A red bank salon celebrities 17 years of returning glamour to the art of hair styling

by Jessica Jones-Gorman Photos by Tina Collela

After working in the beauty industry for more than a decade, consistently building upon skills and education while cultivating a client base, Christopher and Barbara Yannece decided to live out a dream and open a unique salon that focused purely on each customer’s beauty needs.

“Reve means ‘to dream’ in French, and this is our dream,” Yannece said, describing the business he and his wife built from the ground up 17 years ago. “Our goal here was to provide a special and distinct experience for each client who walks in the door, because every person’s beauty needs are unique.”

Originally launched in a quiet section of Rumson, The Reve Hair Salon paired of-the-moment trends with a focus on individuality.

“So many salons have just one way of doing things; they specialize in pivot point cutting or color melting,” Yannece said. “But together, my wife and I have taken many different classes and learned from so many different teachers and stylists— which inspired a thought that there should not be just one structured way of doing things.”

“We tailor each look,” Yannece said. “Big hair is very in now but not everyone wants poofy curls. Some prefer beautiful straight hair, which may better suit the shape of their face. That’s where our staff really shines—making use of their own creativity and eye for fashion.”

And after developing that concept in Rumson, Reve moved four miles to its current Red Bank location more than a year ago, doubling its space in the process.

“My wife and I noticed such a resurgence here over the past decade or so, and since we’ve always loved this town, we thought it would be the perfect place for our salon,” Yannece said. “We found this location, and knew we could turn it into a space that was chic and upscale, but also very comfort able. Ninety-five percent of our clients made the move with us—some of whom we’ve been styling for 25 years—and this building and this town, with all of its diversity and trendiness, has been the ideal place in which to perfect our craft.”

The husband-wife duo swathed their 12-foot ceilings in a dark shade and placed the reception desk in the middle of the salon to offer a sort of centrally located hub. A color bar was added to better streamline all of the shop’s color services.

“Clients need to feel comfortable throughout the length of their service,” Yannece said. “Our clientele is so diverse and covers a range of ages, so it was important for us not to just be this trendy hotspot; we wanted everyone to feel at ease as soon as they walk through that door.”

Yannece explained that level of comfort comes courtesy of a staff that has worked essentially as family for close to a decade. “We all motivate and inspire one another,” he said, while crediting his wife as Reve’s “creative juice.” “She looks at every magazine, travels constantly to keep up on all of the latest trends, and really pushes all of our creativity to the max.”

And according to Yannece, many of those current ideas include a return to glamour, which is back in a big way.

“Ten years ago, corporate women would wear dowdy pant suits with their hair up in a bun because it was almost unheard of for a professional woman to be glam,” Yannece said. “But now we’re seeing these same women blowing out their hair, looking beautiful, and not feeling constrained. They are not scared to show that they are beautiful and intelligent, and that wonderful sense of individuality is what Reve represents.”

The Reve Hair Salon
80 Broad St., Red Bank / 732.450.0351