Team
Meet the artists behind Lavender.
Tara Aversa
Tara specializes in creating beautiful, customized looks tailored to each client’s individual style and goals. Her work focuses on blondes and multidimensional brunettes, curly hair cutting, color corrections, and larger transformations that combine personalized cut and color. She especially loves medium to long layered haircuts, as well as event and bridal styling, and approaches every service with thoughtful attention and creativity.
Outside of the salon, Tara is a mural artist who enjoys expressing her creativity in many forms. She loves meeting new people, building genuine connections, and has a particular fascination with 16th-century history. A firm believer that cheese and wine are a love language, Tara moved from Nashville to Portland with her dog, Stracciatella Stella, and is happy to call Maine home.
Stylist
Malina Foss
Malina specializes in custom lived in color designed to complement each client’s natural features and lifestyle. Her work focuses on dimensional brunettes, low maintenance blondes, and long to medium layered haircuts, creating looks that feel effortless, wearable, and beautifully grown in.
“I became a stylist because I wanted to create a space where people from all walks of life could feel seen, supported, and met exactly where they are.”
That intention guides every appointment. Malina’s passion is crafting transformations that enhance natural beauty with seamless blended dimension. Her approach begins with you — your features, your skin tone, your eye color, your face shape, and your day to day life. Hair is deeply personal, and her goal is to create results that reflect who you are in a way that feels authentic and lasting.
Outside the salon, Malina can often be found with a good book in a hammock, by the water, or on a mountaintop. She loves exploring new places, especially destinations that include hiking and the beach. She finds joy in sourdough baking, coffee of all kinds, and crafting thoughtful mocktails. A devoted plant mom to a growing collection of greenery, Malina is fulfilled by building meaningful connections and learning people’s stories. Music is always playing, with a special love for Motown, jazz, and classic crooners. Above all, family is her everything.
Stylist
Cari Markland
Cari specializes in all things blonde, custom color, and long, bouncy layered hair. She loves helping clients discover what looks best on them and fits their personal style, and she takes pride in creating results that feel both beautiful and wearable. Cari’s goal is for every appointment to feel like a moment of calm, a chance for clients to step away from the chaos of everyday life, relax, and leave feeling confident and refreshed.
Outside of the salon, Cari is a first-time mom to a baby girl she adores and a devoted cat mom to Sunshine and Moonlight. She loves spending time at the beach, which is her favorite place to unwind, and enjoys attending music festivals whenever she can. A vegetarian at heart, Cari is always excited to discover and experiment with new recipes.
Stylist
Ari Taylor
Ari specializes in lived-in color, blondes and redheads, fashion tones, and color corrections, with a natural eye for soft, dimensional color and effortless, wearable cuts. She approaches her work with creativity and intention, focusing on results that feel expressive while still supporting everyday ease.
Outside of the salon, Ari is a devoted dog mom to Rue, who she lovingly calls her soulmate. She is an aerialist with a passion for circus arts and is always eager to explore new hobbies. A big reader of romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and thrillers, Ari is also a self-proclaimed Halloween enthusiast with a love for all things spooky and scary. When she’s not in the salon, her favorite thing to do is travel, seeking out new places, cultures, and inspiration while planning her next adventure.
Stylist
Laurel Stanton
With over 20 years in the hair industry, Laurel has witnessed trends shift and styles evolve, but one thing has remained constant: her love for bringing out each guest’s true beauty. For Laurel, working as a hairstylist is about more than hair. It is about connection, care, and creating a space where every guest feels seen, heard, and supported without judgment.
Each appointment begins with listening. Laurel believes beauty should honor where you are in your life journey, embracing your authentic self while enhancing what is already naturally yours. A commitment to natural products and clean living has always been part of her life, and creating a salon space free from the fear of toxins was a lifelong dream realized through Lavender.
Laurel specializes in long haircutting designed to create space, movement, and natural flow, as well as curly hair cutting, gray blending, and gray coverage. She also offers soft, blended, lived-in highlighting and coloring. Her approach is intuitive and intentional, focusing on hair that feels effortless, healthy, and reflective of each individual.
Outside of the salon, Laurel is a mom of two and shares her home with her partner, Andrew, a feisty cattle dog named Luna, and a cat named Pinecone. Her love of plants began at a young age, but it was not until opening Lavender that she truly found her green thumb. She now cares for over 100 plants between the salon and her home. When she is not behind the chair, Laurel is often immersed in a creative project, from painting and sewing to tending her garden.
Owner / Stylist