SEAGULL SALON NYC Beauty & Culture Blog

As Seagull Turns 52, Our New West Village Salon Space Just turned 8!

Cool to revisit this article in The Architect's Newspaper featuring our architect Ben Warwas. As "New Seagull" turns eight, we're having fun looking back and getting 1/2 way to vintage! 

 

Here is a snippet from The Architect's Newspaper and you can read the whole thing HERE.

 

Since its founding more than four decades ago, Seagull Hair Salon has been a haven for queer culture in Manhattan’s West Village. The first unisex barbershop in New York City is the place to lounge, gossip, and unwind.

In September 2015, its latest generation of co-owners, veteran hairstylist Shaun “Surething” Cottle and former Le Tigre band member Johanna Fateman, moved Seagull to a larger, brighter shop around the block, commissioning Los Angeles–based architect Ben Warwas to design a space that would preserve Seagull’s signature campy irreverence.

“Those colors are very riot grrrl,” Warwas said, referring to the palette of black, white, and bright pink taken directly from the ’90s feminist movement. Postmodern flourishes abound in what the salon’s owners have described as an “upscale glam feminist Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” mainly in the form of allusions to the original space’s signature architectural features.

I'M WITH HER!

In the midst of this never-ending contentious election season, Seagull president Johanna and her band Le Tigre have reunited to release their first new song in a decade: a super fun pro-Hillary Clinton track "I'm With Her".  

 Using their classic anthemic sound, Le Tigre's "I'm With Her" eviscerates Donald Trump, making an awesome case for a President Hillary Clinton as "a problem solver, a true rock climber, pantsuit-wearing herstorical first-timer...a listener, a negotiator, a legal scholar, Supreme Court nominator." It's Le Tigre meets 2016, which is so badly needed in this political climate right now! Understood by the band is the urgent point in history we are at: America is on the verge of electing a sociopathic and sexist fascist, who wants to ban Muslims and build a wall along our southern border, or a highly-qualified first woman president running on the most progressive platform ever! It's refreshing to hear a song that's unabashedly pro-Hillary since there is a dearth of those for a figure so complex and fascinating to many of us. 

In an interview with Pitchfork, Johanna discussed part of what motivated her in writing a new Le Tigre track:

"We’re coming off of a really fractious rollercoaster of a Democratic primary that divided a lot of our extended community around Hillary vs. Sanders. I really try to counter the narrative that Hillary’s not exciting by saying that I am very excited by her, that I find her likable and inspiring. The irony always gets me: Le Tigre were touring and registering voters and talking about John Kerry on stage every night. We never got any pushback, but now, it’s not cool to support Hillary in this epic, historic battle for life as we know it? It’s ludicrous. Hillary’s doing an amazing job. Her debate performances are astounding and moving and I’m super excited about her being a leader." 

We here at Seagull also get what's at stake this year and eagerly welcome Le Tigre's "I'm With Her". We are so ready for Hillary. Consider this our endorsement. Go vote!

xo
craig hunter

PS
Listen for the low-key witch cackle in "I'm With Her". 

PPS
Go here to look up your NYC poll locator! Remember to vote Tuesday, November 8!

 

6 Hair Makeovers That’ll Inspire You To Go Bold This Fall - NYLON.COM Fall Hair Makeovers

Shaun Surething of Seagull was chosen for the third year in a row to participate in the NYLON.COM fall hair makeovers, and we could not be giddier. As Luck would have it, Shaun was teamed up with Hayden (below) who wanted orange hair. Together, he and Shaun collectively took things a punch further, incorporating a variation of colors and tones to create a truly unbeatable overall orange. 

 

 

 

Hayden on his experience with Shaun: "So, I turned to my old friend bleach and said "hello" to the one color I’ve never had on top of my head: orange. Shaun Surething, the lead stylist at and co-owner of Seagull, is a true wizard of color and painted my Olaplex treatment-infused bleached hair with five different colors: coral on the sides; orange on the roots; mixtures of pinks and reds and oranges all over the top. He took a darker shade and defined each color section with a balayage technique, which added depth and texture. I’m particularly obsessed with the “natural” section he left that may or may not be inspired by a particular hair style Hayley Williams rocked in a certain Zedd music video that I showed during my consultation. (It totally is.) 

