As much as I hate to accept it, long flowing hair just isn’t in the cards for me.  Try as I might, my hair just does not have the combination of factors to ever add up to that beautiful and effortless chic of windblown, soft and bouncy, half way down the back, drop dead gorgeous, rapunzel like tresses.  Oh sigh.  Say it with me here girls. Big collective sigh.

What it does have, according to my beloved and talented, tell it like it is, straight talking master stylist Ladonna, is, well, texture, gobs of it, on the order of coarseness even, like a horse’s tail, okay? 

In a tiny funky house turned tiny funky salon, Ladonna works her magic in a tiny sunfilled back room.  If there’s such a thing as a rock star clientele in Richmond, then Ladonna seems to have it.  Insiders and A listers are familiar with her razor cutting techniques, and her endless passion for cutting edge.  Ladonna doesn’t just do ho hum color and cut, she seems to actually love it, truly have a passion for it, and who can’t love that?  Who doesn’t crave, imagine, and actually dream of that ever elusive cut that’s just right for them, all things considered, all bets off?  If great hair is what you wish for, then Ladonna is your personal fairy godmother.

And so it was, I found myself again, at my appointment recently, with my half baked attempt at ‘growing my hair out long.’  Long for me is shoulder length, and I was light years away from even that.  Ladonna, bless her straight talking heart, told me then about the horse’s tail part. That’s her gift though.  It’s why I love her, and why my husband and daughters, mom, friends, and neighbors love her also.  Ladonna could easily be a diva, but she’s not, and she’s not because she simply doesn’t want, or need to be.  In her charming light filled space she gets right down to business while we catch up on celebrity gossip, politics, and family life in general.  Ladonna is one of those refreshingly rare creatures who makes her passion her business,  the type of person where there’s no real line between her work, and who she is, because it seems to be the same. It’s simply who she is, what she does, and how she creates.

I don’t even know what she prefers, the cutting or the coloring,  though I’d bet it doesn’t really matter, as it’s the overall effect she’s after.  All of the elements rolling into one.  What’s a good cut really, without super good color, and vice versa?  You can’t really have one without the other, and Ladonna excels at both. 

Ladonna, in her non diva style, answers her own phone, books her own appointments, and washes her clients hair herself.  She’s in it start to finish, hands on, hands down.  What a refreshing approach this is after visits to several local chi chi salons that seem to have a kind of hierarchy - that whole a list, b list kind of vibe.  Not Ladonna, though.  Ladonna’s playing field is level.  Male or Female, if you’ve got hair, no matter how much or how little, in Ladonna’s chair, you’re on the main stage, and your hair, under Ladonna’s care, will be your crowning glory.

Ladonna Hasty     356 - 2889         5430 Patterson Ave