Vashon, WA Beauty and Salons

Though she's been styling hair for 28 years, the last five marked a significant turning point in Kim Whitted's career. Five years ago, the Meche Organic Salon owner made the switch to organic products and carved out a niche for herself as a purveyor of hairdos that are as healthy as they are chic. Working out of her private suite at Grapevine Salons, Kim cuts, colors, and conditions hair using products that are 100% ammonia-free and never tested on animals, stuffed or otherwise. Her salon is also a registered distributer of Arbonne skincare products, which are vegan-certified and formulated without parabens.

Licensed naturopathic physician Dr. Leny Eidsmore of Highlands Naturopathic Physician often fuses botanical remedies and Chinese medicine to help bring bodies into balance, but she doesn't ignore the role of technology in healing. When Dr. Eidsmore meets clients for free consultations, she takes a holistic approach to determining treatment goals by asking about health history, current medications, and the last time the client was struck by lightning. From there, she may prescribe custom nutritional plans or begin aesthetic treatments, such as reducing cellulite with detoxification and radiofrequency therapy or minimizing rosacea and acne with IPL treatments.

For 10 years, Dawn Thompson worked beside top dermatologists and plastic surgeons as a surgical assistant. Armed with that experience and her education as an aesthetician, Dawn takes an all-encompassing approach to skincare at Island Skin and Laser, a recipient of a 2012 Seattle Award. Her firsthand experience helps her to personalize treatments to each client using medical-grade skincare products by lines such as SkinCeuticals, SkinMedica, Obagi, and Revaléskin, none of which contain perfumes or dyes. The aesthetician tackles common skincare issues with treatments ranging from traditional facials to advanced hydrafacials, erbium facials, and photofacials. As a laser pro, Dawn can also shine a light to banish unwanted hairs and bats that are bothering bodies.

Aversion to expensive haircuts is a natural reaction when only thousands of years ago pet sloths snipped our locks with sharpened rocks for free. Today's Groupon makes hair styling affordable again with a haircut, styling, and blow-drying at The Gilt Edge Society for $25. A new society-approved look will inhabit your cranium like a bonobo in a vegetable garden.

Rather than hopping into a booth to be sprayed like a child playing around with a sprinkler in the summertime, treat your body like a canvas worthy of carefully applied bronze hues. Elevate your skin from dull pales to an eye-soothing glow through a fast and safe organic tan that avoids UVA and UVB rays and works to complement a pre-existing tan or smooth over unwanted tan lines. Choose along the spectrum from a light gold to a rich cocoa-bronze tan that will alter the side-by-side context of all your clothing, making whites pop like pre-buttered popping corn and blacks simmer like coal-powdered velvet.

At the helm of Seattle Medical Aesthetics are Drs. Susan Petcoff and Lynne Haspedis, who have both been practicing medicine in Seattle since 1988. Both board-certified physicians also come from backgrounds in obstetrics and gynecology, making them particularly qualified to address the concerns of women who flock to the center for anti-aging treatments. Skin-smoothing injections of Botox and Juvéderm are a center specialty, as are prescription-grade chemical peels and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatments that do everything from correcting uneven pigmentation and restricting hair growth to helping skin reminisce about its disco-dancing days. Licensed aesthetician Darla Green is also on hand to recommend products by SkinCeuticals, ViDerm, and Glytone, and to share tips she learned while working as a makeup artist for film and TV.