Most people drive right past it. The ones who don't tend to come back. There is a two-acre Japanese garden tucked into a residential neighborhood in Pasadena that most people have never heard of, and the people who know about it would prefer to keep it that way.

Twenty-seven years of earning the trust of one of Southern California's most discerning cities. Salon Aguayo isn't just a salon — it's where Pasadena comes to feel like itself. There are salons, and then there are institutions. Salon Aguayo, at 408 S. Pasadena Avenue, has