Personal endorsement: For my wedding last year, I chose to wear the dress my mother wore in 1969—a lace sheath that was once ivory but had turned a shade of buttermilk—and the mantilla lace veil my grandmother wore in 1939, which looked as sepia-toned as the photographs from that day. To get the stains out, I took them both to June’s of Atlanta. The pieces came back perfectly ivory with just a hint of vintage color, and June told me glowingly that she’d spent an entire weekend on them. —Mary Logan Bikoff
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Gino’s Classic Barber Shop
How can a man relax with a blade at his throat? Lean back in one of Gino’s old barbershop chairs and let gentle hands apply three rounds of moisturizer beneath alternating hot and cold towels, opening your pores and prepping your skin so thoroughly that the razor glides across your lathered face in long strokes without even the slightest pull. A burning slap of aftershave and quick massage, and you’ll either be braced for the day ahead or wandering around in a blissful stupor.
Nouvelle Nail Spa
At this Westside spa that specializes in all-organic nail care, you won’t find the standard jet tubs and massage chairs. Instead, your feet relax in a (super-sanitary) travertine stone basin as you sink into a plush leather chair that reclines so far back our tester almost dozed off. The signature custom treatment ($64) includes indulgent massage, aromatherapy, a neck warmer, customized soaks, and a mask that soothes and smooths dry skin.
Raquel Souza, Sweet Peach Wax and Sugaring Studio
Personal endorsement: After moving to Atlanta six years ago, I began a quest for a go-to waxer, visiting at least five places (testing multiple aestheticians at each) before meeting Raquel. In those days she worked in the back of a salon that also offered manicures and spray tans; it did not seem like the type of place that would employ an expert. But Raquel has the magic touch. I was so pleasantly surprised by her technique, I haven’t gone to anyone else. Raquel—who pioneered sugaring in Atlanta—now owns Sweet Peach, a specialty studio in Virginia-Highland. —Caroline C. Kilgore
Paris Campeau, Jazmin Spa
Personal endorsement: I know nobody has a truly symmetrical face, but that knowledge does not make me any less self-conscious about having uneven eyes. Most waxing just accentuates my crooked lids. But Paris is a magician of an aesthetician, able to create the illusion of symmetry with pain-free waxing and a little adroit tweezing. She also does the longest-lasting lash and brow tinting I have ever tested, which enhances her handiwork— and eliminates the need for mascara. —Rebecca Burns
FLO2S
In a Little Five Points suite, FLO2S offers Atlanta’s only two commercial sensory deprivation tanks: Each holds body-temperature water, less than a foot deep, and 1,200 pounds of Epsom salts, dissolved to create ten times the buoyancy of the Dead Sea. Here, by yourself, you can settle into total darkness, total silence, and (best of all) weightlessness. You may experience spine decompression, a meditative state, even visions. Our tester left feeling “more relaxed than I have in years.”
Raw Bronzing Studio
Construction in Inman Park sent Tiffany Terranova’s studio packing to the Westside this year, and it’s now tucked away where no one will see you making the unglamorous post-spray dash to your car. A human (rather than a machine) applies your tan in a small room with laminated glam magazine pages on the walls. Extra tanning molecules are sucked out through a vent tastefully disguised as a Chinese screen. Terranova expertly mists a glow that’s not too dark, not too orange, and not too smelly thanks to the organic ingredients in her specially blended product.
Gina Michael
Working out of a tranquil office suite at Century Boulevard (near the Clairmont Road exit), Gina Michael specializes in several Asian massage techniques, including traditional Thai and a variation that incorporates heated herbal compresses. But her most unique specialty is zheng gu tui na (pronounced “jung goo tweena”), a Chinese acupressure treatment. “Tui na” means “push-pull,” and Michael performs a rolling action with her fist that unwinds the muscles, though the overall effect is energizing: You’ll head back into the world feeling restored. $85 for sixty minutes; $105 for ninety minutes.
Four-Handed Massage, Mind & Body Day Spa
Two massage therapists indeed prove twice as effective. In the Alpharetta spa’s largest treatment room, a duo of practitioners work in tandem: They begin by unknotting the back with fluid, simultaneous motions, then one kneads the shoulders while the other works on the legs. The experience disorients in the most relaxing way possible. The massage is $170 for sixty minutes; $250 for ninety. Achieve an even deeper sense of calm by adding shirodhara, an Indian Ayurvedic treatment in which warm, herbed oil is drizzled over the forehead and then massaged into the scalp. It’s $65 for an additional thirty minutes, and you’ll want a nap afterward.
Jenn Jones Hair
We knew something was up when it seemed every photographer and fashion editor we work with mentioned the same name: Jenn Jones. And we suspected Jones’s touch would be special when we learned she works at a beauty collective and
custom-blends organic dyes. She can turn a blah brown into a “buttery blond” or add new life to a natural ‘do with a strategic colorful streak—check out her own peacock-green bangs! Before joining the Aviary Organic Beauty Collective, Jones taught at the Aveda Institute and worked at the Van Michael Salon in Buckhead after stints at Graceland Brooklyn and Mudhoney, New York.
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