For Alissa Mariello, beauty and wellness are about more than appearances. They are about confidence, freedom and helping people feel their best every day.
As founder and clinician of The Glow Up Laser Spa in Blakeney Town Center, Mariello specializes in laser hair removal and electrolysis for women and men. The path was shaped by personal experience, professional expertise and a wish to help others.
Ballantyne roots
Her family moved to Ballantyne Country Club in 1996, when the neighborhood was still young. Her father, Ronald Mariello, served as the club's president from 2006 to 2012, and her mother taught kindergarten at St. Matthew's for 11 years before retiring in 2016. Mariello graduated from Providence Day School, then went to Boston for a degree in English, a graduate certificate from Harvard University and an MBA from Boston University.
After a career in marketing and business, raising her daughter and returning to Charlotte in 2024, she decided on a new direction.
"I wanted to create the kind of laser spa I'd want to go to," she says. "Laser hair removal was absolutely life-changing for me, and I wanted to pass that forward."
One clinician, start to finish
Every client works directly with Mariello, a North Carolina board-certified laser hair practitioner and electrologist, from consultation through the end of treatment. The studio uses the FDA-approved Lumenis SplendorX laser; Mariello says she is currently the only practitioner in the Charlotte area offering it.
Where a traditional single-wavelength laser can be too aggressive or too gentle depending on skin tone, the SplendorX fires two wavelengths, Alexandrite and Nd:YAG, at the same time, which she says lets her customize treatment for all skin tones year-round. "Our clients don't have to pause their hair removal journeys just because they got a summer tan," she says.
The spa, inside Sola Salons, runs under physician-supervised safety protocols, including a brief virtual safety review with her supervising physician before treatment. Sessions are quick, five minutes for underarms and 15 for a Brazilian, and the laser has built-in cryo-cooling. Afterward, clients get chilled lavender-infused towelettes and a spring water mist. Booking is online, pricing is transparent, financing is available and there is a strict no-tipping policy.
"An investment in your outer self is an investment in your inner self, and vice versa," Mariello says. "I want every client who walks through my door to feel deeply cared for by me and by themselves."
A word on at-home devices
Mariello cautions against the wave of at-home IPL (intense pulsed light) and handheld laser devices. "At-home devices are gaining massive popularity online, but they simply lack the power of medical-grade technology," she says. Low-level energy often fails to destroy the hair root, she explains, and on the face or neck it can trigger paradoxical hypertrichosis, in which fine hair grows back thicker and darker.
Her advice: "Always ask about the exact technology being used and the credentials of the person operating it."
Away from the studio, she spends time with her 14-year-old daughter and reconnecting with the community she has called home for much of her life.
The Glow Up Laser Spa is at 9852 Rea Road, Suite F2, Unit 112, Charlotte, NC 28277; call or text 704-550-7466, email hello@theglowuplaserspa.com, or find it at @theglowuplaserspa.
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This story appears in the September 2026 issue of Stroll Quail Hollow.