D'Lor Salon and Spa Brings Buckhead Luxury to Cascade

They sit under dryers, some cross-legged and sipping green tea from white-stained cups.

They lie in fold-out chairs as professionals massage their scalps and lather their hair in warm water, protein-based shampoos and hair-enrichment conditioners.

Their conversations drift from the spiritual to the mundane. Their laughter ­–a mingling expression of soothing release and steady contentment- seem to blend with the R&B singers who croon soulful classics in the background.

Some are there for basic hair care, others come to be transformed. All becoming part of the D’Lor Salon & Spa experience.

For Cynthia Johnson-Tingling, master stylist and owner of the salon,the vision is clear:

It’s about providing the customers with what they need.

It’s about providing a service that enhances the natural beauty of the clients’ hair, skin and nails.

It’s about image.

In a sea of cosmetologist competitors, D’Lor Salon & Spa at 1180 Fairburn Road may just be one of a kind – at least in Cascade. 

The full-service salon is teamed with about 20 professionals who are experts in their craft. It offers high-end services that range in breadth and depth from hair and nail care to facial and full-body treatments.

And the area needs it, says January Snell, a resident who has not seen anything like the high-end full service salon. “It’s beautiful,” Snell said. “It’s bringing Buckhead to Cascade.”

She didn’t know it, but Snell had repeated the reason the Tinglings decided to open the Cascade location four years ago.

“We want to be the best,” Patrick Tingling, 62, said. “We want to show our people they can have the best, so we built it in their neighborhood so they can enjoy the spoils.

“We brought Buckhead to Cascade.”

The couple bought the space and brought in a design team to create their vision – a 3,500-square-foot kingdom of tranquility, treatment and therapy.  With six private treatment rooms that include a couple’s massage area, infrared sauna and steam rooms and an area for manicures and pedicures- the couple’s gift to their clients is a holistic haven of serenity.

From the warm welcome the moment you enter the door to the urbane customer service, Mr. Tingling said, “We wanted to make this the Ritz-Carlton of the beauty business.”

He looked at his wife whose clear skin, even under artificial light, seemed carved in light bronze; her hair, a natural silvery-snow color.

“I think the same way as her,” he said.

As a child, the Jamaican native realized she had a gift when she began attaching strands of her hair and her grandmother’s to her dolls.

“I would separate it and attach it to my cloth dolls,” Mrs. Tingling said. “I was weaving without knowing what I was doing.”

She liked how working on the dolls made her feel. It fed an inner passion, making her glow from within.

So at 10 years old, she promptly told her family she wanted to be a beautician. The grandmother who raised her was adamant.

“Beautician is not a profession,” the elderly woman told her.

But she knew this was part of her journey, and wasn;t about to back down.

Her father was more lenient.

“One thing about my dad, he always believed you should follow the little voice in you.”

And so she did.

At 19, she attended a beauty school in Kingston, JA.  At 22, she opened Cindy’s Beauty Salon with money she received from modeling and from her father, who ran his own business making graduation rings.

The former Ms. St. Ann and Ms. Ocho Rios had become hairstylist, office manager and trainer, working 12 to 14 hours a day. Her business grew fast.

She leaned on the lessons she learned from her grandmother.

“She taught me discipline, how to be committed and dedicated, and to stay focus.”

Her voice that of a thousand grandmother’s:  “Whatever you start, you must finish and you must always do your best.”

Now the 60-year-old instills that in her staff.

“I’m getting the universe from her,” said Tiarika Spearman, Mrs. Tingling’s assistant and junior stylist. “She knows her business, the chemistry of hair, how to manage hair.

“She offers everything,” the 21-year-old said. “Most other places, you just come in and get your hair done. I just love it here.”

Mrs. Tingling educates her clients on the science and chemistry of having healthy hair, which begins with taking care of the scalp and having healthy hair follicles.

“The hair is a filter,” said Mrs. Tingling, who also owned a salon in Florida before relocating to Georgia. “Whatever comes from the body goes into the hair.

“It’s very important to keep our hair clean.”

For those, who can’t afford treatment on a regular basis, she prescribes home treatment and sells the clients products from the salon’s retail center.

Shaunda Kitchens, who supervises the spa, said their services include facials that promote cell renewals, an infrared sauna that detoxifies the body as well as burn calories and a seaweed wrap that takes off inches.

 “I want people to realize massage isn’t just a luxury,” said Mrs. Tingling, who is a firm believer in continuous education. “It helps keep the body in balance. It helps relieves stress.

“It’s about wellness.”

Still, the bulk of the clients populate the hair salon where the independent contractors offer a variety of services including presses and perms, colors and cuts, braids and extensions. 

“We can do just about everything,” Spearman said. “Basically, we can transform the way you look.”