At This Eco-Chic Salon in Paris, Botany and Beauty Collide
A salon that perfectly captures the twin zeitgeists of all-natural beauty and botany, What The Flower is a unique concept store in Paris that brings plants and modern, eco-chic hair care under one roof.
Opened in September of 2017, What The Flower (cheekily abbreviated as WTF) combines botany and beauty like never before. Founder Justine Jeannin was a hairdresser in some of Paris’ best salons and fashion studios for 15 years before she became concerned with the toxicity of the hair care products she was surrounding herself with on a daily basis.
When she made the decision to dramatically change her methods and adopt a more biophilic lifestyle, the concept of What The Flower was born.
The first step was to convert her hair care arsenal to include products that were more earth-friendly, working with Belgian color tinctures by Hairborist, who offer 100% plant- and vegetable-based hair color, shampoos, masks, and styling products. At the same time, she become deeply devoted to plants– collecting, them, caring for them, and surrounding herself by them when not in the salon.
In 2015, she launched the Instagram account @SweetyOxalis (and the blog sweetyoxalis.com) to share her passion for being a #PlantMom, writing about everything from gardening tips to home decor and offering hot tips on where plant lovers could find the best specimens in Paris.
Encouraged by her friends and followers, in 2017 she took the blog IRL by opening Paris’ first hybrid botany and hair salon, What The Flower.
The original WTF space consisted of 100 square meters of greenery in the center of Paris, including a plant shop whose inventory was renewed on a weekly basis; an atelier space where Jeannin could organize various workshops around the theme of plants, from terrarium making, macramé, and kokedama to DIY plant-based textiles; and a 100% non-toxic hair salon for women and men, founded in partnership with Hairborist.
As expected, it was an immediate success, garnering major attention from Paris’s eco-conscious elite. Less than a year later, What The Flower had already outgrown its digs, relocating to a new two-level space at 35 rue du Chemin Vert (which incidentally means “green path” in French– we couldn’t have named it better ourselves).
Today, What the Flower has expanded to offer “plant-based hair care” workshops, and the concept store can be rented for private events, product launches, press conferences, and the like.
It was a logical next step for a salon that perfectly embodies two aspects of wellbeing that young people can’t seem to get enough of: self-care, and plants. Addled by the internet and seemingly every interior design magazine, it was a match made in plant heaven– which is why it continues to succeed.
To get a feel for the salon’s aesthetic, browse our gallery of images, below.
What The Flower is now located at 35 rue du Chemin Vert, 75011 Paris.
To find more information about the salon and their new space, visit What The Flower’s website.
