Julia Furneaux, Contributing Photographer

The Elm City is renowned for many things: museums, concert halls and pizza parlors. But another local industry might deserve a place amongst New Haven’s most celebrated attributes: hair salons. 

Whether you are looking to undo a hair crisis or simply get a trim, here are five local options for getting a great haircut from local businesses. The News compiled the list — far from exhaustive — with a diverse range of services and experiences, all within a reasonable walking distance of Yale’s campus. 

Walk just 10 minutes from Pauli Murray College and you will find yourself at The Barberie & Salon, a business with a family at its center. 

Owner, principal barber and stylist Marlie Rodriguez, who runs the salon alongside her husband and son, opened the salon two years ago. Rodriguez, who was a carpenter for 15 years before becoming a hairstylist, finds satisfaction in the shift in the art forms “because you’re helping people look good and feel good about themselves.”

The Barberie & Salon is a hybrid salon, offering both barber services and long-length haircuts — an effort to steer away from gendered language, Rodriguez said. She added that the salon often works with New Haven Pride Center. 

They specialize in skin fades, often combining services to fit their clients’ individual needs. Prices work on a tiered system, depending on the experience of the stylist; costs range from $30 to $50. With its interior featuring organic colors and industrial metals, The Barberie & Salon exudes both inclusivity and creativity.

Jo Bruno Hair is the destination for Yalies and New Haveners alike looking for stylists with experience in cutting curly hair. 

Owner Jo Bruno, who has curly hair herself, says that specializing in cutting curly hair was not by design, but by demand. Early in her career, a client asked her if she could read a book called “Curly Girl” and try its method. The experiment proved popular and soon Bruno devoted herself to curly haircutting. 

Bruno explains that cutting curly hair is very different from the mathematical strategy employed when cutting straight hair: “When you cut curly hair [it’s like] forming pottery or trimming a hedge…you’re using your eye and molding it into the shape that you want.” 

Jo Bruno Hair opened in 2006 and has been in its current Whitney Avenue location diagonally across from Timothy Dwight College since 2012. While Yale students are the majority of the clients at Jo Bruno Hair, some dedicated customers travel great lengths — some from as far as Florida — all for Bruno’s specialized cutting technique. Prices range from $55 to $110. 

Salon J operates out of a brick townhouse conveniently located on York Street, just past the Yale School of Architecture. With the start of a new school year, the salon is buzzing on a Saturday afternoon — both with activity and the sound of three hairdryers running at once. 

Talia Rufrano, a stylist at the salon who has been cutting hair for more than four years, describes the atmosphere as “very chill and welcoming.” Salon J offers haircutting, hair coloring, wedding styling and chemical treatments such as hair-smoothing keratin. The salon has been in operation in New Haven for over 10 years and was previously located close to Grey Matter Books. 

Students enjoy a 10 percent discount at Salon J. With the discount, men’s haircuts start at $41 while women’s begin at $68.

One of their most popular services?

Perms. “We do a lot of perms,” Rufrano says.

The motto of  Skull & Combs Co., a neighborhood fixture, is “Friends Made. Hair Slayed.” 

The salon and barbershop, a 10-minute walk from the Yale School of Management, was opened by owner Jason Bunce in 2017. The salon’s play on words will remind seasoned Yalies of Yale’s own Skull and Bones; the two are entirely unrelated, Bunce said. 

Inside, one-off vintage-style dressers double as workstations and walls are crowded with odes to music legends including a Rolling Stones tour poster, a Dolly Parton vinyl and Jim Morrison’s mugshot following his 1967 New Haven arrest. 

The light-heartedness of Skull and Combs Co.’s name and interior carries over onto its service menu, where customers can find a unique — and popular — service called “Dealer’s Choice.”  

“A lot of people that sit down in our chairs sometimes don’t really know what they want,” Bunce said. “They need a little creative influence and a little push in a direction. So we created the ‘Dealer’s Choice’ for those people that want to come in and just kind of leave it in the artist’s hands.” 

Skull and Combs Co. caters to students, neighbors and customers who travel to be on the receiving end of their scissors for specialty colors and cuts. Prices range between $40 to $60 for a barber cut and $65 to $125 for a stylist cut.

Len Yanavich opened Rimagé Salon and Spa in 1984 and has been serving Yale students ever since. Rimagé, located down the street from Pierson College, offers a variety of services including haircuts, threading, waxing, barbering, facials, nails, hot towel shaves and special event styling. 

Rimagé sees many students but, on occasion, actors and actresses fresh from the Yale Repertory Theatre.

In opening Rimagé, Yanavich says he not only wanted to cater to hair care but also create “a safe place for people to come and feel at home away from home.” 

The salon prides itself on its strong community ties, having previously raised funds for the AIDS Project New Haven, the New Haven Pride Center and local soup kitchens. Rimagé also has a program where clients can make donations to cover the cost for people struggling with homelessness to get their hair cut. 

Echoing its “family-based” spirit, pricing is holistic, and Yanavich is open to compromise when someone is facing hardship. A men’s haircut can range from $30 to $85, and students will receive a 15 percent discount during the academic year.