Beauty & Spas in Gardendale

The stylists and aestheticians at Hopson James Salon combine their specialized skills to meet any pampering needs with salon services ranging from hairstyling and mani-pedis to facials and airbrush tanning. The salon's brick walls and gentle, neutral colors invoke a calm environment, where salon professionals can perform makeup applications and waxing services and hair dryers can float unassisted. Throughout appointments, the staff nurtures clients with high-quality salon products such as Aveda, Redken, SkinCeuticals, and Moroccanoil.

Loida Summerville brings seven years of experience to her nail-services station at The Phoenix Salon. Wielding OPI polishes, she expertly paints digits with solid hues or spirited designs that declare loyalty to a favorite sports team or deli sandwich. She also attaches synthetic gel nails, in both full sets and fill-ins, and coats tensomes in contrasting french tips.

As a member of the Lashologist Council of America, Tunya Humphrey was entrusted to preside as the lash expert at a 2011 beauty event at Macy's. At Lash n Dash, her customers entrust her to augment eye lines with both synthetic and 100% mink extensions. Each style comes in temporary strip lashes or semi-permanent individual extensions, which stay put for up to three months or until a friend's envious lashes issue a cease-and-desist letter. Additionally, Tunya enhances faces with eyebrow grooming and makeup applications for weddings, proms, and photo shoots.

Dr. Sarah Sawyer gets her drive to help others from her father, a small town dentist who was never shy about providing weekend calls and home visits. This same level of commitment distinguishes Dr. Sawyer's work at Dermatology & Laser of Alabama—the skincare center she founded—and that has led Daytime Alabama and CBS42 to seek her opinions on Botox, tattoo removal, and other topics. Along with her team of highly trained technicians, including dermatologist Dr. Katherine Flanagan and master aesthetician Michelle Alvis, she helps clients obtain clear complexions using a three-step process: resurface, revolumize, and protect. Though the skincare regimens designed by the team based on these guidelines, often vary— like the weather conditions inside an automatic car wash—they frequently include treatments such as micropeels, dermaplaning, and facials.

Visiting the clinic doesn't feel like a chore, though. Before treatments, clients relax in a reception area where they can read a magazine, watch television, or use the center's free WiFi as they nosh on complimentary snacks and beverages.

Michelle Williams at Head 2 Toe has dressed up fingers and toes for nearly three decades. The seasoned nail technician pampers clients with skin-softening hand- and foot-masks and hot-towel treatments, before touching up nails with monochromatic color, nail art, or french polish. She also waxes unwanted hair and freshens visages with relaxing facials. Outfitted with comfortable massage chairs, her spa makes an ideal oasis after a long day of work or haunting houses.

Though she had never experienced a massage of her own, Janice Amyson knew that she had found her calling as soon as she entered massage school. She carried this initial passion through her courses and into her career at The Amazing Hands Therapeutic Massage, where today she strives to empathize with her aching clients. To make sure that she understands and addresses their individual aches, Amyson never begins treatment without a brief consultation. This all-important sit-down, during which she inquires about areas of particular soreness, allows her to customize sessions that may incorporate modalities such as deep-tissue massage, TMJ treatment, repetitive-use therapy, and medical massage.

The treatment room’s low lighting, aromatherapy candles, and lush green plants join together to soothe frazzled nerves. Arbonne lotions and a heated table aid Amyson’s nimble fingers as she unkinks knotted musculature and rewires cybernetic limbs. Other therapeutic elements include Mentholatum, which opens sinuses to allow for easier breathing, and foot warmers to comfort cold toes. In this same room, Amyson also treats bodies with soothing spa treatments such as mud-mask facials and paraffin dips.