Curly Hair Salon Near Me in Williamsburg: Booking a Headchop Dry Cut

Headchop cuts curls dry and asks you to arrive with fresh, tangle-free hair at 98 South 4th Street, between Bedford and Berry in Williamsburg. For anyone searching hair salon near me with ringlets, waves or coils, this small Brooklyn studio has done that one job since 2011, and its chairs typically fill three to four weeks out. The site also takes requests by email.

The salon's own telling is specific. In 2011, South Carolina native Martha Ellen Mabry brought her scissors, her dog Rudy and a habit of dry cutting into a Williamsburg basement, and the one-chair operation she opened that March slowly became an appointment-only studio that the team still calls speakeasy-esque. Martha Ellen remains the owner, and she trains every hair artist in house in natural curl and texture before they take clients.

Headchop has since moved to its current South 4th Street address, which the website announces in capital letters, so ignore older listings that still point to Berry Street. It also runs a sister brand, Lil' Chop. The space is small by design. The site calls it an itty bitty boutique studio, and the menu photos show white walls, a single window and leafy green plants rather than a long row of stations.

The word chop is the house name for a dry haircut. You sit down with dry hair, the stylist cuts each curl where it naturally sits, and only then do you go to the sink. A Chop N' Squeeze follows the cut with a wash and a natural curl set, while a Chop N' Blow ends with a blowout for clients who want to see the shape smooth. New clients must book one of those two, not a cut alone.

On a budget, the House Chop N' Squeeze with a trainee is $125, which is the cheapest way into the studio. Color here is painted freehand to follow the curl pattern, from loose waves to corkscrews. Rooties, the single-process service, starts at $130, and a partial freehand painting with Dominika, Kamie or Sarah starts at $230, rising to $250 with Martha Ellen. The ombre-style Lived-In service starts at $325 with any artist.

Read the artist bios before you book, because each stylist has a lane. Kamie has spent more than 16 years cutting and teaching wavy, curly and super coily hair and educates with The Curl Ambassadors, so she suits tight coils and clients relearning their pattern after years of straightening. Sarah has worked since 2018 as an on-call stylist for Questlove at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and her chair suits anyone who needs a cut that photographs well.

Martha Ellen also offers microblading and freckle tattooing, so her calendar is split between hair and brows. The regulars who show up most in reviews are curly clients who have tried other specialists across the city. One July 2026 review compared Headchop with the other curly hair specialists the writer had used and called it slightly less expensive. That cost difference is a big part of why the book fills weeks ahead.

Headchop's FAQ is unusually firm, so treat it as part of the appointment. Every booking needs a card on file, and the studio no longer accepts cash for services, though Venmo or cash is fine for tipping your stylist. Changes and cancellations are requested 48 hours ahead, and a cancellation inside 24 hours is charged 100 percent of the booked service. Missing your slot because you ran late carries the same full charge.

Lateness is the rule people trip over, and one 2025 review called the cancellation policy unreasonable. The FAQ suggests arriving five to ten minutes early, so plan to reach South 4th Street ahead of time and wait nearby. The homepage banner says walk-ins are welcome, while the FAQ calls a walk-in appointment highly unlikely, so book ahead rather than gamble. Also come with hair that is dry, clean and detangled, because the cut starts the moment you sit.

There is no open reception floor. When you arrive you meet an intercom by the door, and pressing your stylist's call button tells them you are downstairs. Hand sanitizer sits right inside the entrance and again at each work area. It feels more like visiting a friend's apartment than walking into a salon, which is exactly the effect the founder was after when she called the place a hair haven.

The nearest subway is Marcy Avenue on the J, M and Z, with Bedford Avenue on the L as the other option. South 4th Street between Bedford and Berry is a quiet residential stretch under the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge approach, so give yourself a minute to find the right door. Leave strollers and large bags at home if you can, because the studio is small and space at each chair is tight.

The studio is closed Monday and Sunday. The footer hours list Tuesday 11am to 5pm, Wednesday 11am to 5:30pm, Thursday and Friday 11am to 7pm, and Saturday 11am to 5pm. A homepage banner gives a later Tuesday close of 6pm, but the footer and the Yelp listing both say 5pm, so plan around the earlier time. Thursday and Friday evenings are the only chances to come after a regular workday.

Those late slots disappear first. If you can take a weekday afternoon off, a Wednesday booking is usually the easiest to land, and it leaves time for a long freehand color session. Saturday works for a straightforward Chop N' Squeeze, but book the moment the calendar opens. Since the Lived-In color runs long, avoid scheduling it as the last appointment of a short Saturday.

An honest call: skip the $35 K18 Damage Control add-on on a first visit unless your hair is visibly broken. The point of a first chop is to see how your natural pattern responds to a dry cut, and a bond treatment muddies that read. The gloss called Glazed Over costs $100 as an add-on, and it is a better spend once your stylist has seen your curls fresh out of the cut.

If Headchop has no openings for a month and you cannot wait, Rob Peetoom on North 10th Street is the realistic Williamsburg backup. That salon also markets itself as a curl specialist and stays open later in the evening than Headchop does. It is a Dutch salon brand rather than a one-owner studio, so expect a larger, busier room, and the walk north from South 4th takes roughly a quarter hour. Book it through its own website rather than walking in.

Two blocks away, Broadway under the bridge holds two Williamsburg institutions. Diner, in an old dining car on Broadway, serves dinner from 5pm, and Peter Luger Steak House, a few doors along the same street, is there if you want to celebrate a new shape with a porterhouse. Both are walkable in under ten minutes, which makes a late Friday chop and an early dinner an easy pairing.

For something free, walk west toward Kent Avenue and Domino Park on the East River, where the old sugar refinery machinery sits along the promenade. A fresh curl set holds better outdoors if you avoid touching it for an hour, so the waterfront benches are a good place to let it settle. On a cold or rainy day, head back to Bedford Avenue for coffee instead.

Address: 98 South 4th Street, between Bedford and Berry, Brooklyn, NY 11249. Hours: Tuesday 11am to 5pm, Wednesday 11am to 5:30pm, Thursday and Friday 11am to 7pm, Saturday 11am to 5pm, closed Sunday and Monday. The site says it currently accepts bookings online, by email and by phone, and openings often run three to four weeks out.

Bring a card, because cash is not accepted for services. Arrive five to ten minutes early, since a slot lost to lateness is charged in full. Wear your hair dry and detangled, without heavy product. Products on the menu include Ecoslay, K18, Mr. Smith and Hair-apy. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP for a nearby coffee stop or dinner plan around your chop time.