Reign Salon & Retreat: Where Hair Meets Healing on High Street, Armadale

On a stretch of High Street that still feels like a village high street — tram tracks, heritage shopfronts, and the easy rhythm of Armadale — there is a space that asks you to arrive as you are. Not polished. Not “on”. Just human.

Reign Salon & Retreat at 1256 High Street is not a conventional salon. Downstairs, award-winning colour and cutting happen in a calm, considered room. Upstairs, healers work with the body, breath and nervous system. Mondays and Sundays the rooms open for education, launches and gatherings. The whole place was built by founder Charlene Fernandez so that both the people who work there and the people who sit in the chair can feel safe, seen and heard — body, mind and spirit.

A salon built for exhausted nervous systems

Charlene Fernandez is an award-winning stylist, Kevin Murphy Color.Me ambassador and educator with nearly two decades in the industry. She has worked Australian and New York Fashion Week, won international awards in Berlin and Monaco, and was named Independent Stylist of the Year at the 2021 Australian Hair Industry Awards. After years managing large teams, she wanted something quieter and more honest.

“I built this space with a deep intention to feel at peace as I work,” she has said. “I wanted to create a client experience that lent itself to the needs of our exhausted nervous systems.”

The renovation — completed around 2025 — is feminine, warm and curved. Earthy tones were chosen to soothe rather than stimulate. Arched mirrors and rounded joinery run through the rooms. A curved couch, an ode to her parents’ living room, sits at the heart of the salon: a place to sink in and belong. Full-length mirrors let guests see themselves whole before they leave. Benches invite “working from salon” when life demands it. Less production line. More home.

That same philosophy shapes the work. Consultations are unhurried. Colour is personalised. Hairdressers work one-on-one. The downstairs salon is stocked, supported and deliberately small. Upstairs, the wellness rooms hold massage, Lomi Lomi, somatic facials, energy healing, kinesiology and embodiment coaching.

Hair downstairs, healing upstairs

Hair
Charlene (Wednesday–Saturday), Maria (Tuesday–Saturday) and Ella (Thursday–Saturday) offer thoughtful consultations and personalised colour. The emphasis is on artistry that feels like the client — not a trend imposed from the chair.

Wellness

• Massage with Elisa (Tuesdays)
• Somatic facial with Holly (Fridays)
• Lomi Lomi with Courtney (Wednesday or Thursday)
• Lomi Lomi or energy healing with Jules (Saturdays)
• Embodiment coaching with Yvonne Westerman
• Kinesiology with Jessica Bell

The upstairs rooms are available for hire on Mondays and Sundays for education, product launches and gatherings. Charlene has also opened a small number of rent-a-chair opportunities for stylists who share the same values: calm rooms, loyal clientele, and the belief that hairdressing can change how people feel about themselves.

The Human Hairdresser

Charlene’s wider work is the movement she calls The Human Hairdresser. It began as a workshop to help hairdressers look after their own health before they look after anyone else’s. The industry, she argues, has too many negative habits and outdated expectations. First, we are humans.

Workshops combine healing practices, reflective prompts and practical tools for consultations, client retention and personal brand. She has run sessions at Reign and at academies across Melbourne. The message is consistent: reconnect with purpose, replenish energy, and stop burning out behind the chair.

That ethic extends beyond the salon. Reign is part of Sustainable Salons, the social enterprise that collects and recycles salon waste. Charlene is an ambassador for Hair3rs, the non-profit that trains hairdressers and barbers to recognise, respond and refer clients who may be experiencing domestic or family violence. She has donated equipment to Deadly Hair Dude, which trains Indigenous people in remote Northern Territory communities to cut, colour and style hair, and hopes to expand that support across Melbourne salons.

“From a young age I’ve been a dreamer that wants to change the world,” she has written. “I think how we change the world is by small acts of kindness, by working on what we need to love ourselves, by caring for those that are less fortunate than us.”

Why it belongs in Armadale

Armadale’s High Street is one of Melbourne’s most walkable, shoppable strips — endota spa, independent boutiques, cafés and the No. 6 tram. Reign sits in that mix without competing on volume. It is a small, newly renovated house of hair and healing on Wurundjeri Land, designed for people who are tired of loud rooms and rushed appointments.

If you want a blow-dry factory, this is not it. If you want a colour that is considered, a massage that is held, or a room that feels like someone thought about your nervous system before they thought about the fit-out — this is the address.

Visit Reign Salon & Retreat

Address
1256 High Street, Armadale VIC 3143
On Wurundjeri Land

Book
Online via linktr.ee/reignsalonandretreat
Individual booking links for Charlene, Maria, Ella and the wellness practitioners are listed there.

Instagram
@reign_salonandretreat
@charlenefernandezhair

Hours
By appointment. Hair days vary by stylist (typically Tuesday–Saturday). Wellness days are practitioner-specific. Mondays and Sundays are often available for space hire.

There is no prominent public phone listing; the team prefers online booking so that the floor stays unhurried.