Concrete surfaces and gold accents define Say No Mo, a salon-cum-cocktail bar in Kyiv that Balbek Bureau has designed to avoid gender stereotypes.
Say No Mo salon takes over two floors of an early 20th-century building and includes its own bar where visitors can grab a drink before or after beauty treatments.
When locally based Balbek Bureau was asked to design the interiors, it tried to steer clear of the gendered decor features that are often present in beauty-dedicated spaces.

"We analyzed a large number of beauty salons both in Ukraine and worldwide, identified the main repeating elements, such as colours, textures, design motifs, etc ? and tried not to repeat them in our project," the studio's founder, Slava Balbek, told Dezeen. "The salon's name is in tune with Balbek Bureau's approach to this project ? 'Say No Mo' to the traditional point of view on designing beauty salons, gender distinction, ordinary solutions, and 'yes' to the flight of imagination, creativity, and aesthetics."

The focal point of Say No Mo's ground floor is a grand concrete archway that looks as if it's crumbling away, which the studio hopes will serve as a metaphor for the "broken stereotypes in the beauty industry".
Concrete has also been used to make the salon's blocky service counter, which was cast in-situ.

Directly in front of the archway is a waiting area, but when the salon is hosting cocktail receptions this can double-up as a relaxing lounge where people ...