Beauty & Spas in Alaska

The staff at Alaska Nails, a professional nail salon and school, paints digits in dapper shades while pampering limbs with a variety of spa services. Clients and comrades can perch on multiple pedicure chairs or in-house high wires as technicians brush coats of polish onto outstretched phalanges. Add-ons such as long-lasting Shellac, hand and foot massages, and paraffin dips soothe appendages as patrons repose near the salon's hanging tapestries. Adept artists can also scribe custom nail designs onto tips, ranging from glossy bow ties to accurate topographical maps of the moon. Alaska Nails is open seven days a week until 6 p.m. or 7 p.m.

The beauty experts at Plethora of Design glamorize nails with comprehensive mani-pedis. The 75-minute treatment begins with a cuticle treatment, which softens nail beds with soothing elixirs and heartwarming pictures of puppies dressed as flowers. Next, technicians buff and shape careworn talons before swaddling hands with steaming towels to open pores. After feet lounge in a mini hot tub, technicians load them with moisturizers and loosen muscles with a gentle massage. The renovations culminate with a glimmering coat of polish on fingers and toes. For an additional cost, guests may upgrade manicures to include a paraffin-wax hand dip ($7) and Shellac polish ($8).

The licensed, board-certified doctors at Alaska Vein Care vanquish spider veins and enlarged, bulging varicose veins with FDA-approved treatments. Injections of a sclerosing agent seal the interior lining of spider veins, diminishing their appearance by blocking blood flow. Treatments for varicose veins include EVLT treatments to restore normal circulation, micro-phlebectomy procedures to remove looped veins, and sclerotherapy, which closes vein walls.

Back in 1991, Kevin McKinley was in the middle of his last day as a banker, his future career path uncertain. Just before punching out, he found himself in conversation with a customer sporting an array of piercings. The man told Kevin about each of his piercings, where he got them, and what they meant to him. An admirer of free-spirited creativity, Kevin was immediately intrigued by the piercing philosophy.

"It's all about feel," he explains. "With change, there's pain. With pain, there's clarity."

More than three decades after piercing his first client, Kevin helms a team of 30 tattoo artists, piercers, and laser technicians at Body Piercing Unlimited. He calls the team a collective “jack of all trades,” with the ability to craft or alter virtually any tattoo or remove unwanted ink altogether. His studios combine modern inks, needles, and lasers with a vintage atmosphere that displays antique bicycles and wall panels bearing artistic works. The black-and-white checkered floors reflect Kevin's reverence for tradition, harking back, he says, to the East Coast tattoo parlors of the 1970s and their legendary face-offs between Garry Kasparov and a computer.

Healthier and more beautiful skin is what Alaskans have come to expect from Fortson Dermatology & Skin Care Center. That’s because the Fortson Center is recognized as Alaska’s leading resource for skin --- for dermatology, skin rejuvenation and cosmetic skin services.

Kristen and Seth Wood first experienced the therapeutic benefits of acupuncture as patients, although it wasn’t long before they established expertise behind the fine, sterile needles. After studying the medical art form, they opened their own studio, Snow Blossom Acupuncture, in order to help share acupuncture’s empowering effects. Now joined by a naturopathic physician, a certified rolfer, and a licensed massage therapist, Kristen and Seth are able to increase their clients’ levels of well-being holistically through a blend of Chinese medicine and Western therapies.

Community-acupuncture sessions allow patients to remain fully clothed and relax in a group-treatment setting, although private treatment rooms are also available for more in-depth sessions. Cupping, moxibustion heat therapy, and Chinese herbs rely on historical techniques for relieving pain and bolstering constitutions. For more spa-like sessions, the therapists can also use classic Swedish massage to soothe overstressed muscles and aromatherapy oils to revitalize fading scratch ’n’ sniff stickers.

With the rise of environmental illnesses and cancers in recent years, Dr. Thomas Taylor and his staff at Alaska Healing Touch have a healthy distrust of chemicals. That's why virtually everything that might touch clients' skin during their massage or chiropractic evaluation is chemical free and organic. Organic, food-grade massage oils come completely free of allergens and fragrance, as do the soft, organic sheets—which have been cleaned in a facility equally devoid of chemical fragrances and detergents. Dr. Taylor's massage expertise is treating auto- and work-related injuries.