Beauty & Spas in Alaska

Ever since The Alaska Club opened its first location in 1986, they've been striving to serve their members by adding amenities, classes, and opening new locations. Though each location’s offerings vary, they supplement their well-stocked fleets of cardio machines and strength equipment with cycling studios, climbing walls, basketball courts, swimming pools, and play centers for the kids. The club also offers spa services including hydromassage beds, tanning, and saunas.

Group fitness classes include yoga, step aerobics, and Pilates, and personal trainers stand at the ready to help clients focus on fitness goals. The clubs also offer swim lessons and summer camps for kids, setting in stone their commitment to making The Alaska Club a place for the whole family, not the half-formed family, which needs at least seven more years to gestate in the laboratory incubator.

At Pure Essentials Day Spa, therapist Yencid Hiller surrounds bodies in a 27-ingredient wrap that nourishes and detoxifies tissues. Just as an Italian mother swaddles her young in lasagna noodles, Yencid blankets clients in a quilt of herbs and allows each curative element to soothe and slim the figure. During the 90-minute treatment, clients lie supine in a serene pastel-colored room as toxins exit fat cells. After a cocooning, clients can lose upwards of 20 inches, resulting in a svelte figure that easily shimmies into packed elevators and tucks behind trees during hide-and-seek.

Led by a local fire lieutenant turned stylist, the beauty specialists at Shear Fire Design sculpt tresses into flattering ’dos with a slew of haircare products and color services. Scissors snip unkempt strands into lockstep and a Tuscan Oil deep-conditioning treatment can leave hair as soft as elevator music performed by a snowflake. Clients can also add new hues to monochrome manes with a coloring service, such as highlights, lowlights, or all-over color. Hair services integrate high-end products from brands including Pureology, Rusk, and Redken, nail treatments beautify digits, and facial waxing removes unwanted fuzz.

Built in a former body shop, the salon has added rugged chic décor to its space; it seats 10 guests at stylized stations adorned with fire-department memorabilia. Painted tufts of flame decorate the walls, and real firemen try to extinguish them. Meanwhile, the salon’s affiliated academy readies aspiring aesthetes to treat hair and nails.

Glaze's studio immediately asserts itself as a zone for the bold and modern. Light-blue and lime-green accents are juxtaposed against the industrial aesthetic of an exposed floor for a stark contrast. This setting, however, belies the aestheticians' preference for nature. The pipe-free Sanijet pedicure baths, inspired by the stone paths strewn throughout Asia, deliver a reflexology massage to soaking feet by stimulating specific pressure points on the underside of each foot. This attention to detail pervades everything on Glaze's service menu, which spans nailcare, facials, massages, and waxing. Aestheticians rely on a stock that contains many eco-friendly products, such as the Aveda skincare line and the formaldehyde- and DBP-free nail polishes of butter London. They also maintain a meticulously clean studio, sanitizing instruments in the same kind of high-temperature autoclaves found in hospitals, the dentist’s office, and the homes of professional taxidermists.

Board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Stephen H. Sutley oversees the implementation of Lumenis lasers designed to safely remove hair with zero downtime and zero anesthetics. During treatment, a vacuum-assisted device draws the skin closer toward the focused laser beams, enhancing the follicles' absorption of the light waves and sucking up any old popcorn kernels lodged within them. The laser then causes strands of body fuzz to heat up, deadening the roots to prevent further germination and allow the hair to gently brush away. Due to varying degrees of growth, several treatments and strongly written eviction notices are necessary to thoroughly banish unwanted hair. Lumenis lasers work with multiple skin and hair types, although clients with lighter hair may not see results.

Drs. Lauren Evans, Jacob Frank, and Kara Reynolds protect the power of sight at Wolf Eye Center. The trio of talented optometrists—who studied ocular disease during their residencies—cares for eyes with everything from standard eye exams to glaucoma treatments. In addition to caring for adult patients, the team of eye professionals also treats little ones, helping correct lazy eyes and outfitting budding athletes with sports goggles.

While the doctors detect disease and calibrate prescriptions, the center’s knowledgeable staff helps clients peruse a selection of frames from the likes of Gucci, Coach, and Vera Wang. Frames are filled with thin, high-index lenses or Transitions lenses, which shift from clear to tinted when exposed to sun or a pageant queen’s sequined evening gown.