Lather & Form

The question was whether a hair salon needed to feel like one. We decided it didn’t. The walls of Lather & Form are not walls in any conventional sense. They are hand-formed plaster — built up in layers over weeks by a single craftsman, shaped into something between a cave and a cloud. Soft arches overhead, organic columns that seem to grow from the floor, no corner that meets at ninety degrees. Light is hidden inside the forms, so the room glows rather than illuminates. Working surfaces sit in deliberate contrast: white, precise, functional. Mirror. Chair. Counter. The tension between the two is the whole idea. A space that asks something of you before you sit down.