Beauty & Spas in Alafaya

At Massage Connection, licensed massage therapists aim to ensure that "every sight, sound, smell, and touch" makes clients feel good. While kneading muscles with light or firm hand movements, massage professionals attend to the client's comfort level, adjusting their methods to optimize relaxation and muscle health. Massages target basic aches and pains as well as the needs of expectant mothers, athletes, and milkmaids. Other spa services, including body scrubs and mud-mask treatments, draw out impurities and leave skin feeling supple. In contrast to relaxation-based options, sauna-treatment sessions promote weight-loss by warming the body, inducing sweating, and burning fat.

When discussing Breakthrough Fitness’s training philosophy with reporters from the Seminole Voice, owner and lead trainer Dominic Lucibello quipped, “we train movements, not muscles.” That’s why the fitness coach eschews machines that focus on only one area of the body for training equipment that utilizes many muscles at once. Drawing from his degree in exercise science and his years as a certified personal trainer, Dominic joins a staff of seasoned coaches to lead group fitness classes, semiprivate training sessions, and sports conditioning programs. They’ve stocked their spacious sunlit studio with kettlebells, free weights, and suspension bands, leading clients through high-intensity functional exercises designed to increase their muscle tone and chances of being elected their state’s congressional power ranger. Their dedicated program-writing department draws up customized workout plans for members based on their current level of fitness, taking into account their interests and goals.

Jennifer Cherry, owner of Hot Bodies USA, has stocked her 1,300-square-foot salon with Encore and Ovation tanning beds. Alternatively, customers can supplement their UV tans in the Magic Tan spray booth, which features a bronzing formula that makes physiques look similarly beachy without the need for using UV rays or hanging out only with ghosts. The shop also stocks bronzers to enhance the work of its makeshift suns and provides additional beautifying services including lash enhancement.

Faye Bailey was beginning an uphill battle when she told her mother she wanted to open her own salon. Faye had been braiding and pressing hair since she was 14, but her mother worked as a teacher––and all 11 of her other children attended traditional colleges. After a brief stint at the university, though, Faye could no longer ignore the pull of hairstyling.

Thus, Faye moved from Macon, Georgia to Florida and started studying at a beauty school. Before long, her dream became a reality: she opened All Dolled Up Salons and Stores. Now a chain of five salons, including a braidery house, her stylists specialize in natural hairdos such as loc styling, cutting, and short hair wraps. But they also color, perform smoothing treatments, and affix weaves to natural hair.

The space at Shears Plus Salon has more color than a box of crayons. Depending on where you look, the walls may be bright red, neon green, or mint. And then there's the hair-washing room, with snow-white molding set against soothing lavender paint. All these jazzy accents remind patrons that the salon is a place of creativity, as well as craftsmanship. Clients can request a traditional wave, a modern pixie cut, or leave it to the stylist's whim for a cut tailored to face shape and personality.