 

"I left Seagull thanking Shaun for bringing my queerness back. For, really, he and Warren have. A makeover is supposed to help bring out a new side of yourself, something fresh. For me, this has been more about exploring my younger self—a self I enviously look back on because of his fearlessness—with grown-up products and treatments. (No more DIY bleach jobs, cheap hair dye, and constant flat ironing for this head of hair.) Perhaps, one day, I’ll learn to love my curls. (I do happen to think they look nice in that before photo.) But it’s time to fall back into that fearless self I know is still alive and well. He just needed to be bleached out."

 

Related articles

@arabellesicardi Talks to Seagull Sara Fenoglio for @BuzzFeed on Saving Your Color Damaged Hair

Part II of Riot Grrrl Pioneer Fights to Keep Salon in Village Amid Skyrocketing Rents - Seagull In DNA.Info

This is a second part follow up to our mention in DNAInfo.com. Q&A by lead stylist of the West Village hair salon, Seagull, Shaun SureThing and Johanna Fateman. Scroll down for the original post after the Q&A of Riot Grrrl Pioneer Fights to Keep Salon Amid Skyrocketing Rents. 

 

 

DNAinfo New York sat down with Fateman and Cottle to talk about their fight to stay in the West Village despite sky-rocketing rents, how they've seen the neighborhood and the city change around them and what it means to run a feminist hair salon.

Talk about your commitment to staying in the neighborhood.

JF: It’s sort of ridiculous to talk about gentrification in this neighborhood anymore because it’s, like, the most expensive neighborhood in the city. But there’s this strange paradox where local independently owned businesses are why people want to live in the West Village, because there is McNulty’s [Tea & Coffee] and Seagull. So we’re trying to stay here and find a business model that works, that’s true to who we are but also can work in this climate. We have to constantly kind of go back to square one and be like, how can this work? How can we preserve the legacy of Seagull and its connection to gay liberation in this neighborhood and make something that can generate enough revenue to stay here? It hasn’t always been easy.

SC: I’m so proud that we are a business that has been here since 1971. Gentrification is behind us, urban blight is happening and we’ve managed to find a weird hole and dig ourselves into it, and we’ve managed to make it a really glamorous spot.

How has the neighborhood changed around you?

JF: I feel a lot of sadness to see these ground floor spaces taken up by these huge bank lobbies and by CVS. It just seems like the square footage is exorbitant and it really affects — the way we walk through this neighborhood is different. In that sense I was sad to leave the ground floor. There was something nice about having the storefront. But at least we’re still here.

SC: The other thing that’s sad that’s happening in this neighborhood is that landlords are like, "You can’t afford it, I want $25,000 a month" and then it just sits empty. It’s like, "Oh, congratulations on the huge profit you’re making."

JF: It changed too with the outrage of people who have bought into these luxury buildings, their outrage at the queer youth populations and communities that still hang out on Christopher Street and the Christopher Street piers and still have that as kind of a citywide destination for hanging out. We’ve had some arguments with people about that.

SC: I think the neighborhood is definitely less queer or the queers here are older. But because the queers haven’t died off there's some kind of weird bohemian energy hanging in the air still. I don’t know if it’s the ghost of HIV past or if it’s just like this neighborhood was so much entrenched with that spirit that no matter who moves here it still sort of feels that way.

 

 

OMG I was SUPER STOKED when I found out that my very favorite news source DNAInfo.com was interested in doing a story on the history of Seagull: how we've transformed over the decades to bend to the changing will of the West Village while retaining a core, queer feminist integrity. My very favorite journalist for DNA Danielle Tcholakian sat down with Johanna and I to dish about West Village post-gentrification, shuttered storefronts and urban blight, body images in popular culture, and how we've managed to keep a beauty salon infused with our DIY punk rock spirit. You can read the whole thing HERE: Riot Grrrl Pioneer Fights to Keep Salon in Village Amid Skyrocketing Rents. This is a short excerpt from the article:

Related articles

why it's time to start breaking hair rules @ShaunSureThing for @NylonMag

Riot Grrrl Pioneer Fights to Keep Salon in Village Amid Skyrocketing Rents - Seagull In DNA.Info

Seagull's Sarah Fenoglio in Refinery 29 for Pastel Blonde Pallets

A grant vote for @seagullSalon is a vote for you. @shaunsurething @johannafateman

Riot Grrrl Pioneer Fights to Keep Salon in Village Amid Skyrocketing Rents - Seagull In DNA.Info

OMG I was SUPER STOKED when I found out that my very favorite news source DNAInfo.com was interested in doing a story on the history of Seagull: how we've transformed over the decades to bend to the changing will of the West Village while retaining a core, queer feminist integrity. My very favorite journalist for DNA Danielle Tcholakian sat down with Johanna and I to dish about West Village post-gentrification, shuttered storefronts and urban blight, body images in popular culture, and how we've managed to keep a beauty salon infused with our DIY punk rock spirit. You can read the whole thing HERE: Riot Grrrl Pioneer Fights to Keep Salon in Village Amid Skyrocketing Rents. This is a short excerpt from the article:

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20160512/west-village/riot-grrrl-pioneer-fights-keep-salon-village-amid-skyrocketing-rents

What does it mean to be a feminist salon?

