Beauty & Spas in Grand Haven

After gaining experience at several advanced training academies and prestigious salons, Donaylle Nicole channeled her ample styling skills into her own salon. At Donaylle Nicole Hair Studio, she leads a team that includes experienced stylists, aestheticians, and a facial specialist from the Bengston Institute. They employ Redken, Pureology, and ammonia-free hair products in their beautifying regimens. As the stylists perform precision haircuts and coloring services, aestheticians pamper other clients from head to toe with body wraps, pedicures, and professional makeup services with Mirabella products or colorful lacquers. To help spice up birthday and bachelorette parties, they also offer custom spa parties that can include massages, facials, and waxes.

The studio itself reflects the staff’s passion for aesthetic beauty. Exposed off-white brick walls attempt to hide behind diamond-shaped mirrors and flowing brown curtains. Rustic hardwood flooring evokes the deck of a pirate ship—only in the salon, the hair that falls onto it smells pleasant.

Tropi Tan does something the sun can’t. It tans bathing- and- birthday-suit-clad bodies throughout the year and keeps the golden glows coming until 9 p.m. or later on weeknights. Inside standup and lie-down tanning booths, clients relax as warm rays penetrate the skin and build a natural bronze in up to 20 minutes; a collection of lotions helps speed up the shade-shifting process and keeps skin looking healthy and moisturized. Those who prefer UV-free tanning can opt to hop in one of the studio's spray-tanning booths, which swap bulbs for a sugar-based solution that leaves skin golden and more kissable to horses for up to five days.

In 2002, Glamazon was a one-man show, with owner and color-specialist Jere styling all clients, all the time. Though today Jere’s staff has grown to include four more talented designers, nail technicians, and massage therapists, he’s kept his basic concept intact: an urban salon geared not just toward offering chic hairstyles for all, but also helping the community. Throughout haircut and color services, Jere and his crew draw from a shelf full of environmentally friendly products by brands such as Neuma, Kemon, and Pureology—all of which forgo harsh chemicals and playground name calling. Outside of the salon, the team hosts various community fundraisers in support of organizations such as the Child Abuse Council and Every Woman’s Place.

The stylists, nail technicians, and massage therapists at Anew Salon and Day Spa—some of whom have more than a decade of experience—combine forces to polish every inch of their clients' appearances. The salon's stylists remain abreast of hair trends so they can offer the latest treatments, such as Babe hair extensions, tinsel applications, and ombre highlights, which fade naturally from dark to light for a sun-kissed look. Alongside facials and waxing services, nail technicians scrub, massage, and refine hands and feet before coating them in standard or Gelish polish, and a massage therapist works through muscular knots in hopes of easing stress.

Elements Hair Design matches its follicular focus with a dedication to nail nourishment. Plop down at the salon's new service stations and enjoy a manicure ($18) and pedicure ($32), administered by Elements' masterful team of technicians. Fingernails will be finessed, toenails will be treated, and cuticles will be cared for, as the salon's aestheticians—trained at the Matrix C.R.A.F.T. Global Academy in New York, as well as schools and salons in Chicago and Las Vegas—spin nail straw into finely shaped keratin gold. Call ahead and schedule your appointment for a mani-pedi treatment in the comfy confines of Elements Hair Design.

When the Douglas J Aveda Institute opened in Knoxville in 2011, it joined a family of institutes and salons that Douglas Weaver started in the 1960s. Here, Aveda students pursue certification in cosmetology and esthiology while practicing their craft on real clients under the supervision of licensed educators. And because students perform the services, the rates are lower than at traditional salons. The Knoxville treatment menu includes hair design—cuts, color, retexturizing—as well as Aveda’s Elemental Nature facials, pedicures, and manicures.

The Institute is inside the historic S&W Grand building, a handsome art-deco landmark that, like a compassionate fairy-tale prince, is equally handsome on the inside. The spa rooms have a rustic balance of exposed brick and wood paneling, and the salon’s geometric light fixtures gleam upon checkerboard tile floors and industrial shelving lined with Aveda’s signature products.