Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Working at the new Rêve un Salon are (from left) hair designer Michelle Hernitz, owner and hair designer Fan Van Brunt, hair designer Bita Tayyeb and receptionist Stacey Moody.
Stylist returns to Saratoga to 'design' hair at Rêve un Salon
By Rebecca Ray
Last month, a hair designer's dream of owning a salon materialized when she opened Rêve un Salon in Saratoga.
The hair designer, Fan Van Brunt, 43, says she has always wanted to run her own place. Even the name she gave it means "dream a salon" in French.
Van Brunt says she gave the new salon on Big Basin Way a French name because the French language is often associated with beauty and because she wanted her business to fit in with all the French-named restaurants on the street.
Although Van Brunt, who has styled hair for at least 12 years, still co-owns Headlines Salon in Campbell with two partners, she no longer works there and plans on eventually selling her portion of the business.
But the San Jose resident hasn't completely severed her ties with Headlines. One of the other two hair designers at Rêve, Michelle Hernitz, worked with Van Brunt at Headlines for two years. Hernitz, 40, who lives in Campbell, has styled hair since 1979.
The hair designers at Rêve un Salon, who style men's and women's hair, use only all-natural hair styling products and sell only all-natural hair care products. This emphasis is meant to cater to the health-conscious clientele, Van Brunt says. According to Hernitz, the workers also use the natural products because unlike their synthetic counterparts, they don't damage the customer's hair or the environment. When the hairdressers color clients' hair blonde, they use a de-coloring solution that has very little ammonia and lots of herbs, instead of bleach.
It was a tube of Tocco Maggico hair color, an all-natural Italian product, that led to Hernitz and Van Brunt's first encounter. Van Brunt had stopped by her former workplace, Salon Salon in San Jose, to borrow a tube of Tocco Maggico from her former boss, when she saw Hernitz working there. Van Brunt was impressed with Hernitz's skill and later hired her away from her former boss to work at Headlines.
Hernitz also met Van Brunt's vision of a stylist who continually kept up-to-date on the latest styles. Hernitz has taken classes from well-known hairdressers on new hair-styling technology and products since she began her career styling hair 22 years ago, she says.
Big Basin Way is familiar territory to Hernitz. She worked across the street from Rêve un Salon, at what is now Ilona's Hair Studio at 14456 Big Basin Way. Hernitz worked at the location when it was a salon called Duenna's, which has since closed. Hernitz worked at Duenna's with Ilona Toth before Toth left to start Ilona's.
Toth had moved to 14417 Big Basin Way, the location of Rêve un Salon, until she moved from the 1,000-square-foot space last fall.
In addition to Hernitz, Bita Tayyeb--the newest hairdresser at Rêve un Salon--and two receptionists, Van Brunt is looking to recruit six more hair designers to fill the nine styling stations. She's had to turn clients away because the current staff is overworked, she says.
So far, according to Hernitz, most clients have asked to have their hair colored. Since no one shade stands out as being the most popular, she has ordered a variety of colors, including purple.
Hernitz has not shied away from having a colorful visage herself. She has dyed most her own hair red. The strands that frame her face, plus parts of her bangs, are blonde. The red parts of her hair have purple highlights. Although she prefers to use "higher-end" abstract colors to colors that look store-bought, she would use these colors on someone who asked, Hernitz says.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
