Nao

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Naohiro Nomura, with 70-plus locations in his native Japan, opened his first American outpost in 2006. The ground floor delivers spalike amenities via strengthening, passive exercises, a hot, Mount Fuji lava bed, and a full-body massage in the womblike Softpak waterbed. Beyond the entryway’s pebble-patterned tile (which evokes a sixteenth-century Ryokan inn), a blond wooden staircase leads to the second-floor salon where stylists consult, over plates of sliced fruit, on hair color and tint. Upstairs and downstairs, bodywork comes into play: Scalp massages are part of Japanese shampoo techniques, and Nao’s signature facial incorporates hand and foot reflexology and upper-body stretching as well as complexion-balancing Kosé products. — Rose Reis

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