Though Brown & Co. Hair Design is easy to miss as it's tucked into a small row of businesses on Soquel, it's a popular salon specializing in ethnic and hard-to-manage hair. Weaves, braids, coloring and permanents are some of the services offered.
Formerly of Salon Technology, Beauty Solutions Education sells high-end hair salon products to licensed haircare professionals only. The primarily distribution-oriented company also helps small salon-related businesses with marketing and business planning, and provides education for salons and stylists in northern and southern California. They provide fast shipping, usually within the second day, and have a small retail store in Santa Cruz. A calendar of their trainings is available on their website.
Westside Beauty Supply, conveniently located in the Gateway Plaza on River Street, is a full-service salon and beauty supply store. The friendly staff can help you find hair and skin care products, makeup and all the accompanying accessories. Hair styling, waxing and facials are also available.
Sip gourmet tea in the 50-year-old bamboo garden, an oasis of tranquility downtown. The stress will fall away as you walk through the canopied entrance to a world apart. Four private rooms with windows open to the garden, where you can relax in the sunlight. Professional staff provide massages, and skin care products from local Bonny Doone Lavender Farms are available.
Elizabeth Van Buren Aromatherapy makes 70 different therapeutic-grade essential oils and more than 20 blends for retail and wholesale customers. The Old Sash Mill office only sells to wholesalers, but the general public can buy Van Buren products at the Herb Room, Staff of Life and Aptos Natural Foods. Formerly called Body Love Natural Cosmetics, the local company's organic products are free of pesticides, parabens and synthetics.
Elizabeth Van Buren is a longtime educator, healer, formulator and advocate of using therapeutic essential oils for integrative medicine. She aims "to bring botanical healing products that bring holistic health and aromatic balance to a world just awakening to the need for preventative medicine," according to her Web site. She also sells skin and body care products made with aloe vera for sensitive skin.
