> Hairstylist and owner Carla Alvarado opened Hush Salon (a full-service salon offering hair, nail, facial, and waxing services) in Chicago in 2009. By 2012, realizing just how popular nail services were and not having enough space in her existing location, she jumped at the opportunity to open Hush Nail Boutique when a location across the street became available. The salon is open seven days a week and in addition to a pedicure area up front and a manicure area in the back, there are also two private rooms, one for facials and waxing and one for spray tanning.
> Alvarado works as a hairstylist at the main salon, but she splits her time between the two locations. On the day of our appointments (we were there during America’s Beauty Show), her husband Ryan was on hand to help out in the nail boutique. The salon is structured similarly to a hair salon with as many regular appointments scheduled as possible, and they don’t accept walk-ins. They use a great online booking program called SpaBooker. All services (with times and prices) are put into the system so clients know exactly what to expect before they arrive at the salon.
> Keeping with a similar vintage-inspired theme as its sister location, the nail boutique walls are filled with vintage nail ads and implements in frames that they’ve found on Etsy and Ebay. (What a cool way to decorate a salon!) Two large black chandeliers are the centerpiece of the main pedicure and manicure areas, with six pedicure spa chairs in the front and four manicure stations in the back. The day we were there, I opted for a Moroccanoil Pedi (with the fragrant Moroccanoil line of pedi products I had never tried before…yum!).
For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.