Ten Melbourne salons tested on cut craft, colour craft and how the work ages at week six. The most rigorous editorial test of Melbourne hair you'll find. No paid placements.
| Rank | Hair Salon | Price | Glow Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| № 1 | Edwards and Co — Fitzroy Balayage + colour craft | $$$ $380 senior balayage | ★ 9.5 · 1,200 | Book → |
| № 2 | Valonz Haircutters Cut craft + signature shapes | $$$ $220 senior cut | ★ 9.2 · 580 | Book → |
| № 3 | Rakis on Collins CBD professional polish | $$$ $260 senior cut + colour | ★ 9.0 · 720 | Book → |
| № 4 | KEVIN.MURPHY Salon On-trend cuts + product knowledge | $$ $195 senior cut | ★ 8.8 · 410 | Book → |
| № 5 | Ryder Carlton Curly + textured hair | $$ $185 senior cut | ★ 8.7 · 360 | Book → |
| № 6 | Hair by Kayla Lived-in colour | $$ $260 balayage | ★ 8.5 · 290 | Book → |
| № 7 | Stelios Hair Bayside locals | $$ $175 senior cut | ★ 8.4 · 320 | Book → |
| № 8 | Salon Pretty Mid-market reliability | $$ $200 cut + colour | ★ 8.0 · 230 | Book → |
| № 9 | Headquarters Hair Beginners + budget | $ $130 senior cut | ★ 7.9 · 510 | Book → |
| № 10 | The Blow Bar Event-day blow-drys | $$ $80 blow-dry | ★ 7.6 · 180 | Book → |
Ten hair salons, ranked. The first three earn the editorial spotlight. Use the filters to narrow by what matters to you.
Melbourne's reference colour studio. Conservative on bleaching, careful on tone, every appointment ends with a tone-locking gloss. Six-week ageing on the work is the best in the city.
Cut-led salon, less colour-focused. The senior cutters trained at Vidal Sassoon — the geometry of a Valonz cut is markedly more architectural than typical Melbourne salons. Worth the price for a definitive haircut.
Long-running Melbourne institution. The clientele skews lawyer/banker/professional. Conservative, polished, expensive. Strong on grey blending and corporate-appropriate colour.
Brand-flagship salon. The product knowledge is unmatched — every blow-dry is a styling tutorial. Cut craft is solid, colour is strong but not at Edwards' level.
Specialists in curly and textured hair. The dry-cutting technique on coils is among the city's best. Limited colour offering — go elsewhere if you want balayage.
Younger colourist, on-trend lived-in balayage, strong Instagram following. Result is beautiful at week one; ages a little fast compared to Edwards. Good value at this price point.
Long-standing bayside salon. Less trend-led, more relationship-led. Strong on classic cuts and conservative colour. Reliable for the bayside professional crowd.
Solid, mid-market, no surprises. The right choice if you want a competent cut and tone without the senior pricing. Less ideal for transformative colour change.
Affordable CBD salon, junior-led. Result is honest for the price. The right choice for first colour or trim before you commit to a senior colourist elsewhere.
Specialist blow-dry bar — no cuts, no colour, just styling. Strong for event-day prep, weddings, corporate days. Walk-in friendly with online booking.
Glow's editorial team visits every business in person. We book under regular client names, pay normal pricing, and grade against a five-axis scorecard: practitioner skill, equipment or product, hygiene, results at week six, and pricing transparency. We re-test every 12 months. No business pays for placement.
$380–$650 at an A-list salon, including blow-dry. Below $300 is junior; above $700 is brand premium. Most senior colourists won't go above the $650 mark even when they could — it caps how many clients they can fit a day.
Look at their week-six work. Strong colourists post grown-out colour intentionally — that's where craft shows. Anyone can produce a good day-one photo.
Yes — every six weeks, $80–$140. Adds tone, fixes brassiness, extends the balayage. The single highest-ROI hair spend after the colour itself.
Bring three photos of cuts you like, on faces shaped like yours. Talk through the cut for the first ten minutes, before they touch your hair.
For more Melbourne beauty editorial, see Glow's Melbourne city guide, The Glow 100 annual edit, or the brand explorer. For other Australian cities, see Sydney, Brisbane, or the 2027 city roadmap.
For salon and clinic owners interested in editorial review, the application form is open. We earn-rank — we don't sell listings.
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