Health, Beauty & Fitness

Best Hair Salon

Hier & Haines Salon

Hair stylist Annette Haines books up a year in advance, so if you want to make an appointment, get on her waiting list now.

One of six kids, Haines started working in a hair salon at 13 after her parents divorced, starting out as a shampoo girl and working her way into an apprenticeship. “I had to help my mom pay the bills,” she explains. By the time she was a junior at Yorktown High School, she was working full time as a stylist.

In 1987, she met Michelle Dimitrov (then Michelle Hier), who had grown up on a hog farm in southern Virginia and started curling her own mom’s hair when she was 6. “It’s just in me,” says Dimitrov.

Haircuts range from $65 to $90 at their eponymous salon, where stations feature Z Gallerie mirrors and shabby-chic turquoise dressers. “We want clients to feel like they are home in front of their bureau,” Haines says.

McLean resident Bonnie O’Neill maintains a standing appointment every four weeks.“I have very difficult hair; it’s baby fine and thin,” O’Neill says. “At some shops, you’re lucky to find one good stylist who can work with your hair. But it’s not like there’s only one star here. They’re all stars.”

Chesterbrook Shopping Center, 6236 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, 703-538-4300, www.hierandhaines.com

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