Beauty & Spas in Villas

After fulfilling a cosmetic-facial-plastic fellowship at the Flowers Clinic in Honolulu, licensed physician Dr. John Nassif began lending his line-lifting expertise to Eye Associates of SW Florida. Amid the med spa's restful earth tones and sighing furniture, Dr. Nassif targets wrinkles with treatments such as Botox and laser skin rejuvenation. Using these and other techniques, including surgical ones, the doctor erases blemishes, enhances appearances, and corrects the underlying issues that would otherwise limit the longevity of clients' results.

Physician’s assistant Joy K. Sensakovic relies on her vast medicinal knowledge and nimble, trained hands as she administers anti-aging and aesthetic treatments. Hormone-replacement sessions help menopausal and post-menopausal women identify imbalances in their bodies and correct them with supplemental creams and capsules, and Botox smoothes fine lines in the face so that clients can get away with fibbing about their age on dates with polygraph machines. With counsel from a physician, Joy performs sclerotherapy, an injection-based method of eliminating unwanted veins from limbs.

Hairstylist Jenn Velez fused the names of her two daughters, Melina and Alexus, to title Melxus Hair Studio, a salon that specializes in hair and makeup services. Jenn's stylists clean up the looks of men, women, and children with custom cuts and deep-conditioning treatments, adding length to clients’ manes with extensions, rather than fun-house mirrors. The beauty parlor’s modern tress treatments rely on trending products and techniques, which Jenn stays abreast of with continuing education.

At the age of 11, Peggy Newlan began sculpting her mother's hair into beehives and french twists. She practiced on friends and family members, her fingers becoming more and more adept as she styled manes and picked locks. Despite her innate talent for hairstyling, Newlan pursued a career in accounting and banking. Eventually, she returned to her true calling, joined ooh la la Salon, and purchased the company in 2003.

Newlan now leads a team of stylists, as well as a massage therapist and a skincare expert who is an educator at Florida Academy. The beauty specialists perform a variety of services, from cuts, highlights, and ionic hair straightening to nailcare and spa services such as facials, massages, waxes, and spray tans.

For 15 years, Mariuska Garcia sharpened her hairstyling skills in professional salons beneath the warm Miami and Los Angeles sun. Then, in 2004, she opened Uska's Salon & Spa and began sharing her knowledge of salon and spa services⎯including massage, waxing, peels, and mani-pedis⎯and filling shelves with products by DevaCurl, OPI, Oxygen Botanicals, and Wella. While her stylists work, white tree-branch silhouettes stretch across two onyx walls and attempt to braid clients' velvety locks.

Taylor Strauss mastered the art of aesthetics, focusing her skills on becoming a facial specialist. Taylor made her way to Contour Body Works, a beauty haven where the staff pampers clients with massages, facial treatments, and laser therapies. From the spa’s elegant treatment rooms, Taylor keeps her attention on rejuvenating complexions using classic european facials and masks infused with fruit acids and mud. She also excels in more advanced services, such as diamond dermabrasion and dermaplaning, both of which exfoliate away the top layer of skin to reveal unclogged pores and the scores of pogs that were hiding within them. Strauss is also trained in reflexology—which she uses to help relieve clients' tired soles—and body wraps designed to detoxify and moisturize, and eyelash extensions that define peepers with faux lashes.