Village of Pinecrest Aventura Mkt Council

One of the hot-and-happening style and beauty salons in South Miami these days is Gemella, where the basic philosophy is to please the customer at all costs.

Pictured (l-r), stylist Maibel Demetriou dries Lila Pedroso's hair and Luis Caravallo styles Rosemarie Cartagena's hair, while Gemella owner Gleana Gonzalez observes.

"It's a family environment here; everyone gets along very well," said Gleana Gonzalez, owner of Gemella. "We really like being with each other and I guess that carries over to the customers."

Gonzalez, 41, the divorced mother of twin 6-year-old daughters, Cassandra and Nicole, has operated her salon as Gemella -- which means twin in Italian -- for just eight months, after splitting with her partner of two-and-a-half years, who walked away with the shop's former business name.

"It was a partnership that didn't work," she said. "Partnerships are hard. We're still friends, though. We've been friends for many years."

Gemella, located at 5900 S. Dixie Highway on the corner of S. Dixie Highway (US 1) and Sunset Drive, has a staff of 30 people, including 16 professional hair dressers and stylists, assorted assistants, manicurists, pedicurists and facial experts.

"We do have a great team here, a very experienced staff," Gonzalez said. "Everybody who works here is family and friends. And they're very personal with their customers. If a customer is ill or in the hospital, we call to find out how they're doing."

Gemella stocks an extensive selection of hair care products, including Wella, Paul Mitchell, Texture, Aquage and Aveda.

"We also have the newest trendy things that are on the market," Gonzalez said. "We have a new line called Brocato. They do color, shampoo, conditioner and treatments. Our staff is very experienced in color."

Gonzalez said Gemella is one of a select number of salons in the United States chosen to handle a new special color line called Kodus.

"It's a German line being introduced into the United States in certain salons and we are proud to be one of them," she said. "We also have Detlev Gessner, a teacher from Germany representing the Kodus line, working with us. He's a color specialist and he does wonderful work.

"By the way, we also have Dorothy Strickland with us," Gonzalez said. "She's been working in South Miami salons for many years and she's very well known in this market. And, the rest of our team is just as successful. It's a young team, young and energetic."

Gemella is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call 305-662-7709.