Beauty & Spas in Milford

Past a barber-pole-bedecked exterior, the two-man staff of Old Time Barber Shop delivers straight-razor shaves and crafts modern haircuts using classic clipping techniques. Master barber Scott Braga creates personalized looks for each customer, ranging from straightforward trims and close-cropped cuts to elaborate ocelot topiary. In straight-razor shaves, Braga or stylist Stephen Guillian render skin hair-free and baby smooth with 20 minutes of careful hair removal supplemented with hot-towel treatments. The stylists bring experience and expertise to each cut, working through stray strands with ease in an old-timey environment complete with large leather chairs, full-length mirrors, and a barbershop quartet harmonizing hymns to comb disinfectant.

Ultimate Tanning

The tanning booth's bulbs emit a soothing glow sans UV rays. Instead, the light works beneath the skin as the body absorbs wavelengths of infrared light. Known as red-light therapy, the infrared waves help enhance appearance from the inside out by stimulating the production of collagen and elastin, thereby smoothing skin and wrinkles. This treatment complements Ultimate Tanning's service menu, which includes traditional UV tanning and custom airbrush tanning. The studio also houses a salon for hair and nails, where stylists use high-end products, such as Aquage shampoos, formaldehyde-free Simply Smooth keratin treatments, and shears welded from Prince's platinum record collection.

Yellow glass pendant lamps swing over the bent heads of experienced nail technicians as they polish paws with coats of OPI, Essie, and China Glaze polishes. Cushy salon chairs cocoon patrons in luxury like a cashmere unitard while toes soak in deep basins. Skilled in gel and Shellac techniques, acrylic nails, and fills, technicians have no trouble adorning keratin squares with long-lasting color and design. Artwork lines the salon's walls, and soft yellow lighting permeates the gentle, warm ambiance.

Blackstone Valley's founder and licensed massage therapist, Kimberley Bangma, purges physiques of deeply rooted pain with massage services and more than a decade of experience, during which she has expanded her wellness empire to a 7,000-square-foot fitness center. Kimberley's agile fingers triumph over bodies as stiff as a stern judge's mohawk during deep-tissue massages, untying knotted muscles and taking down soreness with direct pressure and mobilization, a rhythmic artistry that slowly stretches and kneads joints' connective tissues. During relaxing Swedish massages, a lighter touch eases the troubled minds of muscles, reducing stress and weariness caused by outrunning swarms of land sharks. Blackstone Valley is open seven days a week, and baby-sitting services are available to parents.

Though he isn't a surgeon or a power-lifter, David John Bruneau has spent more than 1,000 hours learning about the body's muscles. The licensed massage therapist dedicates his hands to alleviating general tension, recurring aches, and ailments at Serenity Massage & Bodywork. His modalities range from familiar Swedish and deep-tissue techniques to more specialized kneads, such as the slow strokes of lymphatic-drainage massage and the maneuvers of craniosacral therapy, which can calm angry sinuses better than a kleenex printed with lullabies.

By combining different disciplines into his treatments, David can address a variety of symptoms. As the maladies he treats are often chronic, he encourages long-term trust between him and his clients; according to the testimonials on his site, some clients have been visiting him for more than 10 years, and some drive nearly an hour to get there.