This Bushwick Salon’s Music Festival Gives New Meaning to ‘Hair Bands’

Tonight, Bushwick’s Pickthorn Salon will host its fourth annual Color Me Bushwick concert at its new location at 92 St. Nicholas Avenue. The show started in conjunction with Bushwick Open Studios in 2014 and soon expanded into a three-day affair. Last year, when BOS moved its festivities to fall, Pickthorn founders Chelsea Pickthorn and Jocelyn Simone didn’t sweat the lack of partnership, since the concert had built a following of its own.

This weekend’s festivities have kept Pickthorn Salon busy, as they just returned from a cross-country tour of hairstyling events that were coupled with music performances. The trip was sponsored by Davines, whose hair products were demonstrated on local musicians from the eight cities they visited. Before they left, Chelsea and Jocelyn closed their Wyckoff Avenue location in favor of a bigger and quieter one around the block and had plenty of work cut out for them when they returned. “We thought it was a smart move to pack, go on tour and then build out the new location when we returned but it turned out otherwise as the work piled up,” Chelsea said as she showed me the new location. Despite all the stress, Pickthorn is almost complete, with plenty of detailed decor. As she looked over her new space she sighed and said, “but it’s all right.”

For this year’s Color Me Bushwick, PBR is returning as the official sponsor and Pickthorn has a new backyard where attendees can enjoy a drink between bands. There will also be a tattoo artist, and hair appointments will be taken all weekend as the bands play on. 

The music lineup features many favorites from previous years, like The Nuclears and Chaos Chaos. Chelsea is particularly excited to see Thunderpussy close out the concert on Sunday night. With a lineup like this, it should come as no surprise that Jocelyn also works in the music industry as an A&R consultant. Anyone who comes by this weekend will feel her equal love for music and hairstyling.