About Koralena
Koralena A Salon Built on Nine Years of Colour
Koralena is a two-chair salon on Autotehtaankatu in Uusikaupunki, opened in 2016 with a colour mixing bowl and a stubborn belief that clients should never be double-booked. We have kept that habit ever since, through hundreds of balayage rebuilds and a few hundred wedding mornings.
Where it started
Two chairs, one mixing bowl and a paper diary
Elina Rautio trained in Turku through the early 2010s and spent five years working in busy salons where the diary was packed back to back. She opened Koralena in 2016 partly to escape that pace. Two chairs, one stylist at a time, and enough time in each booking to actually look at the hair before reaching for the lightener.
The salon has grown slowly since then. We added Noora to the rota in 2019 when the wedding bookings became too much for one pair of hands. We have not added a third chair, and we probably never will, because the whole point of this place is the unhurried hour in the chair.
What we believe
Four habits we refuse to drop
These are not marketing lines. They are the rules we hold ourselves to, even when a busier week tempts us to break them.
01
Test before you commit
A strand test costs nobody anything and saves everyone a headache. No first-time colour happens in this salon without one.
02
One client, one chair
We never book two colour clients into the same hour. Your stylist is not flitting between heads while your developer keeps working.
03
Say the honest thing
If a photo you brought shows a shade your hair cannot reach in one visit, we say so and explain what two visits would look like.
04
Send you out informed
Every visit ends with a wash schedule and a product list on paper, not a vague suggestion to buy something at the till.
The numbers
Nine years in figures
We keep the salon ledger on paper and tally these figures each New Year. There is nothing inflated about them.
2016
The year the doors opened on Autotehtaankatu
9 200
Appointments logged through the diary since day one
266
Wedding parties styled by our team
78 %
Clients who found us by word of mouth
Our philosophy
Colour is chemistry, not a mood board
We love a good mood board. But mood boards do not tell us how porous your mid-lengths are, how much warmth is sitting in the base, or how quickly your roots lift. That takes a strand test, a trained eye and honest reading of the result.
So we do the boring work first: mapping the growth pattern, weighing the lightener, timing the developer. The beautiful part, the colour you actually walk out with, comes from getting those unglamorous steps right.
The team
Two stylists and a very organised desk
Small team, long memories, and a shared dislike of rushed appointments.
Elina Rautio
Founder and senior colourist
Elina studied in Turku and has been mixing colour since 2011. She opened Koralena five years later and still runs the strand tests herself for every first-time colour client.
Noora Lindqvist
Bridal stylist and makeup artist
Noora joined in 2019 and took over the wedding bookings. She trained in bridal work in Helsinki and has a particular eye for styles that hold on a windy coastal venue.
The front desk
Bookings, vouchers and biscuits
Ring during opening hours and a person answers. The diary lives on paper next to the phone so nothing gets lost between calls and screens.
Our work
Projects from the studio floor
A few pieces we are proud of, shared with client permission.
What we do
Two services we keep coming back to
Colour and wedding styling are our bread and butter. Everything else on our menu, from cuts to blow-dries, exists to support those two.
Signature Hair Colour & Balayage
Freehand balayage, full-head blonding and root melts. Every colour starts with a strand test and price starts at €89.
Read moreBridal & Occasion Styling
Trials, updos and long-wear makeup for weddings and formal events, with on-location service in the Uusikaupunki area.
Read moreMilestones
How the last decade went
2015
The planning year
Elina rented the space on Autotehtaankatu and spent a year fitting the salon herself, evenings and weekends.
2016
Doors open
Koralena opened with one chair, one colour bowl and a hand-painted sign above the door.
2019
Noora joins
Wedding bookings had outgrown one pair of hands, so Noora came in to run bridal work and makeup.
2021
Colour house refresh
We switched suppliers to three professional lines chosen for Nordic hair, after a year of testing formulas on ourselves.
2024
Wardrobe and new chairs
We refit the salon with two new styling chairs and rebuilt the colour mixing station for better light.
What clients say
Words we did not have to ask for
I have been going to Elina for six years. She knows my hair better than I do. When I said I wanted to go lighter we did it over two visits and it never felt like a risk.
My sister recommended this place after her own wedding. Noora did my hair, the trial was thorough and the day itself went exactly as planned. Worth the trip from Rauma.
Small salon, no fuss, honest advice. It took three visits to get my grey blended properly and they told me that at the start. I appreciated that more than a quick fix.
Behind the chair
What a normal week looks like here
Mondays we are closed and mix formulas for the week ahead. Sundays are quiet, so we use them for deep cleaning the stations and checking the product stock.
Tuesday to Friday is where the bulk of the colour work happens. Saturdays lean towards cuts, blow-dries and quick tone refreshes, and the wedding calendar takes over completely in June and July.
- Closed Sunday and Monday
- Colour consultations free of charge
- Bridal trials run Tuesday to Thursday
Come in
Book a chair and get to know us
Whether you want a colour rebuild, a cut or just to talk about what your hair can do, the first conversation is always free. Ring the salon or drop by Autotehtaankatu 14.