Salon64 is ostensibly a hair and beauty salon – but that’s where any similarity with other salons you know ends. Rocket-powered by its location at the heart of creative Soho, it is a space where you step off the street into an alternative reality; an inspiring social hub in which to recharge, have fun and hang out. Just as the most successful bricks-and-mortar retail concepts are those which go beyond static rails to create places where people want to be, so Salon64 invites you in to a universe that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Salon64 and Club64, its associated private members’ club, are the creation of the highly-acclaimed millennial stylist Ricky Walters – the name a reference to 1664 when opulent ‘salons’ were first held by French hostesses as they prepared for the evening ahead. Rewriting the rules of what a hair salon is, Walters has created a space that allows for sociability, privacy and even co-working. ‘No other hair salon has dedicated and designed a comfortable space where clients can do this without feeling self-conscious,’ said Walters at the launch.

His modern-day speakeasy concept offers styling and colour services by day and cocktails by night, with marble fire pits creating ambience throughout the 2,000 sq/ft, two-storey space. As a client you can meet your friends at the sociable coffee bar, charge your phone or send emails at a flip-down workstation, redo your make-up between meetings or retreat into the privacy of a secluded treatment vault. You can pop in in early evening for a blow-dry (with a cocktail) before going out on the town; or hire the space itself for a private party – with hairstylists, make-up artists, baristas and champagne galore. Its experienced in-house stylists, along with baristas and mixologists, are collectively known as ‘creatives’. It’s a destination that is, undeniably, there for its community.

To encourage clients to feel comfortable in London once more, Salon64 was the first hair salon in London to open its own garden terrace in 2020 – Terrace64 – continuing to offer high-end services al fresco, while keeping clients safe. Going a step further, Ricky Walters is making his mark on the industry by transitioning the brand into ‘The 64 Group’, heralding the arrival of his own much-anticipated professional line of hair products.

‘We have grown so much in such a short time,’ he explains, ‘and we are more than just a salon. We are the 64 community. Whether you’re a client of the salon, a member of the club, or a soon-to-be user at home of our haircare line, you are part of the 64 community of creatives. The 64 community is rapidly expanding and a force to be reckoned with.’

Now going into its fourth year, The 64 Group has become not just a talking point across London, but also a respected destination for A-listers in search of the red-carpet treatment. With their upbeat approach, Salon64’s creatives remain rightly optimistic for the future as they continue to reinvent their sector, one idea at a time.