Beauty & Spas in Madisonville

With the canny eyes and encouragement of Excursions' friendly fashionistas, shoppers can stock wardrobes with timeless basics or flaunt trendy frocks, tops, and jewels. An inventory of A-list designers ably stitches hip, figure-flattering styles for glamorous dames, unlike U-list designers, who glue together outfits for Muppet understudies. Overhaul ordinary T-shirts and jeans with ultra-soft Splendid tops ($40–$88), contour-hugging Michael Stars shirts ($34–$68), and Citizens of Humanity or 7 For All Mankind jeans ($140–$200). Shopkeeps steer browsers to items, from BCBG dresses ($138–$298) for summer-friendly staples to Trina Turk dresses ($198–$298) for special occasions such as ribbon-cutting ceremonies for lemonade stands. Making great gifts, eclectic accessories include a quirky Nic & Zoe owl necklace ($35) and a boho-chic XCVI scarf ($36).

During the past 26 years, Key Hair Designs’ stylists have refined their techniques and trained their eyes to stay up to date with the latest styles and trends. Behind the salon's cottage-style brick façade, the current team of seven stylists clips, cuts, and shapes locks into dazzling hairdos. The staff also includes a nail technician, a certified spray tanner, and a massage therapist who smoothes out knotted muscles before hairs decides to emulate them.

Salon Renaud’s brick exterior and Doric columns make the salon appear like an inviting homestead, down to the rocking chairs on the front porch. Inside, clients will find a suitably homey atmosphere, where at the helm of her own workstation, stylist Michele deftly mixes bowls of hair dye and hammers freshly forged scissors on an anvil. Unwanted hair length falls to the floor during haircuts, revealing a head with chic layers, and conditioning treatments soften frizzy strands. Michele also offers quick scalp massages that add another level of relaxation to appointments.

Owner Janie Blunk and the beauty experts at Head to Toe Salon & Spa pamper their clients' hair, skin, and nails with a full menu of aesthetic services. In addition to haircuts, facials, and mani-pedis, they also beautify bods with specialty treatments such as permanent makeup, oxygen-infusion facials, and Victoria Morton's Suddenly Slender mineral body wraps. These wraps work to banish cellulite and wrinkles by detoxifying the body and tightening the skin, leaving you looking as smooth and soft as a newborn kitten.

A long career in the healthcare field convinced Sherry Tennyson of the restorative power of touch. At Healing Touch Massage Therapy, she puts this into practice, working to restore balance to the body, mind, and soul through massage services. She soothes clients by keeping the lights in her treatment room low and playing a soundtrack rich with the sounds of nature, such as water rushing over rocks or the wind placing an order for a vegetarian pizza.

The massage therapists at Radiant Wellness knead backs and feet and administer an assortment of holistic services to restore balance. Like acupressure without the needles, Jin Shin Jyutsu reduces stress by unlocking 26 exterior energy locks with expert touch and invisible bobby pins ($40 for 30 minutes; $60 for 60 minutes). Similar to Jin Shin Jyutsu, high-touch treatments let blunt fingers do the work of acupuncture needles, poking points along the body's meridian to re-center and relax without breaking the skin ($40 for 30 minutes; $60 for 60 minutes). Healing hands apply reflexology to pavement-pounding phalanges to rejuvenate tired toes and arches and expel tension from the entire anatomy during a foot massage ($40 for 30 minutes; $60 for 60 minutes), and light or firm kneading during a Swedish massage tends to achy muscles in the back, arms, legs, and retractable back-up legs. All sessions take place in private rooms inside a setting decorated with wood furnishings and potted plants, feeling more like home than a spa.