Michael Rafuse - Master Hairstylist

Look at this beautiful community out on an 89 degree day to visit Dundee Parks first block party!

MODE is offering a reLoved Reboot, wonderful local vendors, free festival makeovers and bespoke lemonade 🍋

We’re honored to be named Best Hair Transformation by Best of the North Shore.

At MODE Andover, transformation has never been about dramatic before-and-afters alone. It’s about listening first, understanding your lifestyle, and creating hair that’s uniquely yours—beautiful on day one and still beautiful weeks later.

Thank you to our incredible clients for trusting us with your hair and to everyone who voted for us. We’re so grateful to continue doing what we love.
Northshore Magazine

This Saturday! Part of The Dundee Park Block Party.

🌸 MODE in Bloom is coming! 🌸

Join us on Saturday, August 1st (10AM–2PM) as we transform MODE Andover into a summer market filled with beautiful things, great people, and good vibes.

Shop a curated collection of local makers, browse ReLoved 2.0 vintage & consignment finds, enjoy live music, botanical refreshments from the Bloom Bar, and stop inside the salon for our complimentary Flower Festival Beauty Bar featuring feather hair extensions, braids, shimmer, and playful beauty details for guests of all ages.

MODE in Bloom is our contribution to the Dundee Park Block Party, where businesses throughout Dundee Park will be hosting their own unique experiences all day long. Come explore, shop local, and celebrate summer with us!

📍 MODE Andover
1 Dundee Park, Andover, MA
🗓 Saturday, August 1
🕙 10AM–2PM

Interested in being a vendor? We still have a few spots available! Send us a DM for details. 🌿

Stop in next Thursday to meet the founder of Eu2Be Skincare!! is your self care destination!!

🌸 MODE in Bloom is coming! 🌸

Join us on Saturday, August 1st (10AM–2PM) as we transform MODE Andover into a summer market filled with beautiful things, great people, and good vibes.

Shop a curated collection of local makers, browse ReLoved 2.0 vintage & consignment finds, enjoy live music, botanical refreshments from the Bloom Bar, and stop inside the salon for our complimentary Flower Festival Beauty Bar featuring feather hair extensions, braids, shimmer, and playful beauty details for guests of all ages.

MODE in Bloom is our contribution to the Dundee Park Block Party, where businesses throughout Dundee Park will be hosting their own unique experiences all day long. Come explore, shop local, and celebrate summer with us!

📍 MODE Andover
1 Dundee Park, Andover, MA
🗓 Saturday, August 1
🕙 10AM–2PM

Interested in being a vendor? We still have a few spots available! Send us a DM for details. 🌿

For the last few months, I’ve had clients asking me about a new trend they’re seeing everywhere: Nanoplasty.

My answer usually surprises them…

I’ve been using this generation of smoothing technology for years.

As a Texture Management Specialist, I made the decision more than five years ago to move away from traditional formaldehyde-based keratin treatments. Instead, I invested in advanced smoothing technology that allows me to customize results based on each client’s hair, goals, and lifestyle—not force every client into the same treatment.

Long before “nanoplasty” became the industry’s newest buzzword, I was helping clients:

✨ Eliminate frizz without sacrificing movement.
✨ Enhance natural curls while reducing humidity.
✨ Create silky, low-maintenance hair.
✨ Permanently straighten hair when that’s the right choice.

To me, texture management isn’t about selling a treatment—it’s about improving your everyday relationship with your hair. It’s about making your morning routine easier, reducing the time and effort it takes to style your hair, giving you confidence in humidity, and helping your hair work for your lifestyle instead of against it.

That’s why I don’t consider myself someone who “does keratin treatments.” I specialize in changing the behavior of hair safely, predictably, and intentionally. Every service begins with a consultation because the right solution depends on your hair’s history, condition, texture, daily routine, and the result you actually want to live with.

The industry may have a new name for this category of treatment, but my philosophy hasn’t changed:

The trend is new. The expertise isn’t.

If you’ve been hearing about nanoplasty and wondering whether it’s right for you, let’s talk. I’d love to help you understand the options and design a texture management plan that’s truly customized to your hair.

