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Orlo is all about hair: No other services are offered, and its plain white space underscores the salon’s tight focus on the scalps and manes of the city’s fashion elite. Set in a Meatpacking District walk-up, the salon is owned by coiffeur Orlando Pita, who honed his reputation over decades of photo shoots. Orlo’s deluxe cuts and color have a decided downtown edge; the low-maintenance cuts, waifishly tousled or precisely layered, follow the hair’s texture while nudging it into more flattering lines. Color skews in two directions: quasi-natural (the sunny streaks of a four-year-old in late summer) and eye-catching, like Orlo’s original light-atop-dark look and true platinum without a trace of offending orange. Intense conditioning results in hair that mimics a Hamptons preschooler’s shiny, floppy mop, even if the color shouts well-planned artifice. — Karen Tina Harrison

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Best of New York Awards

• The Hair Hierarchy (2005)
• Best Haircut (2005)

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• Ten Little Cities: The Hedonist (8/13/07)
• Supercuts (10/11/04)