Firstly, I'm a dude. Secondly, this was my first "salon" experience.
My longtime barber left V's, the quintessential place where MEN get their hair done. It took me a long time to actually find that barber and it's not worth the growing pains to test out the rest of them. I told my wife this and she said to try her salon.
With hesitation, I went. It's overwhelmingly targeted towards women, but once I got over that I got a FANTASTIC haircut. The stylist was genuine and we chatted almost the whole time... rather than a few dudes mumbling inside jokes to each other the whole time (like at V's).
I would highly recommend Laura McShane! She took a while "getting to know my hair" and I gave her free reign to do as she pleased. She gave me a modern haircut that is really low maintenance. Way better than pointing at a picture of hair I found in GQ.