Dyana Nematalla’s Sirène salon has carved a niche.
Dyana Nematalla never planned to come back to metro Atlanta. The Stockbridge native attended the Savannah College of Art and Design Atlanta and graduated in 2008. She moved to New York City shortly after for a job in fashion. “That lasted four months because of the crash,” she says. She had previously worked at a hair salon in high school and decided to go back to it because it’s what she knew, and there was still a demand for it. She landed a job in 2008 at Yves Durif Salon at the Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, which changed her trajectory. “They hired me on the spot,” she says.
For six years, she helped the salon cater to creatives and celebrities. Then in 2014, she moved on to another New York celeb favorite, Marie Robinson Salon, where she spent four years. After her then-boyfriend (now husband), Abed, moved to Atlanta, she lingered in New York but began asking herself the age-old question, “What am I doing here?” Once he proposed in 2017, she came back to Atlanta where she set up her salon, Sirène, on the Westside in 2019, and Tinte, her color and blow-dry bar at The Works in 2021. Here, the CEO shares her story.
Why did you decide Atlanta needed another salon?
I couldn’t find where I belonged. Buckhead wasn’t totally my scene, and neither was Inman Park. There wasn’t anything elevated but cool. Everything was either old-school and very fancy or grungy. I missed that high-end, cool, French girl look. I met these amazing stylists who had come from LA, Elise Kelley and Abby Andre. We started collaborating; they’d do the color, and I’d do the cut. We were sent people in the movie industry at the time, and we made those clients our niche. That’s how Sirène was created, and it just exploded.
What makes Sirène unique?
Everyone’s been doing their work for 15-plus years. We also like to collaborate a lot in our salon. We love smaller niche brands but also carry Kérastase. We carry Virtue, which is great for clients who don’t want sulfates or parabens. We also carry Shu Uemera, which no one else has in Atlanta, and Christophe Robin. Between Sirène and Tinte, we have a staff of about 20. We do it all: color, cut, brows, highlights, waxing, extensions, any type of hair. It was important that we could do all types of hair. Everyone who works here is an expert in their specific technique and highly trained.
The salon was recently renovated. How has that amplified your vision?
I love being at King Plow Arts Center because it’s hidden and out of the way. It’s very “if you know, you know.” I love that when you enter, it takes you somewhere else, so even for an hour, you feel like you’re not in Atlanta. Because I’m Middle Eastern, I wanted a bit of a Mediterranean feel. A trip to Italy last summer influenced me as well. I care about the aesthetics of everything, maybe because of my SCAD degree. We needed it to be updated and leveled it up. Kevin Plenge at Fathom Architecture did it.
SIRÈNE SALON
678.974.8389
sireneatl.com
@sireneatl
TINTE COLOR AND BLOW DRY BAR
404.969.6739
tinteatl.com
@tintebysirene
PHOTO: Erik Meadows
