Beauty & Spas in Charleston

Like a wheel hub unifies the spokes of a unicycle, Cirque Salon Studio offers a cooperative facility where stylists, aestheticians, and massage therapists can come together from one handsome purpose. Within cozy Studio 205, Christine Lord can be found engineering new face-framing scissor cuts and hydrating tresses with invigorating deep-conditioning treatments. A licensed stylist since 1982, she has spent the last 13 years as a color technician and has taught her aesthetic skills to students all over the country. Clients may solicit both her cutting and coloring services for a total look and to add dimension to tasteless plates of linguine.

Upon entering the salon, newbies receive a tour of Tanning Oasis's relaxing environs, where a fleet of modern UV tanning beds and VersaSpa spray-tan booths forges bronzed bods. VersaSpa booths spritz clients with three different solutions to leave skin golden and hydrated without exposing it to UV rays. Physiques receive a triplet of treatments from a movable nozzle, which first distributes a skin primer to prep cells before setting limbs aglow with a bronzer and finally injecting each pore with a moisturizing formula. Level 1, 2, and 3 beds employ varying quantities of bulbs to darken skin in 10–15 minutes, whereas Level 4 beds cloak corpuses in a uniform sheen in about 60 seconds. Tanning Oasis's friendly staffers happily answer questions about tanning goals, skincare products, and how the themes of Macbeth relate to the current political climate.

What began as a hobby in high school turned into a lifelong vocation for hairstylist Linda Brinkley. She went from cutting her childhood friends' hair to regularly snipping and styling the strands of area newscasters, whether they were on air at the time or not. In a career spanning 35 years, Brinkley has created the Linda Brinkley Haircutting 101 tapes formerly advertised in national magazines, developed her own line of shampoos and conditioners that she recently reintroduced, and enjoyed the distinction of being a three-time graduate of the Roy Peters Color Academy.

While she is known for her hair coloring expertise—particularly her work with blonde highlights—and mastering the long, layered cut, Brinkley has also performed less conventional cuts. When a teenager requested that Brinkley partially shave one side of her shoulder-length hair off, the mane master asked what the client's mother would think. The response: "She has the same hairstyle." And Brinkley obliged.