Oakland Park, FL Spa and Massage

After working in spas for two decades, French-educated massage therapist and paramedical esthetician Chrys Straiton founded Studio Blu Spa, envisioning a tranquil retreat where she could continue to advance her skills while pampering clients with facials, massages, and skincare services.

When selecting the team for her new spa, Chrys deferred to experience—each of her licensed nail technicians, for example, has roughly a decade of practice. During microdermabrasions, back facials, and other skincare treatments, Chrys and her staff wield G.M. Collin products derived from natural botanical extracts and finely blended teddy-bear stuffing. G.M. Collin was one of the first brands to integrate collagen into its formulas, and Studio Blu’s devotion to the skincare line evinces both the spa’s openness to innovation and its results-oriented approach.

It would be nearly impossible to tally up all the haircuts, highlights, and mani-pedis stylists have performed since Daisy Nails & Hair Salon first opened its doors in 1968. More than 40 years later, they still keep up with the latest trends, priding themselves on creating celebrity-like hair and washing away the pheromones that attract paparazzi. Aside from cuts and coloring treatments, stylists shape fetching brows with threading and install cascades of flowing tresses with 100% natural human hair extensions. The salon also relaxes customers with services such as soothing massages and luxurious caviar facials.

Distinction Salon owners Shawn Durant and Kelly Larkin pride themselves on providing their staff with plentiful educational opportunities to enable them to enhance locks with the best precision cuts and multi-tonal color. A specialist in razor cuts, Durant's own styling touch can toggle between subtle and edgy with a simple flick of his artistic wrist, and his modern, yet classic approach makes him popular among clients who received a bad cut elsewhere. Using products from Aquage and Wella, his styling team adds dimensional color to update dull locks and can smooth frizzy, unruly manes with Brazilian keratin treatments that leave hair as silky as Bing Crosby's pajamas for up to four months.

While waiting to add length and volume with natural-looking hair extensions by Euro-So.Cap and Aqua Hair Extensions or pops of bright color with feathers, clients may sink into the plush couch guarding Distinction Salon's waiting area, where they may also enjoy the light, sweet aroma of fresh cut flowers and vases filled with fragrant shampoo.

The trained and licensed massage therapists at Elements Therapeutic Massage address health and stress-related conditions with gliding strokes and concentrated kneads. Their deft hands apply pressure to areas of discomfort to maximize joint flexibility and encourage the release of the body’s natural supply of painkillers, which include serotonin, endorphins, and stevia. Massage can also assuage depression, speed healing form injuries, and bolster sleep quality.

The massage therapists at Harmony Bodyworks, Inc. realize that muscles aren’t flat. The pain that occurs from poor posture or rigorous exercise can flare up both on the surface level and deeper within the tissue. With this 3D map in mind, the therapists untangle knotted muscles with two types of massage. Restful Swedish strokes attend to tightness associated with stress, and deep-tissue bodywork delivers firm, cross-grain strokes that knead out embedded tension and Legos. No matter which style they need, clients can also augment their session with oil or lotion or enjoy a soft-touch massage that uses neither.

Named Best Overall Spa 2011 by Spa Week, Eden Day Spa focuses on providing tranquil experiences for its clients. Featured in magazines such as Marie Claire, Vogue, and Shape, the boutique spa’s elegant interior is accented by flickering candles. The lengthy treatment menu includes waxing, microdermabrasion, holistic treatments such as reiki, and more than 15 types of massages that take place on heated tables. Aestheticians beautify the skin of women, men, and teens during more than a dozen facials, and manicures and pedicures refresh digits with Shellac, french tips, and organic polishes. As nails are painted, aromatherapy swirls around the mani-pedi room, where only the sounds of spa music and the chattering of one’s inner child will be heard.