In the Old West, cowboys rode into town to have a glass of whiskey at the town saloon, heckle the thieves in the stockades, and exfoliate their rugged mugs with the sheriff's spurs. Saddle up for modern shaping up with today's Groupon: for $16, you get $40 worth of salon and spa services at Xenon International Academy in Ballwin.

Xenon International Academy's accredited beauty-school curriculum trains fledgling spa and salon technicians in the ways of the scissors and the cucumber slice. These able esthetician aspirants perform the Academy's variety of services under the watchful eye of a licensed and experienced instructor. With a customized facial treatment ($38), they'll replace your face's neon-green glow with a healthier radiance by cleansing, exfoliating, and balancing dizzy skin tissue. An acne-clearing treatment ($42) targets and evicts any insurgent blackheads, whiteheads, and inflamed redheads that have been vandalizing your pores. Broken, tattered, or torn nails can be carefully repaired for $5, and more ambitious customers can luxuriate in a complete French manicure ($20) before chasing it with a spa pedicure ($26) in a throne chair salvaged from the spa in Tutankhamen’s tomb. A trained sculptor of scalp whiskers can tame your hairy head monster into a stylish new 'do ($9 or flat iron style for $15), then color it ($32-$47) so that you blend in with the fall foliage and evade hungry ogres on quiet walks through the forest.

Xenon International Academy has partnered with Peel's Salon Services to provide professional, high-quality salon products during all its treatments. The Academy's 18,000-square-foot facility allows ample space for four fully equipped spa rooms, a private waxing room and six spa pedicure units, with enough room left over to park your company hovercraft. Walk-ins and appointments are welcome.

Reviews

Four Insider Pagers give Xenon International Academy a four-star average:

• I always have a wonderful experience at Xenon. – Lisa S.
• The girl that cut my hair did a great job, she did just what i asked her too and checked several times with me and her supervisor before letting me go. – Jennifer K.