Beauty & Spas in Portland

A Paul Mitchell Focus salon, Salon Palomo employs more than 20 stylists who unleash expert skills on coiffures, garnering a Caller-Times Best of the Best award in 2010. For haircuts, the salon’s savvy stylists first wash customers’ hair to remove any lingering dinge or emotional ties to its previous style. They can also swathe locks in a high-end protein treatment. A complimentary color consultation with a mane maintainer allows head strings to ponder a new hue for disguising grays and intimidating snakes. Relaxing and beautifying services extend to full body waxing, nail art, and eyelash perms.

Newly expanded to 3,000 square feet, Salon Palomo ensconces guests in aristocratic environs with gold drapery, crown-molding-topped cabinetry, warm metallic hues, a sparkling chandelier, and mirrors that speak with Elizabethan accents.

Massage therapist Johnny has been de-stressing clients for 10 years. He specializes in deep-muscle therapy, which alleviates muscle tension and pain due to repetitive-motion injuries using pressure ranging from firm to deep. He also customizes each of his massages to fit each client’s particular injuries and ideal amount of pressure. To further relax clients, Johnny incorporates aromatherapy, plays soft music, and assures them that tax season is months away. And when not kneading clients, he teaches other massage therapists the tricks of his trade.

A shared passion often brings talented people together. That's certainly the case at Planet Sol Salon, where each staffer brings her own background and artistic eye to the salon chair. Alexa Cline, for example, trained with Redken educators to gain expertise in haircuts and color treatments. Melissa Guerra specializes in chemical texturizing, and Natasha Gutierrez—who has interned with an American Board Certified Haircolorist—uses highlights to give hair the perfect amount of dimension. Not limiting themselves to just hair, the team members also administer aesthetic services such as chocolate foot masks and shellac mani-pedis.

The stylists are educators themselves, too. They know that a new look is ultimately pointless if it can't be regularly recreated at home, especially if clients find themselves stuck in a temporal loop. To that end, they recommend manageable styles and explain the step-by-step process for their creation.

Under the direction of Dr. Ruben J. Almanza, the staff at Imagen Medical Spa overhauls clients' guises with a roster of med-spa treatments. Skin savants perform laser hair-removal treatments to deforest follicular fields and inject Botox and Juvéderm to correct slack skin. The spa's licensed aesthetician and massage therapist rejuvenate visages and bodies with peels, facials, and massages, and complimentary consultations ensure guests select the correct treatments and complete their tax returns.

Lihua Yang began her study of traditional Chinese medicine during her formative years in China, before moving to America and deepening her knowledge of hands-on therapy by learning Western massage. Li now specializes in reflexology, applying precision pressure to various points on the body, such as the feet, hands, and head, that correspond to organs such as the heart and liver. The process aims to bolster health and help patients overcome a vast array of illness. While Li administers her soothing treatments, padded beds, lounge chairs, or hollowed-out tree trunks cradle her patients, and sage-green and white hues surround them, helping them relax.