Something fun is blooming at MODE this summer ☀️✨

On Saturday, August 1st, we’ll be transforming our porch and building into a curated summer micro-festival as part of Dundee Park Block Party — featuring local vendors, vintage finds, beauty activations, refreshments, music, and community vibes all afternoon long.

We’re currently looking for:
• Vintage & reloved sellers
• Artists & makers
• Jewelry & accessory vendors
• Lifestyle, beauty, botanical & handmade goods
• Small creative businesses with an aesthetic, community-minded vibe

Vendor fee is $35 to help cover live entertainment and event atmosphere.

This is less “craft fair” and more Porch Fest meets summer arts market ☁️🌿✨

If you’d like to participate, send us a DM with:
• What you sell/create
• A few photos or your Instagram
• Your setup size/details

Saturday, August 1st
10AM–2PM
MODE Andover @ Dundee Par

☀️ New to the MODE summer capsule: Utu SPF30 Daily Mineral Face Sunscreen

We don’t bring in everything. We bring in what we’d actually use ourselves — and this earned its place.

You know your ingredients, so we’ll let them do the talking:

🌿 One mineral active, done right — non-nano zinc oxide for broad-spectrum UVA/UVB. No chemical filters. Nothing on the no-list.

💧 It’s skincare that happens to protect — hyaluronic acid + squalane to hydrate and support your barrier; sea buckthorn, astaxanthin, and Vitamins C & E for antioxidant defense against sun, wind, and pollution.

✨ Wears like a dream — no white cast, matte finish, unscented, non-comedogenic.

🌊 Reef-safe, cruelty-free, plastic-free — water-resistant 40 min, made in the USA.

This is the part we love: it replaces a step instead of adding one. Moisturizer and SPF in a single, genuinely elegant formula.

We did the vetting so you don’t have to. Come find it on the shelf — and once you read the label, you’ll see why it made the cut. 🧡

I cried after work today — the good kind.

Years ago, there was a kid in my chair who dreaded every appointment. The haircuts were hard — not technically, emotionally. Tears, meltdowns, arguments, parents with strong opinions about what this child’s hair should be. I was stuck in the middle playing mediator. A few coworkers thought I should turn the family away because of the disturbance it would cause it the salon. I couldn’t. The least I could do was hold a little space for them until they were older.

Today, that kid came back. Fourteen now. They walked in with long, healthy hair and knew exactly what they wanted — and for the first time, I got to actually give it to them. I told them their hair was beautiful and that I could tell they take great care of it. They thanked me, and meant it.

A real long-hair blowout with a soft wave. A softer approach to the sideburns that had been weighing on them. On paper, small technical choices. In that chair, they were everything.

When they left, I just sat with how good it felt. Not the haircut itself. The fact that they got to choose it. Not for their parents. Not for anyone else’s expectations. Just for them. The kid who once just wanted to be heard was sitting in front of me telling me exactly who they are— and all I had to do was listen, and then make it real with my hands.

Do this long enough and you stop just cutting hair. You watch people experiment, gain confidence, recover, start over, transition, and finally feel comfortable in their own skin. That young person got to look in the mirror and finally feel like the reflection matched.

That’s a part of this job I will never get over.

What I Reach For When the Humidity Hits

It’s been in the 80s for weeks, and your blowout knows it. Humidity finds every gap in the hair’s cuticle — frizz is the result. Texture management is my specialty, and this is the season I plan for.

My fix: the Keratin Express smoothing treatment. Eliminates frizz, locks out humidity, cuts blow-dry time in half — and smooths without flattening your natural texture. Lasts up to 10 weeks.

KERATIN EXPRESS — ADD-ON · $65
Added to your color or cut. Zero extra time in the chair.

KERATIN EXPRESS — DEDICATED SERVICE · $82
Its own appointment, finished start to smooth finish.

ADVANCED KERATIN with QIQI · $320
My most transformative smoothing service — organic technology for deep smoothing and curl softening. A client favorite for years; full feature coming soon.

Your hair vs. New England humidity — let’s settle this Click here for an update from Michael Rafuse @ MODE Andover!