Mica Hair Studio

Before any design, I read 22 real salon websites in full. They were built around booking, with photos around a button. Few of them helped the person who was still deciding: unsure whether what they want is called balayage, whether old box dye rules it out, or whether the price on the menu is the price they will pay. That gap became the brief for Mica.

The concept came from the colourist's own tool. A swatch ring settles the argument a photo starts, because it shows real colour against real hair. So the homepage is a consultation. A visitor picks the level and tone of their hair now, saves it, then picks the colour they want. The site shows both under salon light, daylight and six in the evening, and says what the change takes, including when the answer is no.

Setting the ring to six in the evening shows how much colour shifts in weaker light, which is why a good colourist carries colour to the window before anyone pays. The line under the ring says exactly that. A client who has watched it happen on their own screen understands the walk to the window before they ever arrive, and a stylist no longer has to explain it from scratch.

From there a first-time client has a clear path. The price page lists eight services, each with a floor and a ceiling, the time it takes and what moves the number. Four questions about the goal, the length and what is already in the hair turn into an estimate. A minute-by-minute account explains the three hours of a colour appointment, and a shelf of six aftercare products says who each one is wrong for. The booking page shows each stylist's openings and a waitlist.

The directions page publishes the access details a client would otherwise phone to ask about: street-level entry, a 32-inch door, parking, which days smell of colour, how loud the room is, and silent appointments with any stylist. The served pages load no booking widget, map embed or outside script, which I checked on each main page. The site is built to work without JavaScript or 3D support, and the ring responds to the arrow keys.

Everything about Mica is invented: the salon, the town, the three stylists and the prices. The build is what transfers. For a working salon, the same pages take their own chairs, their price list with a ceiling on every service, their colour lines, their access details and their booking calendar, with the ring holding swatches from the colour they actually use.