JF: I think that the way in which it’s feminist for me and probably for Shaun, too, is in the sense that we come from like this punk feminist culture, DIY culture that’s very irreverent towards expertise. And we were like, "We can do it. No, we don’t know how to run a business but we can figure it out."

Our feminism is also about paying living wages to our employees and making a sustainable small business where we can employ people and allow them to be their selves and express themselves on the job and pursue their other creative projects and have flexible schedules.

SC: In terms of it actually being a feminist salon as far as beauty goes, one of the things I’ll often say to women if they’re like, "I have a really high forehead so I feel like I can’t do xyz," I’m like, "Okay, well, I don’t see that as a stylist but if that’s how you feel there’s ways to address that. But that’s not a concern of mine that’s jumping out at me."

JF: Also what’s wrong with having a big forehead or a fat face or a long skinny face?

SC: Yeah, we should exaggerate it. If you want to look really fabulous in New York, maybe we should do the thing of taking your flaw and exaggerating it. Let’s take your round face and make a bob at your cheekbones.

All of our stylists first and foremost are very, very, very specific about not imposing any specific style onto any one person. We really listen. Like, what do you want to present? Who are you? Do you want to be blond? People don’t take women with blond hair as seriously as women with brown hair. Do you want to be taken seriously? Do you want to be able to sneak your ideas through the office because you’re blond? Because we could do that. Pulling out of women who they want to be in the world and then trying to bring that to fruition. That, to me, is the most feminist thing that I do in the salon everyday.

xoxoxoxo

Shaun SureThing for Seagull Hair Salon, West Village NYC 

Julianne on Lady Gaga, Yolandi and Micro-bangs

Ok it's not JUST because I have a shout out in this Julianne Escobedo Shepherd that I'm happy about this article. She's talking spec. about baby-bangs (which I basically reinvented in the 90's on every west coast riot grrrl) their recent reemergence in the form of Lady Gaga's hair, and the other ladies who inspired her newest incarnation of herself. 

 

Julianne is an amazing writer and music critic. We love her at Seagull. So much that we are looking forward to a full profile complete with a probing Q&A by our talented staff writer, Molly. 

But for now you'll have to be content reading 

The Rihanna Rihport , 

Taylor Swift's New Song Is the Gentrification Anthem NYC Didn't Need

and much more over at Jezebel. 

xoshaun

Sarah Fenoglio graces Seagull Hair Salon NYC

We are super pleased to welcome hair stylist Sarah Fenoglio to the Seagull team! 

Sarah arrived in spirit long before she came here four years ago. As a kid Sarah came here and left a part of her heart NYC, knowing that she would be back. Surrounded by changing neighborhoods and sub-cultures in flux, Sarah now lives on the virtual catwalk that is Bedford Avenue in the beating heart of Williamsburg. Being one of NYC's most fashionable streets, you never know what you're in for, and Sarah loves never knowing what is going to walk by and get her gears moving.

 Sarah got a revelationary burst of inspiration from on a trip to Norway. She was struck by the vibrant colors the houses were painting and the way they uplifted the spirit against the backdrop of a dark winter sky. Not entirely unlike the style mavens set against the cement and steel backdrop of NYC, this inspires and informs Sarah's creative outlook every day.

Sarah has been doing hair for ten plus years and has a keen eye for fashion and detail. Most recently from Mudhoney Salon, Sarah brings a loyal following of downtown style seekers over to the West Village. She first heard of Seagull Salon five years ago and was thrilled to see that Johanna was one of the owners. As a self described feminist and fan of the electro-pop band Le Tigre, she knew right from the start Seagull would be a great place to be

Sarah's haircuts and hair colors are tailored especially for those looking for something versatile, and ultimately, she helps people feel like their best selves. She specializes in both cutting and coloring with an emphasis on blondes and color correction. Edgy creative colors ranging from subtle pastel tones to bold editorial statement pieces are a signature of Sarah's---and one we are glad to get behind!

