this leads to more even processing time and better overall color results.) She was generous in applying the color, leaving no hair untouched and did not have to go back to re-mix until it was time to run through the ends. Deanna had the same lovely shampoo experience, and the assistant was kind enough to take the extra few minutes to make sure she removed any and all stain she could see. Her hair color came out beautiful, rich and incredibly shiny and the stylist did a wonderful job on Deanna’s blow out — it really complimented her new fabulous cut. Deanna said, “She was very knowledgeable about the kind of service she was doing. She saw and fully understood my vision and followed through with it. She was professional, friendly and genuinely made me feel like she cared about my hair and what I wanted. You could tell she was confident in what she did so, to me, as a consumer, that showed she knew what she was doing and made me feel more trusting of her.”
Overall, these stylists were extremely impressive. We would absolutely recommend taking a trip to Riccardo Maggiore’s salon next time you are in the city for a little r&r and pampering. You will not regret this salon selection! They will surely blow you away. 
