Arcane Hair Parlour, a unisex hair salon and barbershop that opened in mid-October, is the culmination of years of experience and the unique artistic vision of owner Erika Clary.
The salon specializes in old-fashioned barbery, and offers styles ranging from punk to vintage, according to its website. It’s located in a small space under the Skyline Lofts Apartment Homes on Pierce Street between Third and Fourth streets.
“It’s supposed to feel romantic, not gender-specific, which was really important to me,” Clary said. “I would like a man or a woman to feel very comfortable in the environment.”
The website says the concept of the salon takes inspiration from “the Phoenix punk scene and avant-garde art scene with a dash of Victorian refinement.”
Clary is trained as a hairstylist and a barber, which she said is relatively uncommon in the beauty world because it takes twice the effort and training.
She studied at Allure Career College of Beauty in Scottsdale and earned a certificate in cosmetology in 2001. She became a certified barber in 2012 after graduating from Moler Barber College in Sacramento, California. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in business management at the University of Phoenix.
One of the unique services her shop provides is a straight-razor shave for men, Clary said. With recent facial hair fads, there has been a resurgence in getting proper beard care in barbershops. But due to unpopularity in the past, many barbers do not know how to use a straight razor, she said.
Other services include haircuts, coloring, highlights, blowouts, perms, updos and face waxing.
Clary first moved to Phoenix in 2000 after spending her childhood living mostly in Florida and Japan because her father was in the military. She moved to Sacramento, California for four years and returned to downtown Phoenix in July, when she began to make Arcane a reality.
She chose to set up Arcane in downtown Phoenix because she thinks the city residents have open minds and would welcome her business, which she called a little different.
“We are able to offer service to any kind of client, and I think that is important for this area because you can look outside and see a million different kinds of people everyday,” she said.
Clary employs three other trained hairstylists, including Maritza Hurtado, who said she found an advertisement on Craigslist for Arcane and decided to apply. The shop gets a few walk-ins per day, and people are still finding out the shop is there, Hurtado said.
“We want to make sure that everyone is walking out with the best of our work and they feel as good as they look,” Hurtado said.
Most of the clients have been students who see the shop while going to class and will stop by when going home or tenants of the Skyline Loft Apartment Homes, she said.
Gladys Levario, a mental health therapist, was attracted to the shop due to its location, which she said she thought looked neat. She was spurred to make an appointment to get her hair cut and dyed.
Levario, who had her hair cut by Hurtado, said her experience with Arcane was different than her usual haircut appointments. She said the staff was friendly and knowledgeable, and talked to her about different ways to style her hair, rather than just cutting it.
And she wasn’t the only one in her family to get a fresh hair cut that day.
“My brother was a walk-in,” Levario said. “They did an awesome job with him.”
Arcane has a few promotions coming up for November and December, one being a 15 percent discount for Arizona State University and University of Arizona students, which ends at the end of this year. The salon will also donate all proceeds from shaves in December to prostate cancer research.
Contact the reporter at Summer.Cordero-Torres@asu.edu.
