Beauty & Spas in Agoura Hills

Paul Manoogian’s 35 years of professional hairstyling experience are built upon a strong foundation—he trained in the school of groundbreaking hairstylist Vidal Sassoon. Today he works with men and women, consulting with them to determine a cut that works with both their face and lifestyle. He also employs Redken products when coloring hair or making batches of fake blood.

At Escentials, a beauty shop nestled in the rolling hills of Calabasas, licensed aesthetician Trini Ponce de Leon hydrates and exfoliates complexions. Working in the shop's private facial room, she sloughs away dead skin with microdermabrasion treatments, and pampers visages with an array of facials. With her custom waxes, she also strips away unwanted stubble.

Licensed aesthetician Grace Young Lee pampers vexed visages with the Be Timeless facial-toning treatment, burnishing time-dulled epidermis and coaxing out new youthful glows. Each 60-minute session commences with a relaxing facial, as serums chockfull of natural ingredient prep surfaces for the countenance-strengthening Radio Derm RF session. Aided by oscillating radio frequencies, the nonsurgical treatment helps tighten muscles, lift features, and fuel cellular rejuvenation without weighing faces down with cumbersome free weights. After each mug’s workout, Grace slathers skin with a soothing mask before ushering newly renovated faces toward their real-world debut.

Armed with the metadermabolic enzymes of the Epicuren line, Jeannie Rogers cleanses and rejuvenates facial epidermises for men and women seeking pore evacuation and care beyond the bounds of ordinary products. She’ll kick off the 55-minute facial with an exfoliating, cinnamon hot peel that removes dead skin cells before they rise to feast upon the live ones. Next, two enzyme and protein masks forcibly evict any toxins they find to leave skin firm and subtly aglow. Finally, Jeannie massages the neck, shoulders, and hands to loosen the painful cramps from overly apathetic shrugs. Throughout the facial, you’ll get to bask in the white-marble reception desk and glass chandeliers of The Canyon Salon’s sleek, minimalist studio, which showcases the designing talents of Castlevania-born Takara Belmont.

Paris Cut Hair Design's aestheticians deftly channel the ancient Middle Eastern practice of threading, a precise and speedy method of shaping brow bristles that has found popularity among many of today’s A-list celebrities. During the 15-minute threading treatment, a skilled thread tech twists a length of pure cotton thread and weaves it around overgrown brows, uprooting follicle squatters without chemicals or irritation. Ocular overscores emerge from the treatment looking sharp, streamlined, and ready to replace spit takes and eye rubbing as the preferred method of expressing disbelief.

Roses line the driveway up to D'Marie Skin Care, which is tucked inside Shine Spa on a hill sheltered by eucalyptus trees. In a private chamber hidden in a magical wardrobe, aesthetician Denise Witt specializes in maintaining youthful looks with preventive skincare and judicious interventions with Ayur-Medic, Epicuren, and PCA Skin products. Her prudence stems from witnessing the effectiveness of gentle treatments made possible by technology, such as DermaSweep microdermabrasion that eschews harsh particles. "There's no need to do drastic things to the skin now," she points out in a 2010 interview with the Agoura Hills Patch. Her desire to match her clients' inner beauty to their appearance is longstanding, having manifested during her four-year turn as a personal trainer in the 1990s.

Today, an Esthetics degree from the Euphoria Institute of Beauty in Las Vegas helps her tailor skin and hair treatments to each client's poker face. Fourteen facials and peels combat aging using oxygen, warm enzymes, and botanicals including coconut and pumpkin, and all of them last at least a full hour.