Marlene H.
Founder · colourEighteen years in colour, twelve of them in Vienna. Trained in the ammonia-free lines before they were fashionable and has not gone back.
About
Nine years,
Nine years,
still five chairs.
Aurelle opened in 2017 in a ground-floor room that used to be a bookbinder's. It was built for five chairs and it has stayed at five, which is the only reason the rest of this page is true.
Why small
The size is the standard
A stylist who is running two chairs at once is not being unkind — they are being scheduled badly. Colour is left to develop while someone else is cut, and the person in the first chair waits with wet hair and a magazine. Everything guests dislike about a salon comes out of that one decision.
So the arithmetic here starts from the other end: how many guests can five people actually finish in a day without overlapping? That number is small, and the price list reflects it. There is no version of this where we are cheaper and also do this.
We have turned down two expansion offers and one franchise approach. Both would have worked as businesses. Neither would have survived contact with the sentence above.
Bäckerstraße 9. A bookbinder's
until 2016, a salon since 2017.
The people
Who you will actually see
Four specialists and one apprentice. Everybody here is on the floor; nobody is a manager who occasionally cuts.
Jonas K.
Senior stylist · cuttingDry cutting and restyles. Will tell you when the photograph you brought will not work on your hair, which is why people book him.
Sanela D.
Skin therapistCosmetology diploma, eight years in clinical skin. Refers out to a dermatologist perhaps once a month and considers that a good sign.
Elif V.
Nails · brows · makeupStructured overlays and brow mapping. Keeps notes on every bridal file so the trial and the day match exactly.
How we got here
The short version
-
2017
Two chairs and a borrowed basin
Marlene and one apprentice, four days a week, in a room that still had shelving brackets on the walls.
-
2019
The skin room
The back office became room two. Sanela joined and facials stopped being something we sent people elsewhere for.
-
2021
Ammonia-free across the board
The last permanent line came off the shelf. It cost us a handful of guests who wanted a specific shade we could no longer promise, and we would do it again.
-
2023
Ventilation, properly
Six weeks closed and the single largest cheque this business has written. The room no longer smells of anything much, which is the point.
-
2026
Still five chairs
Four specialists, one apprentice, one guest each at a time.
Plainly
What we will and will not do
We will
- Tell you the exact colour price before mixing anything.
- Say when a treatment is not worth your money.
- Patch test for colour and lashes, free, 48 hours ahead.
- Keep notes, so the next visit starts where this one ended.
- Send you to a dermatologist when that is the honest answer.
We will not
- Sell you a product because a rep set a target.
- Bleach hair we do not think will survive it.
- Book two guests into one stylist's hour.
- Charge more for a senior stylist or for a Saturday.
- Promise a shade from a photograph we have not talked about.
Come and see the room
Walk in during opening hours and ask. No appointment needed to look around or to have a colour question answered.
Find us