There is a particular kind of quiet that settles over a salon after a long Saturday — the scent of Aveda still in the air, the chairs empty, the day’s conversations still present in some intangible way. It is in moments like that when we are most aware of what this work actually means.
So when we learned that three industry honors had come our way, our first instinct was not to celebrate ourselves — it was to say thank you to the people who made them possible.
Orlando Style voted Mint on the Avenue the #1 Readers’ Choice salon. Our Feed My Lips blog received recognition from Salon Today.
These are your awards as much as ours.
A Salon Rooted in Community
We operate at 228 N Park Avenue — from the Aveda Comforting Tea we keep ready at the front, to the way we close our doors on certain Sundays and Mondays to welcome appointments only.
Healing as Hairdressers
Our craft is hair and beauty. But the work that matters most to us extends well beyond the technical.
Each year, we are honored to participate in Pink Off Park, a Park Avenue event that raises funds for breast cancer research at the Florida Hospital for Women. Our team offers glitter roots, extensions, and haircuts in exchange for donations — and afterward, we open the salon to breast cancer survivors for hair and makeup ahead of a runway event. To be trusted with that moment is something we do not take lightly.
We also quietly offer what we call the Warrior Haircut — a complimentary service for guests who are losing their hair to chemotherapy. We shave, we fit wigs, we color and style them. We incorporate deep breathing, meditation, and the kind of unhurried presence that the moment deserves. These guests arrive carrying something heavy, and they often leave with their shoulders a little lower, their eyes a little brighter. We are the ones who feel fortunate.
The Bowties and Butterflies gala — which supports mothers who have lost children — is another event that has changed us. We do hair and makeup for these women while they show us photographs of their children. We listen. We bear witness. It is an honor we hold carefully.
A Place to Simply Be
Beyond the events and the fundraisers, we want Mint on the Avenue to feel like a place you can walk into on a Tuesday afternoon, sit down with a cappuccino or a cup of Aveda tea, and simply breathe. We offer complimentary stress-relieving rituals to our regular guests — no appointment necessary — because a moment of wellness should not require a reason.
We are a short walk from the koi ponds in Central Park, around the corner from Briar Patch Books and Reynolds Jewelers, and part of a Park Avenue community that has always understood the value of the unhurried and the considered. That is the spirit we try to carry inside these walls every day.
Thank You
We did not pursue these awards. We pursued the work — and the work led us here. To everyone who voted, who shared, who trusted us with something as personal as the way you look and feel: thank you. Genuinely.
We will keep earning it.
Come see us at 228 N Park Avenue, Winter Park — call 407.645.2264 or text 830.390.0226 to arrange a visit. The tea is always on.