Do you remember when your dad came home from work wearing a grey flannel suit, patted you on the head and greeted you with the requisite, "evenin' boy?" Or, how about, when your mother would leave you begrudgingly with the sitter, only to return home with glistening red nails and a miraculous bouffant? Or maybe the times when your parents' friends would sit around the living room – the women dressed in floral prints and hot pinks – listening to Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway and sipping on transparent liquids accented with strange, green foods? I don't either, but I didn't live in the 50's – an era where cocktails weren't just for downing, they were for living, and hair wasn't something you just tied back and forgot, every out of place strand counted: messy hair meant infidelity, straggly hair meant poverty, and a perfect coif, well, that just meant you were perfect.

Aaaah the 50's, things were so simple back then: war was over, drinks were flowing, and hair was a priority. Thank God then for Beauty Bar (opening its second New York location tomorrow, May 29), a spot that takes all these life-essentials into careful consideration. I will admit the space itself, accented with topaz murals of women's heads and primary colored rainbows, is a bit more 70's in design then it should be. But the blow-dry seating and light fixtures - fashioned out of Lady Schick Consolette, decade-proper hair dryers – smoothes out the atmosphere into the perfect mid-20th century time warp.

As for the scene, martinis and manicures begin at 6pm and so does the DJ. The prices, though not exactly comparable to what they were 60 years ago, are quite doable - think three to five dollars for beer and five to seven dollars for mixed drinks. While the ladies are letting their nails dry, the men might get hungry, so Blow Dry Bar is offering a variety of retro finger foods like those bite size, sweet and salty wonders, pigs in the blanket. I wonder if they're planning on serving the wonder of all Wonderbread delights, the triple decker, crustless, party sandwich.

Anyway, if perfect hands and a perfect buzz seem like a nifty time to you then check out Beauty Bar; the retro beau monde will both leave your dermas silky and get you out of your skin. – E.H