Old Town’s First Beauty Crawl Turns 14 Shops and Salons Into a Weekend Adventure, Sept 25-27

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Old Town is about to get a little more glamorous—and a lot more walkable.

From Friday, Sept. 25 through Sunday, Sept. 27, more than a dozen Old Town beauty businesses will join forces for the neighborhood’s first Old Town Beauty Crawl, a free, self-guided weekend of store visits, salon stops, promotions, prizes and one very important little stamp card.

The idea is simple: pick up a crawl card at any participating location, visit the businesses that catch your eye, and get the card stamped as you go. According to the organizer’s Eventbrite listing, anyone who collects at least five stamps can claim limited-edition Beauty Crawl merchandise.

The lineup stretches across Old Town and includes perfume, cosmetics, skincare, haircare, waxing, permanent makeup and beauty treatments. Participating businesses include Arielle Shoshana, Anthropologie, Bellacara, Citrus Club Cosmetics, Drybar, Heyday, JoyLife Spa, Moxie Hair Studio, Nothing in Between Studio, Salon deZEN, Sephora, Stylists at North, Velvet Wax and Beauty, and Yeksenia Santos Cosmetics Tattoo.

A Neighborhood-Wide Small Business Play

What makes the crawl especially Alexandria is that it is less about one destination than about getting people to move from one independently run business to another. Most of the participating locations sit within roughly a mile of each other, making the event easy to do on foot while also creating a natural reason to stop for lunch, coffee or shopping along the way.

Arielle Shoshana, the perfume boutique at 313 Cameron Street, is one of the lead organizers. The shop moved to Old Town earlier this year after a decade in the Mosaic District and has quickly become part of the neighborhood’s small-business mix.

The event is free to join and no purchase is required to collect stamps. Some salon and service offers may require appointments, so organizers recommend checking the individual businesses before arriving. The crawl’s own materials say participating locations will offer a range of specials and samples during the weekend.

A completed stamp card can also be turned in at Arielle Shoshana for a chance at a grand prize made up of products, services and gift cards from participating businesses.

For Old Town merchants, the weekend is another example of businesses collaborating instead of competing for foot traffic—giving visitors a reason to discover places they might otherwise walk right past.