UNA — from the Latin word meaning 'one' — is a hair salon on Williamson Avenue in Grey Lynn, Auckland, built on the belief that great hair should feel personal, modern, wearable and deeply connected to the individual wearing it. Opened in Kingsland in 2022, the salon entered a new chapter in February 2026 with a purpose-built Grey Lynn space: light-filled styling areas, more intimate moments at the basin, plants throughout, and a calm, considered atmosphere.
The salon was founded by Kelly Manu, an international award-winning hairstylist who has worked multiple New York Fashion Weeks, has been featured in magazines including InStyle, Fashion Quarterly, Estetica and Remix, has been L'Oréal Professionnel's New Zealand French Balayage expert since 2020, and won the L'Oréal Colour Trophy in 2022. She leads a team that specialises in lived-in colour, modern blonding, balayage, editorial-inspired styling and healthy, dimensional hair — balancing creativity with honest advice and long-term hair health.
Sustainability sits at the heart of the salon. As a member of Sustainable Salons, 95% of UNA's resources are recycled and repurposed — from hair booms used in oil-spill clean-ups to ponytails donated for wigs — while rainwater feeds the in-salon plants, glassware is vintage or made by local ceramists, and refreshments come from local family-owned businesses. Products are from L'Oréal Professionnel and Pureology.
UNA is open Tuesday to Thursday 10am–8pm, Friday 9am–6pm and Saturday 9am–4pm, closed Sundays and Mondays. Complimentary consultations are recommended if you're unsure which service to book.
UNA takes its name from the Latin word for *one*, and that single idea shapes everything the salon does. Hair, in the UNA philosophy, is a personal journey: anyone can have beautiful hair, but your beautiful hair is your own. The team's goal is to build a hair routine around your personality and lifestyle, so you leave looking and feeling like your most authentic self.
That philosophy has carried UNA from its opening in Kingsland in 2022 to its current chapter on Williamson Avenue in Grey Lynn, where the salon moved in February 2026 into a purpose-built space. The environment is refined, calm and considered — light-filled styling areas, more intimate moments at the basin, plants throughout, and a fit-out built largely from recycled, repurposed and vintage pieces.
UNA was founded by Kelly Manu, an international award-winning hairstylist whose career began, fittingly, with supermarket box colour at age eleven. After studying graphic design and then fashion make-up and special effects, she realised she needed hair skills to get the editorial jobs she wanted, completed a hair apprenticeship, and never looked back. As an editorial hairstylist and L'Oréal Professionnel artist she has worked multiple New York Fashion Weeks and been featured in magazines including *InStyle*, *Fashion Quarterly*, *Estetica* and *Remix*. Since 2020 she has been L'Oréal Professionnel's New Zealand French Balayage expert, teaching across the country, and in 2022 she won the L'Oréal Colour Trophy. Her favourite technique — a hybrid of balayage and classic foiling — produces the beautifully blended, lived-in blondes the salon is known for.
Kelly is supported by a team of stylists with signatures of their own, including senior stylist and salon manager Claudia Reader, whose speciality is red heads and coppers — anything vibrant.
UNA specialises in lived-in colour, modern blonding, balayage, editorial-inspired styling, and healthy, dimensional hair — results designed to feel elevated yet effortless and to grow out gracefully between visits. The service menu spans permanent and semi tints, highlights and multi-technique work, balayage and foilyage, on-scalp lightening, glosses and toners, cuts and blowdries, keratin smoothing, and corrective or creative colour. Because services are priced on the length and thickness of your hair and the time your goal will take, the team suggests a complimentary consultation if you're unsure what to book — a chance to talk through what's realistic, what it involves, and how to protect long-term hair health.
UNA is part of Sustainable Salons, a social enterprise that helps salon members reduce their impact on the planet and invest in local communities. Around 95% of the salon's resources are recycled or repurposed: plastics are upcycled, metals and paper are sold for recycling with proceeds donated to KiwiHarvest, hair from the floor becomes booms used to help clean up oil spills, and ponytails of 20cm or more go to charities that create wigs for people affected by cancer or alopecia. Even the details reflect the ethos — rainwater waters the plants, glassware is vintage or made by local ceramists, and refreshments come from local family-owned businesses.
Products matter here too. UNA works with L'Oréal Professionnel and Pureology, the latter a pioneer of professional vegan, ZEROSULFATE colour care. Appointments are approached with care, collaboration and honest advice, in an atmosphere the team describes as warm, welcoming and quietly confident.
You'll find UNA at 23 Williamson Avenue in Grey Lynn. Hours are Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 8pm — handy late nights for working clients — Friday 9am to 6pm, and Saturday 9am to 4pm; the salon is closed Sundays and Mondays. Bookings can be made online, and the salon's lookbook and Instagram (@una_akl) are good places to gather ideas before your consultation.