By William Tauro With winter on it's way out and spring just around the corner, a local hidden oasis with a bit of history awaits your pleasure. You walk into this hair salon through a city garden/courtyard lined with trees and dotted with ornamental shrubs and vines. Most of the plants were chosen to attract and shelter specific species of birds and butterflies. As you enter the shop, you are greeted with bird songs in the background, beautiful greenery, paintings of nature, and a set of shelves brimming with books on everything there is to know about gardening and birds. Instead of the standard posters featuring head shots of hairstyles, the shop orients customers toward large glass doors that open onto a shady patio and a colorful display of flowers, climbing vines, and a constantly changing panorama of birds and other wildlife.

Bird feeders with frequent visitors are visible in the courtyard as you receive expert one-on-one attention from the owner and sole proprietor, who brings thirty years of experience and an artist's eye to his work, using only natural colors and other hair products. The feeders draw goldfinches, orioles, and chickadees, along with the occasional squirrel who drops by for some leftover sunflower seeds or a handout of peanuts.

Gerry Lauretano, a lifelong resident of Somerville, dreamed for years of creating a salon where clients could enjoy the beauty of nature during their time in the shop. Twenty-two years ago when his daughter was eight, Gerry's garden had been certified as a backyard wildlife habitat, an environment that provides food, nesting, and shelter for birds, butterflies and other area wildlife. Now his daughter's daughter is eight, and Gerry has at last been able to realize his dream, building a salon next to the display of color and life that has been his passion and favorite past-time for years.

One of the regulars at the shop, Laura Garcia, describes the experience as a total immersion in beauty: "The first time I came to Gerry's, I was overwhelmed to find a place of such peace and tranquility. The doors were open onto the patio and many kinds of birds landed in the garden during the hour or so I spent there. The atmosphere was utterly restful, almost contemplative." On a recent visit one woman watched a red-tail hawk sitting on the nearby fence for half an hour, finally deciding to name him "Hairspray."

This unique salon experience is not just a spring, summer, and fall phenomenon. In the winter Gerry brings several of the flowering plants inside, so that as one customer put it, "It's always spring at Gerry's." As the winter visitors return to the area, snowbirds and white-throated sparrows feast on the specially-prepared mixture provided for them on the patio. In designing the shop, Gerry directed the architects to build it facing the sun. He was delighted to find that even on the shortest day of the year, the sun lit up the entire Italian-tile floor from the French doors at the front to the baseboard at the back.

Gerry hopes this business concept will become a model for others, encouraging cities and towns to zone for businesses that include wildlife-friendly landscaping. Such policies would help to make the living experience of nature available to everyone, raising our awareness of the endless variety of birds, plants, and animals that surround us even in urban areas. As Gerry likes to say, "For me, nature is the best teacher about life."

Gerry can be reached for appointments at 857-222-4620 and the salon is located at 19 Tufts St. in Somerville.