Iconic hair salon closing Toronto location after nearly 30 years
A Toronto hair salon that's been a cornerstone of the neighbourhood for nearly 30 years will be closing its doors for good in early 2026.
There are few names in Toronto as ubiquitous with the smell of hairspray, the feeling of freshly-cut strands, and stepping out of the salon feeling brand new as Ray Civello.
A master hairstylist and beauty industry magnate, Civello has been making his mark on Toronto (and the heads of its residents) for nearly 40 years with his line of Civello salons, which boast three locations in Toronto, on top of Oakville and Vancouver locations.
A far cry from your humdrum "just trim the ends off"-type experience, Civello salons have earned a reputation from North Toronto to Queen West for offering the height of luxury in hair styling and other beauty services.
Think aromatherapy head-and-neck massages before the haircut even begins. It's that kind of salon.
With its flagship resting in the upper-crust Rosedale neighbourhood, and another on an equally ritzy stretch of Yonge Street, between Eglinton and Lawrence, Civello's third Toronto location, poised at the corner of Queen West and Duncan, has always stood out from the crowd.
Opening its doors in 1999, the salon landed in a neighbourhood which, at the time, was known for its rebellious, creative spirit — a far cry from the laced-up energies of its other two neighbourhoods.
Nowadays, if you ask me, Queen West is better identified by the vacant retail spaces that once housed big-box stores and disruptive Ontario Line construction, but I digress.
The salon has remained a landmark in the neighbourhood, both for the clients who frequent it and those simply passing by, catching a whiff of fragrant shampoos and singeing heat tools ever since, but, come 2026, that'll soon change.
In a post on Civello's Instagram account on Wednesday, Nov. 5, the chain announced that, come Jan. 31, 2026, the Queen West location will be closing for good.
"This space has been part of Toronto's creative heartbeat. It is a place where transformation went beyond the chair," the caption of the post reads.
This isn't the first time that an end has been on the horizon for Civello Queen West.
Back in 2023, Ray Civello took to social media to announce that, due to the lasting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the same location would be shuttering at the end of that year, too.
Here's the thing: it never ended up happening after the salon's landlord struck what Civello described as a "holiday miracle" deal to keep the salon in business.
So, while the recent post from Civello certainly seems definitive, informing clients that their favourite hair stylists and estheticians will be dispersing to Civello's other locations, who's to say that it's really the end? Only time will tell.
Civello Queen is located at 269 Queen St. W.
Civello
