The Aveda Institute is like the Vassar of beauty schools, and its rigorous fifty-week program turns out students ready to coif the most fashionable heads around. Until then, the grasshoppers charge a mere $12 for a haircut, which includes a shampoo, wash and style, and facials can be had for $30. The Institute opened last year in Media Play's old space in the Denver Dry Goods building -- giving a new-millennium facelift to what was once the crown jewel of downtown's redevelopment.

The salon services at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School's student salon are so cheap you might be tempted to get your hair done twice in one visit. Outside of a Third World country, where else can you find a $5 haircut, a $7 facial or a $4 manicure? Staffed by students enrolled in the school's cosmetology program and supervised by an instructor, the salon is open Monday through Friday, and walk-ins are welcome. The EGOS salon isn't fancy, but it's a blissful option for those who are both thrifty and stylish.

A cheap wooden sign outside Woonoh's Hair Salon sums up the bare-bones barbershop in three perfectly hand-drawn words: Nite Hair City. Stylist Woonoh will gladly take appointments at nearly any hour, especially late into the evening. With only one chair and one sink, there may be some waiting, but the place feels like a private oasis of blow-dryers and bleach fumes. If Kim Gordon were Korean and cut hair for a living, she would be Woonoh -- and that says something about the genuinely hip, ridiculously inexpensive 'dos trotting out of the shop nightly.

Looking for a little nip-tuck without the nasty side effects of the scalpel? Try Eden II Spa's Four-Layer Facelift. The gentle peel hydrates the skin, working over time to fight the effects of city living with all its smoke, pollution and booze. Aesthetician Ceara Quintanilla brushes a dose of vitamin C enzymes over your face, then does a mask with a sunny serum that feels like satin across bare skin. Another enzyme coating and a final glycolic mask, and you're done -- for just $75, and the uplifting results usually last two to three weeks. You glow, girl.

Do contemporary women really want to squeeze all of the air out of their lungs just to be skinnier and sexier? Yes -- and no: Corset-maker Jane Campbell gives them the hourglass look without all the pain of lacing up a corset. Campbell fashions her modern, steel-boned waist-cinchers from gorgeous brocades and fake-snake fabrics, so they feel as good as they look. A student of Victorian undergarb, she strives to make every woman an aficionado by offering occasional corset evenings that include a history lesson along with a fitting tutorial. You can breathe now.

SOL should be a rite of passage, a secret world that aunts open up for their nieces. It would prevent long-term scarring from harsh department-store lights and help end the unfortunate phenomenon of ill-fitting bras. Owners Jeanie Peterson and Cindy Johnson have been running SOL in Cherry Creek since 1997, and almost every woman who goes in comes out a convert. That's because these two -- and their staff -- can size up a customer at a glance and know exactly what she needs. Slipping straps, punishing underwires, ugly bra lines? They've got you covered. Plus, their line of "date bras," as they call them, are fun, flirty and show off your assets to best effect. Yes, SOL's bras are pricey, but when you exit the dressing room, it's like you've had a boob job -- without the risk of finding yourself in a nasty Pam Anderson situation.

Metrosexuals, you no longer need skulk into women-oriented salons to get groomed. Jung Park, an MBA candidate at the University of Denver, has come to your rescue with MetroBoom, a place where you can get a real salon haircut as well as upscale grooming products, titanium cuff links, button-down shirts and trendy designer jeans and tees. Park makes men out of boys -- stylish men, that is.

She's gazing intently at the nutrition label on a box of Melba Rounds. She's slender, with short hair, and wears her pants rolled up around her calves like she doesn't even care. If she were at a Safeway, she'd be the most beautiful girl in the store -- hell, in the zip code -- but at Whole Foods in Cherry Creek, she's just one of the many beautiful people. Wait! Look at that guy standing near the olive bar shaking an Odwalla. His forearms are so muscular -- a rock climber, perhaps? He grips a basket that contains organic grapes, Tom's of Maine toothpaste and goat cheese. Over there, by the juice bar, the gal with the long brown hair; the tall guy in the checkout must be a vegan. And Terra Chips are on sale! That is so hot.

The inhabitants of the Apple Store -- a Mac user's Zion -- are just as sexy as those shoppers at Whole Foods across the street, but here there's a good chance that they're hot and smart. Maybe it's just their proximity to the Apple "geniuses" -- those geeks-in-a-good-way trouble-shooting Powerbooks in the back of the store -- that makes them seem so. Whatever, it's working. Want a graphic designer in Diesel jeans and Puma zip-ups? Go hang with the serious hardware. Love high school students with sticker-covered iBooks and wise-beyond-their-years looks? Visit the iPods. Everyday Mac lovers? They're at the back of the store wearing the smug looks on their faces; they always knew Apple would rise again.

Owners and life partners Louise Knapp and Spider Kornblith have womanned Word Is Out for nearly twelve years, and at their place, you find obscure books on any famous or semi-famous woman, from H.D. to H. Clinton. The sunny shop also carries music, jewelry, T-shirts and posters by feminist artists, LBGT pride paraphernalia, and libby/pro-peace bumperstickers. There's even a personal shopper on staff to assist with those gift-giving dilemmas: Reggie, the very butch female toy poodle. Word to your mother.