Bensonhurst, NY Beauty and Salons

Stylists tailor beautifying treatments to patrons’ personal styles in this full-service hair and nail salon nestled in Sunnyside in Queens. Armed with an arsenal of cuts, coloring techniques, and manageability-boosting keratin treatments, hair-handlers reform 'dos into eye-catching coifs. Strands can also get a volume or length boost with feather extensions and clip-on locks, which can double as flowing clip-on ties in a pinch. Alternatively, nail artists brighten extremities with Gelac polishes or make fingers appear longer with glue-on acrylic tips. Swedish and Thai sport-massage sessions brief enough to fit into a lunch hour unknot tense tendons, and waxing services and facials round out the assortment of offerings. Complimentary brews from the salon’s tea selection hydrate parched clients during their time slots.

Having celebrated its opening in January 2012, Four Seasons Nail Salon staffs an abundance of sleek manicure stations and rows of pedicure thrones with professional nail technicians. A large crystal chandelier illuminates the front desk in the contemporary space, and textured stone walls surround the pedicure area. Along a wall of windows, guests rest hands below quick-dry machines as they gaze out onto the street to watch unmanicured passersby hide misshapen nails with newspapers and attempt to hail taxis with their hands in their pockets.

Hovering above the shining floors and plush leather salon seats of Spring Nail Spa, a brightly lit ceiling is painted to mimic the lush blue hues of an afternoon sky, with sparse clouds dotting the mural framing a magnificent chandelier. Beneath this reminder of pleasant weather, nail technicians dote on customers with various manicures, pedicures, and waxing and threading services for areas such as eyebrows, bikini lines, and werewolf knees.

En route to co-founding and directing Allure Skincare & Laser Center, Valerie Karpaty nabbed certification as a medical assistant, registration as a phlebotomist by the AAMA, a license to perform permanent makeup, and 10 years of experience as an aesthetician. She brings all this accrued knowledge to bear during FDA-approved skin and body treatments, which she uses primarily to avert the signs of aging. Like a sci-fi author's excuses for his story's many plot holes, Karpaty's services often rely on technology: Endermologie mechanically stimulates the skin to promote collagen production, and IPL laser treatments bathes faces in light from an elōs-brand machine to minimize blemishes. To further connect to the community, Karpaty participates in programs that give cancer patients bold new eyebrows.

Hitomi, the licensed tattoo artist and permanent-makeup expert at Uptown Girls NYC/Japan, enhances facial features by injecting long-lasting pigments into the skin. Using sterile needles and hypoallergenic hues, she tattoos thickness and definition onto lash lines, shapeliness onto brows, and a boost of color onto lips.

She works with each of her clients to select shades that complement their skin tone or mimic a perfect kool-aid mustache. Cosmetic tattoos are a convenient option for those with busy schedules, allergies to traditional beauty products, or vision or dexterity impairments. In addition to her makeup services, Hitomi also adds extra flutter to lids with eyelash extensions and trims artistic designs into hairdos with Barikan cuts.

Forest Hills Laser Spa's laser technician Agnessa Vinson harnesses the photons of the spa's flagship device, the Cynosure Elite MPX. Lasers flit to and fro across epidermal expanses, whisking away unwanted hairs, shrinking spider veins, or fading surface imperfections, depending on the beam's wavelength and the alignment of the sun and moon. Also a dental hygienist, Agnessa works with Teeth Tamers, which operates in concert with Forest Hills Laser Spa in the same location, offering Invisalign, Zoom! whitening treatments, and other dental care.