“I just won and I want bangs,” Croatian tennis star Donna Vekić proclaims Friday afternoon of the US Open. She’s just beaten Peyton Stearns—and after stretching and showering—her next stop pre-press conference is the petit Julien Farel pop-up salon hidden inside Queens’s Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I had been waiting all season to see Julian and get bangs inspired by Margot Robbie.”
More than two decades ago, hairstylist Julien Farel approached the United States Tennis Association with an idea: a salon where tennis players could come by for a haircut, style, or another form of self-care during the US Open, one of the most high-intensity competitions of their year. “It took them five years to say yes to me,” Farel, now 16 years into the salon partnership at the Open, tells me with a smile. “I was very persistent because I knew this would be a perk for many athletes. And I was right. Now, they wait for this moment to come in and get a haircut.”
Many of the sport’s biggest names have sat inside this salon, which is only open during the two weeks of the competition: “I cut Rafael Nadal’s hair from long to short in 2010, that happened right here and it was a big deal. Everybody from Billie Jean King to [Martina] Navratilova has sat in these chairs. We had Coco here right after she won last year’s tournament, too.”
