About us

After a degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a short career in the fashion industry in NYC and LA, owner Dana Boyle, changed it up and enrolled at the Vidal Sassoon Academy in LA. After graduating she assisted the owner of Kenworthy Salon in Beverly Hills and was promoted to stylist. After being away for 15 years shemoved back to San Diego and worked in 5 coastal salons over 10 years until FINALLY opening her own: Black and Brass. She loves what she does and can't believe this is called a "job."

We are a full-service hair salon of stylists who’ve worked all over the country and are passionate about continuing their education. All the stylists have been in the business at least 10 years and have all found our specialties, whether that is color or precision cutting or barbering or event styling, I know we have something for every kind of client under our one roof.

Hair salons can quickly feel cluttered, dated, or like a beehive of nonstop activity. For 10 years I’ve been watching people in my chair noticing what’s going on in the salon around them during their visits and as the pace of life has quickened I noticed people wanted a break from that loud, beehive model. I think what makes us different is the space and the way it feels. I purposely left it as empty as I could with no extra knickknacks to collect the inevitable lint and dust. During their visits clients want either to chat or work. For the comfort of those who want to work we have a glass top table and chairs under a starburst chandelier. I wanted somewhere clean, open, and beautiful. I’ve had a few people mistake the salon for a furniture store which tells me I’ve successfully avoided the typical hair salon look.

Green circle salon

63,180 lbs of hair clippings, 42,122 lbs of hair color, 109,512 lbs of foil and color tubes, and 206, 392lbs of wastepaper, salon bottles, and other paper and plastic items – that’s the amount of waste being tossed out by hair salons across North America EVERY SINGLE DAY; that’s a whopping total of 421,206 lbs! As a newly Green Circle Certified Salon, we are proud to announce that Black and Brass is now part of a comprehensive recycling and sustainability program that sets out to significantly reduce our industry’s environmental impact on the planet.

From the sourcing of ingredients to the disposal of packaging and products, the salon and beauty industry has long posed many challenges to the environment. With this in mind, we wanted to join forces with Green Circle to take a stand for our planet and work together to reduce our ecological footprint and make our industry more sustainable. Through our partnership with Green Circle Salons, we will be redirecting what was once considered garbage out of our water streams and landfills to be re purposed into innovative green solutions. All hair clippings, extensions, any excess color and developer, papers and plastics, foils, aerosol cans and color tubes from Gina Bianca Hair will be collected by GCS – effectively cutting down our salon’s total waste, literally overnight, by 85-95%!

As our customers continue to take increasing interest in the ethical and environmental impacts of their purchasing power, we wanted to give our customers a genuinely more responsible, and greener choice when it comes to looking and feeling beautiful. As a member of the GCS network, Black and Brass empowers our customers with the ability to vote with their dollars for positive change. By supporting our salon, our customers have the peace of mind knowing that they are taking meaningful steps to keeping our communities and environment healthy.

Green Circle Salons is a movement to help the salon industry reduce its environmental footprint and provide options for consumers seeking genuine green options in salon care. Since its inception in 2009, GCS has been building a network of certified salons and providing them with a comprehensive pathway to green solutions including recycling, and the re purposing of hair for the manufacturing of oil spill booms (in partnership with BC Corrections and the Alouette Correctional Center for Women), emergency bedding (used in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake), and other ongoing sustainable research applications. Today, GCS diverts waste from landfill spaces in every Canadian province and 45 states in the US and has the capacity to service every zip and postal code in North America. Find out more at www.greencirclesalons.ca.