Vienna, VA Spa and Massage

At New Ageless Massage, licensed therapists blend ancient Eastern techniques with flowing Swedish bodywork to improve mobility and quiet squeaky human hinges. Clients can retreat into cozy private rooms for Thai bodywork, hot-stone massages, or the firm pressure of deep-tissue techniques. Infant, toddler, and teen massages are also available to relieve the aches and pains of growing up or constantly fighting for the right to party.

A stroll through La Rouge Spalon & Boutique is a promenade back in time. In the waiting room, a cherry-red leather sofa and black shelves inspire modernity; in another room, the proprietors channel the 1950s with striped walls and checkered floors. In a separate makeup room, six round palettes of foundation and eye shadow rise up from a table like the drum set of a 1980s hair band from the stage. This diverse variety of styles characterizes La Rouge Spalon, which embraces the changing times with sleek cuts and bold color highlights tailored to client preference. Healing wraps and infrared sauna sessions help detoxify the body while promoting relaxation and weight loss. Clients may also solicit La Rouge for a chip-resistant Shellac manicure, or nix unwanted hair from upper lips with a private waxing session.

Timeless Sage's holistic healers tune the mind, body, and spirit with spa treatments that incorporate Chinese therapy techniques. During massages, therapists coat clients in botanical-infused GP Deva skincare products, then work over backs using the techniques of Swedish, deep-tissue, and other modalities. These sessions can also incorporate jade-stone therapy, during which smooth green orbs glide over the back, refreshing the body with alternating bursts of heat and cold, like a shower set to shuffle. Certified lash specialists plump up lid fringe with customized synthetic or mink lashes, which are individually bonded onto the original lashes. The center even treats nonhuman stress, performing equestrian bodywork based on a gentle, intuitive technique known as the Masterson Method.

The front doors of Skin Spa Austin Lounge open to a studio with an industrial yet comforting aesthetic, where sunlight spills in through the broad windows and warms the exposed-brick walls and bronze-colored floor. Within this space that both celebrates and seals out the savage urban jungle, aestheticians and massage therapists tend to guests with à la carte and packaged spa services that span facials, massage, waxing, and even LED teeth whitening. Skin Spa's staff prefers organic and pharmaceutical-grade products, stocking lines such as HydroPeptide that teem with active enzymes and botanical extracts.

Verve Health & Fitness co-owners Michael Lin and Michael Savitch each developed their passion for fitness while growing up in far-flung places—Lin as the descendent of a long line of doctors in Yilan, Taiwan, and Savitch as a surfer and baseball player in the US Virgin Islands. Since converging to found Verve in 2003, the two have affirmed their reputation as exercise experts, becoming fitness contributors to WebMD the Magazine and attracting coverage from other media outlets. Now, as part of a staff of more than a dozen trainers, they design exercise routines that take place in the facility's weight room, yoga studio, and stationary-bike area.

Verve reaches beyond the walls of the gym in a number of ways: the center sends trainers on corporate and in-home exercise missions, and it operates a virtual training program that supplies nutritional advice and workout programs to people who travel a lot or who only exist in Second Life. The center also treats visitors to five massage modalities, including Swedish, deep-tissue, and, appropriately, sports.

The massage therapists at Vanity Wellness perform two kinds of massage: reflexology, which targets trigger points in the feet in an effort to affect the rest of the body; and body-relaxation massage, which combines Swedish and deep-tissue strokes with stretching to inspire a sense of calm. Aromatherapy oils can accompany either service, treating noses to more pampering than 1,800-thread-count tissues.