Day Spas in Franklin Lakes

As a girl of just 13 or 14, Amita perched in her aunts’ hair salon and watched with fascination as they snipped clients’ tresses. Today, Amita still watches the flash of scissors, but now they are in the hands of skilled stylists in her own salon.

Amita bustles through the shop, mixing honey, sugar, and lemon to create her own wax for hair-removal treatments, her specialty. She also mixes her own all-natural henna paste for embellishing hands and feet with elaborate whorls and loops. This attentiveness to the products used in her salon, combined with more than a quarter century of experience in the industry, has led Amita to insist that her stylists wield quality elixirs from Paul Mitchell and Biolage. The salon’s skincare specialists employ Repêchage products to renew visages wrinkled from a lifetime of frowning at a Rubik’s cube.

Offering services that range from haircare to ear candling and peppermint pedicures, the staff at Gianni Hair and Skin Care Salon/Day Spa beautifies clients from head to toe. Spa packages allow clients to enjoy a full day of pampering, whereas sea-salt body polishes and parafango body wraps leave skin as soft as a teddy bear filled with peanut butter.

The therapists at Studio 88 begin their battle against stress before clients even get to the treatment room. A chandelier-lit reception area surrounded by cheery pink walls puts tension on the defensive as soon as clients walk in the door. Down the hallway, the fight continues, with massages powered by Swedish, deep-tissue, and hot-stone techniques that dissolve knots and muscular tightness. Elsewhere, skincare specialists brighten visages with facials, and makeup experts highlight clients' winning features with professionally applied products. The staff’s permanent-makeup treatments also help clients free up time during their morning routines for sleeping in or firing spitballs at the paperboy.

Floral wallpaper hints at a reliance on nature at Botanica Day Spa, and the center's staff of skincare professionals fittingly wields seaweed, mediterranean mud, and peppermint. They use the natural elixirs in treatments that complement each client's particular needs, and microdermabrasion and ultrasonic exfoliation prove a willingness to accept technology, much like making an extra house key for RoboCop. Calm exhalations drift upward from patrons cloaked in spa wraps, punctuating the steady rasp of emery boards during manicures and pedicures in the spa.

Tension and stress melt away at International Steam Baths, where guests lounge within the steamy chambers of a Russian steam room, relax inside an infrared sauna, or high-dive into a cold plunge pool. Inside private treatment rooms, spa-goers receive more than five types of massages or a body wrap blended from black mud and seaweed. Guests can also get a breath of fresh air on the outdoor deck or visit the restaurant, where bright orange walls surround tablecloths covered in strawberry designs.

For more than a decade, Stacy Francis has practiced aesthetics. Her training at DePasquale informs her approach to skincare, particularly her commitment to delivering completely personalized treatments to each individual. At Aesthetics For You, she upgrades outer beauty through facials, peels, and microdermabrasion treatments while fostering inner harmony with spa perks such as fine linens and fragrant emollients. Her wellness center is quaint and inviting—the two-story building is a repurposed home complete with a wraparound deck and a couch fort. In addition to rooms for photofacials, body wraps, and waxing services, the building hosts a small spin studio.