Heat, dry air, saltwater, and chlorinated water from your last trip to the pool or beach vacation? Not the best conditions for your hair. Since the beginning of July 2025, there has been a new place to go for that urgently needed visit to the hairdresser: Adept. Behind the hair salon in Mitte are Ivan, Alina, and Arseniy. Ivan studied philosophy and has been involved in the skateboarding scene for 20 years. Most recently, he ran a barbershop in Moscow. Alina and Arseniy have been building salons for over a decade — he as a hairstylist, she in business management. The idea for Adept came about after they moved to Berlin. Curious friends kept asking when the first salon would finally open here. Questions turned into a plan, and the plan turned into a space: one where you can reinvent yourself. Ivan, Alina, and Arseniy spent almost a year searching for a suitable location until they found the perfect corner space in Mitte. The salon is large, bright, and its layout offers customers and staff the opportunity for open conversations and creativity. The design combines wood with metal, warm tones with clean lines. Prices are not based on gender, but on whether you have your hair cut and colored by a senior stylist or a top stylist. Adept sees itself not only as a hair salon, but also as a meeting place. They are open to collaborations, creative projects, and new ideas. You can book an appointment online via the website.

Text & Photos: Robyn Steffen

Adept, Borsigstr. 27, 10115 Berlin–Mitte; map

@adept.berlin

It all started with DIY press-ons from the drugstore around the corner. As soon as Fenna Lang was old enough to wear acrylic nails, her designs became an extension of her outfit, strongly influenced by the pop culture and fashion of the 90s. The DIY creations of her youth have long since become a career. She has made a name for herself in the industry with her offbeat designs and has collaborated with Highsnobiety, Numéro and Dior, and even done nail designs for online darlings such as Alex Consani and Charli XCX. Fenna opened her first nail salon in Kreuzberg in December 2024. When we visit the Hamburg native on Hagelberger Straße — not far from Viktoriapark — she greets us with large golden hoops and a broad smile, tooth gems glistening. Hidden behind a bright red door (a welcome sight in the grey of Berlin) lies “by Fenna Lang“, a bright, cozy basement studio originally intended as an apartment, but now provides the perfect backdrop for Fenna’s little world. From futuristic chrome tables right out of an early noughties music video, the iconic “Hand Chairs” by Pols Potten, the perfect comfy leather couch that — as she proudly tells us — she got hold of in the classified ads, to custom pieces such as rotating nail polish shelves and a painting by Tupac Shakur: every piece of furniture in the studio has been curated with attention to detail.

And as with her nail designs, this place is an extension of Fenna’s personal style. She likes to let off steam creatively here. Whether it’s elaborate 3D designs, gel or acrylic, lots of colors and glitter stones or simple monochrome looks — no idea is too simple or too unusual for Fenna and her team. Because expressing yourself with your nails should be fun, and that is guaranteed with a visit to the studio, as is the flow of compliments you’ll get on your new nails.

Text & Photos: Natascha Hamel

by Fenna Lang, Hagelberger Str.42, 10965 Berlin–Kreuzberg; map
Book an appointment here.

@byfennalang