A Guide to the Best of Southern California : BEAUTY : Doctor Good-Scent

THERE ARE SOME scents that make good sense. On busy La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood, Linda Kammins aromatherapy salon hardly appears to be the unique haven it is. Tucked away on the second floor of a modern pod mall, it looks like just another storefront, just another beauty salon. But it isn’t. “Aromatherapy is an ancient tradition, a ritual in which essential oils are used for healing,” Kammins says. “The early doctors were, in a sense, aromatherapists, and they were considered witches because healing was mysterious. I guess you could say I’m a modern-day witch.”

Kammins makes no medical claims, but she says that her essential-oils scalp treatments, aromatherapy facials and bath and skin products do make a difference. “Clients with flaky scalp and psoriasis have been helped. I even have a few men who claim that one of my treatments--an essential-oils blend of lavender and orange with the use of human placenta, from France--has encouraged hair growth.” Clients also stop by the salon for treatments to go.

Kammins grinds fresh herbs into personally prescribed facial masks. Her aromatherapy home-bath kit consists of four muslin packets of herbs, castor oil and essential-oil blends for beauty, calming and moisturizing. (These round tea-bag-like packets are dropped into a hot tub to seep for 15 minutes prior to the user’s entering the bath and simultaneously applying oils; a fragrant candle provides the relaxation effect.)

“People come in the shop, away from their busy lives, and within minutes they are soothed by the aroma,” Kammins promises. “They get their hair colored with a more natural coloring, get a hot-oil treatment, a haircut, maybe a permanent and a facial, and they leave stress-free.” Isn’t that the way a beauty break should be?

Linda Kammins Aromatherapy Salon, 848 La Cienega Blvd., Suite 204, Los Angeles; (213) 659-6257.