“You sleep… and awake to your truly beautiful self”

On a warm April afternoon, the sun streams through the windows of Prana at 22 Moreau Mews, Applecross. It’s a quiet retreat – a place that seems far away from the noise and bustle of this vibrant area.

Conversations are muted. This is my first visit to Agnelo and Saroj’s salon and I am reminded of the old Libraries of my childhood where it seemed there was always someone with a pointy finger and a command to “Shush!”

I whisper my thoughts to Saroj. She laughs deeply, the sound warm and full. “Not here!” she replies… “though I guess the quiet is kind of peaceful isn’t it?” She continues… “Some of our clients do fall asleep, but I’ve always taken that as a compliment. You know, they leave looking so well, so refreshed with the care they’ve had. It never occurred to me they were here because they were just too exhausted to walk to the next place of business!”

With that she laughs uproariously, and I am suddenly glad to be here.

She guides me through the Facial procedures (sumptuous treatments of steam, exfoliation, extraction, creams, lotions, masks, peels and massage) and I begin to feel I have known her forever.

“I’d like to pick your brains for ideas on solar panels” she says (a conversation we’d had about a recent installation at the cottage my partner and I had invested in when I rang to book my first session), “because we’ve talked about it here..” And on it goes…

NOT your typical salon chat – not even your typical salon, come to think of it!

Prana has turned the place into something of a hub – a haven for those of us who care what we put on our faces and into our bodies.

They’ve purged all the environmentally harmful and personally toxic products for one thing; but there’s something else going on here I want to tell you about. It’s an overworked word: ‘ethos’. Oh yes, we’re all tired of it, but it is really applicable in this case. Because in an industry known for its glitz, excess (and its artificiality and shallowness), the core approach here is absolutely different.

“Yes, glamour events are fun Claire,” explains Saroj, “but making someone feel and look more beautiful on a daily basis is more important to me. When my husband and I started out, nobody thought of the environment, but we have all evolved and it’s something our customers appreciate. By coming here, they feel they’re doing something for themselves that works along natural, health-promoting principles. It’s an inside out proposition.”

Beauty from the inside out?

Personally, I don’t think it’s about kowtowing to a new fad, a new clientele or business-centric reality. I think Saroj and Agnelo are devoted, practised and professional advocates of a way of life that the Western world is still slow to appreciate. I just hope we will all eventually catch on…

Claire. April 2018