We Support Brentwood Beautification

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When we heard about two new salons in Brentwood practically opening at the same time, we had to make the trip across the 405 to see what was up. What we found was two comfortable, high-end boutique-y environments with reasonable prices.

First up was the highly anticipated Drybar, a blowout-only salon in the Brentwood Gardens shopping center at the corner of San Vicente and Barrington. The sparkling white interior and mirrored walls made the inside look posh and fresh, and the overall design actually does look like a cross between a bar and a hair salon. Little white chairs are lined up along the long counter, facing glass shelves full of hair products, cocktail glasses and a television that plays Sex and the City on continuous loop (with the closed captioning on, of course.)

It's clear that when owner Alli Webb created the concept of Drybar, she wanted her customers to be as comfortable as possible. In addition to the cocktails and female-friendly televisions, each chair has its own iPod/iPhone docking station, so you can bring your own tunes or just charge up your iBaby while you get styled. Plus there's head/neck massages available for $10, sweet and salty snacks for $4 a bag, current fashion magazines to flip through, plush chairs in the waiting area and the cutest bathroom ever (no, really).

Alli has been styling hair professionally for over a decade, and discovered the high demand for affordable blowouts when she started making housecalls in 2008. Eventually she became so busy that she decided to open her own salon and charge $35 per blowout. And after being open for a little over a week, Alli has already seen repeat visitors (probably because Drybar offers membership packages where you can buy blowouts in semi-bulk for a discounted rate). When you're budgeting for your appointment, keep in mind that the salon recommends a $10 tip per visit. Overall, we pretty much love everything about this place, except for the fact that they call their head/neck massages "floaters."

Next on our list was the new, second location of Bellacures, located in Brentwood Village in the curve of the little Barrington Court shopping area. The salon is pretty much the same as the Beverly Hills location, albeit a little bit smaller. It still features incredibly comfortable chairs to get your manis and pedis in, reasonable prices and seasonal special treatments (check the blackboard for the daily menu, which will probably make you hungry). Plus now that they're on Twitter, they're going to be tweeting discounts of up to 30% off of services, which is something they never ever do (normally the best you can get is 10% off). But you have to follow them to jump on the daily deals.

Driving across the 405 has never made you look this good.
· Have a Mai Tai with Your Mai Tai [previously]
· Drybar [Official Site]
· Bellacures [Official Site]
· Bellacures [Twitter]