SALONS OF THE YEAR, SALON TODAY’s renowned competition for salon and spa design is in its final judging stages for 2014. We are proud to announce this year’s 20 SALONS OF DISTINCTION, the finalists who will all be honored in the commemorative June 2014 issue, and who now proceed to the final round of judging. This last phase of judging determines the SALON OF THE YEAR, whose design will grace the June cover.

To be eligible for the competition, salons and/or spas had to be newly opened or newly renovated during the calendar year 2013. To enter, salons submitted up to 10 professional photographs that best showcased their salon/spa design, as well as answered a series of essays about their design choices before the January 31st deadline.

Then, the judging commenced. In the first round, the SALON TODAY team reviewed and qualified each entry. Secondly, a panel of MODERN SALON Media editors and art directors evaluated each entry in further detail, selecting the 20 SALONS OF DISTINCTION. Finally, a panel of outside expert judges will scrutinize each entry and score each of these finalists in six different décor categories.

Judges scores will be combined and used to determine the grand-prize winner and the runners-up. The Grand Prize SALON OF THE YEAR will be announced May 31, 2013.

Check salontoday.com and SALON TODAY's Facebook page each day starting today and we'll introduce you to a new SALONS OF THE YEAR finalist each day--tell us which one is your favorite!

See all of the previous SALONS OF THE YEAR Winners.

Congratulations to the 2014 SALONS OF DISTINCTION:

212 Salon and Day Spa, in Upper Montclair, NJ, owned by Donna and Gaetano Lo Sauro

6 Salon, owned by Tomy Lulgjuraj, Johnny Nikollaj, and George Nikollaj in Birmingham, MI

Airbar in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, owned by Jenny and Alexis Becker

Cloud 10 Blow Dry Bar & Makeup Salon in Delray Beach, FL, owned by Jodi Dery

Danny Jelaca Salon in Miami Beach, FL, owned by Danny Jelaca

Dieci Uomo in Livingston, NJ, owned by Paul and Marie Gaglioti

Epic - a Michael Allen Salon in York, PA, owned by Dawn Smith and Michael Allen Morgan

European Beauty Concepts in Williamsburg, PA, owned by Annette Ritzmann and Bar Palmer

Gary Manuel Studio in Seattle, WA, owned by Gary Howse and Manuel Benevich

HC Studio in Brookline, MA, owned by Susan Healy

J Michaels Salon in Des Moines, IA, owned by Michelle and Jay Ryan

J Roland Salon in San Francisco, CA, owned by Joseph Roland

Keter Salon in Berkeley, CA, owned by Diana Gordon

Mane Attraction in Phoenix, AZ, owned by Kendall Ong and Beate Assmuth-Ong

Misbehaven Spa & Salon in Walla Walla, WA, owned by Jeanese LeFore

Poppy Salon in Waite Park, MN, owned by Jackie Hyndman, Nicolle Kruger and Alex Hyndman

Salon Aguayo in Pasadena, CA, owned by Joseph Aguayo

Shep Studio in Provo, UT, owned by Shep and Tracy Wolsey

SOTO - Salon on the Ohio in Cincinnati, OH, owned by Gregory Schroeder and Anastasia Kim

Tricho Salon & Spa in Ann Arbor, MI, owned by Michael Stein and Lynn McMullin