Getting primped and pampered might be enjoyable for adults, but for kids those snipping scissors can trigger a meltdown. Luckily, Hoboken has salons that cater to kiddie clientele and make haircuts fun.
Hoboken Hair offers cuts for children at its uptown location. They have mom and dad covered too. With three senior stylists on staff you can get haircuts for the whole family.
The place concentrates on cuts, so you won’t be greeted by that hair-dye smell when you enter the narrow but well-designed salon. Instead, you will likely be greeted by the warm, friendly owner herself.
Yoselin Plasencia, who has been in Hoboken for 15 years, noticed that more growing families were staying in town. When she opened her business in 2011 she knew she wanted to include services for youngsters.
“It was a nice continuation to do first and second generation,” says Plasencia.
Since haircuts can be distressing for some children, Plasencia’s stylists are trained to be patient. A nervous child can sit on a parent’s lap, and the salon has a tablet available with movies and games. Plasencia loves finding a way to help each kid enjoy the experience.
“Yoselin surprised her,” recalls Maria Strandberg, who has brought her children to Hoboken Hair for years. “She had gotten a big plastic box and filled it with hairpins and other small treasures and after the haircut Molly got to pick one item out of the box. No need to tell, my daughter was in heaven!” This box is still there five years later. Yoselin named it “The Molly Box,” and small girls who come in to her salon for a haircut often get to pick something from it after they are done. Molly is very proud that her hairdresser has a “Molly Box.”
“We don’t serve people one time and never see them again,” Plasencia says “I have given kids their first haircut and now see them going to school. They go to college and they come home for a haircut. They’re very loyal.”
They’re not as loyal when it comes to trends. Boys’ styles are always changing.
“Justin Bieber was popular; not so much anymore,” Plasencia says. “Now it’s the soccer players. They’re always trying to emulate that.” She says that girls’ trends don’t change as much, and length is always “in.”
Whatever the current style, Plasencia holds her team up to a high standard and the hiring process is thorough: “Someone who has a lot of experience, but not with children, it’s like having no experience at all.”
Plasencia is passionate about her kids.
“You are part of their lives because wherever they are, whatever they do, they are wearing your haircut!”
Kid Niche
If you want a salon that puts the full focus on your little one, check out Just 4 Kids Salon & Birthday Party Boutique in the Monroe Center. They have race car chairs for kids and free parking for parents.
Owner Gina Leal developed her business plan when she visited a similar salon with her goddaughter in her hometown of Toronto.
“I couldn’t get over how happy my goddaughter and all her friends were,” she says. “I said to myself, ‘It would bring me so much joy if I could make children smile like this every day.’”
Years later she was working as a massage therapist at a spa in the Monroe Center. She noticed many kid-oriented businesses opening. Then a loft became available next to My Gym.
“I thought to myself, ‘This is the place, and now is the time!’ and we made it happen from there,” says Leal, who opened the business in 2013 with her boyfriend Stephen Haines.
Just 4 Kids is a popular birthday party venue. It offers spa days, tea parties, and more with add-ons like face painting, mani-pedis or chalk hair dye. “Pink and purple are always the most popular colors,” Haines says.
Despite the diva-centric party options, the salon is decidedly gender neutral. The décor favors green over pink or blue.
“Boys get between 10 and 12 haircuts a year while girls get three or four,” Haines says.
The busy business is expanding to add five or six more chairs. They are also adding new services and events like in-home lice treatment and a finishing-school-inspired day camp.
“My aim is always to make the kids smile and laugh,” Leal says. “Of course I want to make the parents happy, but I really want to make it fun for the kid,” and her stylists agree.
“It’s sort of like chasing a moving target, but it’s fantastic,” says stylist Olga Iscoa, who has been doing kid cuts for 12 years, “This little guy that I just did, at first he did not like haircuts,” she says of a smiling toddler clutching an organic lollipop and waving bye-bye. “Now I see him about every five weeks and he knows my name already; he knows he’s coming to Olga!”
“They realize, ‘OK, I’m safe here,’” Leal says of her little customers.
Says Haines, “The coolest compliment is when a parent brings their child here, and then they try someplace else like a traditional barber and they come back.”—07030
Hoboken Hair
109 14th St.
(201) 683-8877
myhobokenhair.com
Just 4 Kids Salon & Birthday Party Boutique
720 Monroe St.
(201) 653-5887
just4kidssalon.com