They say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and New Paltz is now reaping some good as a delayed result of one of the most notorious of such meteorological phenomena: the Santa Ana Wind that spread destruction in California five years ago, fanning wildfires in several parts of the state. A pair of refugees from those conflagrations recently opened a new hair salon, Hairrakesh, and adjoining plant shop and florist, La Tansy Florals, at 26 Church Street.
Back east, we mostly heard about the Camp Fire in Butte County in Northern California, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. But farther south, the Malibu area was also ravaged by another conflagration that started on the same day: November 8, 2018. The Woolsey Fire burned nearly 100,000 acres, killed three people and resulted in the evacuation of nearly 300,000.
Quite a few of the 1,643 structures that burned in and around Malibu were the homes of celebrities. Some of those had been regular customers of a trendy hair salon called Hair in the Zuma Beach neighborhood – right next door to Point Dume, a surfing Mecca that was among the areas hardest hit by the Woolsey Fire.
Harley DiNardo had been running Hair for less than two years at that point, but had already gained a following that included such glitzy names as Betsey Johnson, Richard Marx, Johnny Rotten and Rosanna Arquette. “Things started to get messed up,” he relates. “The fire came right over our shopping center. It wasn’t destroyed, but we lost all our customers.”
DiNardo and his girlfriend, Brooke Moore, who managed a plant shop across the parking lot from Hair, tried to make a go of it in Malibu a little longer, but then “COVID happened,” he says. “I told Brooke, if we’re ever going to make a move, it’ll be now.”
Moore was born in Las Vegas and grew up in Thousand Oaks, California. The East Coast was unknown territory for her. But DiNardo, a White Plains native, managed to talk her into moving to the Hudson Valley, and she appears to have adjusted well. “She’s loving the plants – everything’s so lush and vibrant and green,” he reports.
DiNardo had spent the early decades of his career as a hair stylist running a salon called Shampoo, on the Lower East Side. At the time, he was also juggling a career as a singer and guitarist with the rock groups Closer and White Light Motorcade. Both bands had some success and released several albums. “We would come up here to record in Woodstock. That’s how I fell in love with the area,” he recalls. “The whole time, I was cutting my friends’ hair.”
DiNardo’s day job proved more lucrative than the downtown New York City music scene, and he opened a second Shampoo location in Jersey City. “I was not ready to handle two, and I got stressed out. So, I sold both and moved to LA in 2016.”
Returning to his East Coast roots after the Malibu disaster, DiNardo landed in Saugerties, bought a house and went to work for Le Shag in the Stockade District, just at a time when Kingston was becoming a magnet for Brooklyn hipsters. “They helped me a lot,” he says of his colleagues at Le Shag. But he wanted to be in business for himself again, and a visit to New Paltz for a Mothers’ Day meal at Huckleberry put the new building at 26 Church on his and Moore’s radar. “We saw this space and said, ‘Oh my God,’” DiNardo says. “So, we looked into it, met with the owners and found a mutual liking.”
The adjoining storefronts proved perfect for what the couple had in mind: a plant and flower store that connects directly into a hair salon. The décor melds DiNardo’s musical tastes with a North African vibe inspired by the Rolling Stones’ sojourn in Morocco in the 1970s. “For me, hair and music are extensions of each other. I just like creating.”
Potted palms and succulents flow from the plant shop into the salon, unifying the boho vibe. There are raw plank shelving, a cushy leather couch and an antique steamer trunk in the shared reception area, and black-and-white photos of classic rock icons on the walls.
“Brooke came up with the name,” says DiNardo. “I had toyed with the idea of doing a blow-dry bar with her. She said that if I called the salon Hairrakesh, then I could call the spinoff blow-dry place Hairrakesh Express, after the Crosby, Stills and Nash song.” Having the name of the business begin with “hair” doesn’t hurt when it comes to search-engine visibility, either, he notes.
Hairrakesh opened on October 1, and has already made some loyal local fans. Though DiNardo’s shops in Manhattan and Malibu catered to more famous names than the average Paltzonian, he’s not interested in coming off too posh. “My main strength is knowing how people like to look. My tagline is ‘hair you wear.’ I’m not posting video blogs showing off fancy techniques. I want to do what works well with how you dress, the shape of your face, where you work,” he explains. “It makes me feel good when people feel good about how they look. I become like family with my clients.”
While it’s a full-service salon, Hairrakesh specializes in colors and cuts, including barbering for men. The hair-painting technique called balayage is highly popular right now, he notes: “I do a lot of those – but also foil highlights. We do all types of color.”
As for the product lines used, DiNardo is especially enthusiastic about a company based in Parma, Italy, called Davines, that emphasizes environmental sustainability. The manufacturing plant is powered by wind energy, ingredients are sourced from local farms and the packaging is biodegradable. “It smells incredible,” he says, offering a whiff of a shampoo that seems almost edible. “It’s really good for the hair as well.”
At present, DiNardo is the only master stylist on staff, supported by three junior stylists. The shop is open for appointments from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, but “The hours will expand as we go,” he says. He recommends timing your hairstyling session to coincide with your need to pick up a hostess gift at La Tansy. “It’s really cool to have that kind of shop connected. If you’re having your hair done for a dinner party, you can grab a plant on your way out!”
For more information on Hairrakesh’s products, services and pricing, visit www.hairrakesh.com or www.instagram.com/hairrakeshsalons; for appointments, call (845) 633-8245. For more on La Tansy Florals, see www.latansyflorals.com.
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