Edgy short haircuts for women are a favorite. Razor-sharp lines juxtaposed with lots of texture and cool shapes are one of the highlights of Sarah's work. Both women and men get great styles from Sarah, both unconventional and elegant.

We've seen her pump out some awesome and really cool stuff in the last couple of weeks. She has tons of pictures of hairstyles on her own website, and we're gonna post a few of our favorites here.

Check out her work and read her bio on the stylist page for Seagull Salon. 

An Update from Johanna, Author and President of Seagull

People often ask what I'm up to when not busy ruling over this beauty parlor. In a word: writing. There's my ongoing, mysterious (even to me) Andrea Dworkin thing (detailed here in conversation with author and Seagull VIP Emily Gould) and then there are a few things I recently had published around town:

1. I recall Le Tigre's early days abhoring Giuliani and making electronic music in the RBMA daily note here ("The mayor was the perfect nemesis, an arrogant fucker who enraged us not only with his cruel policies and despicable cronyism, but also with every snide word and smug gesture"). Or here with embedded videos!

2. I talk about my Riot Grrrl, pre-Le Tigre days in Lisa Darms's new book The Riot Grrrl Collection ("As a teen, it astounded me to discover that girls were organizing to fight their exclusion and silencing, and that they were doing it with intoxicating subcultural style"). You can read my essay on the Paper Magazine site, but to read my weird zine about Artaud and any number of incendiary feminist punk documents from the 1990s you are just going to have to get this great book. Oh, and there's a conversation with Lisa, Kathleen Hanna, Sheila Heti, and me here on the Bookforum site.

3. I wrote about a show at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens called "Spectacle: the Music Video" for Artforum ("Women constitute a lot of the spectacle but get very few directors' credits.) I don't think it's online but you can always read AF at the salon! 

And I think that's all for now. Love, Johanna

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

You don't fool me for a minute. I know all about you. 

You came here tonight thinking you’d see some cute and wonderful rockstar. And you thought he’d take one look at you from up on that stage and he’d fall in love with you just like that. Then your savior could take you out of this dump of a town you live in. You could be different from all the other girls. Suckers!

Be yourselves.

These guys laugh at you. They've got such big plans for the world, but they don't include us. So what does that make you?

Just another girl lining up to die.

That's when Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains grabbed hold of me and got my full attention. It was so lucid.

It's what Corinne shouts at the audience after her band The Fabulous Stains is heckled off stage. It's their first show, and they've revealed themselves to be a sort of cross between The Shaggs and The Misfits (from "Jem and the Holograms"). This crowd came to hear the all-male headlining bands, one of which likes to write songs about that point in a relationship, you know, where it's necessary for the man to hit his "old lady" because words just don't cut it.

But the Stains (Corinne, her sister Tracy, and their cousin Jessica, a very young Laura Dern) are desperate to succeed. They're in their teens. Corinne and Tracy's parents are dead; Jessica's mother is uninterested and absent. There's no future in their hometown. They have to get out of there. 

And so they do. And they quickly make a name for themselves. Their style is different. They don't dress like the other girls around. 

When their manager instructs the Stains to dress in sexy, tight leather outfits, Corinne refuses and opts for an olive trench and a red beret instead. (My personal favorite look from the movie.)

Corinne is also (in)famous for her outbursts and speaking her mind. (At one point she tells a news reporter: "Every girl should be given an electric guitar on her sixteen birthday." Amen.) She's also good at plugging her band whenever she is interviewed by the press, further spreading the word of the Stains and creating an impressive fanbase. 

But what happens when you aren't sure if your fans are really listening or if they just want to look like you? What does an influential band to do when it gets boiled down to a marketable look? What do you do when the youth subculture is something to be capitalized from? Are you a sellout, or what? These are questions that are brought up in The Fabulous Stains.

It's a short movie, but there is enough material in it that had me deep in thought the next day. I was also really inspired by the film. There's something about it. It's not perfect, but that's okay. I felt empowered.

What is most important (besides their awesome songs) are the ideas and situations brought up. It's the kind of movie that says the things I've always felt but never saw in a movie.

It made me want to start a band. It made me want to be myself. 

It has that effect. 

xo
craig hunter 

RESIST PSYCHIC DEATH

so tessellated

 Seagull muse @iamcaroline’s epic new Bikini Kill tattoo, courtesy of TRON at Thicker Than Water. Loving the Escherean elements, perspective play and nod to the future corpse (a classic Caroline leitmotif!) RESIST PSYCHIC DEATH FOREVER. 

XOXO,

Mawlz