the royal treatment; Palm Beach meets its match with Frederic Fekkai's chic new Brazilian Court salon and spa.(Florida)

Byline: Maggie Bullock

Unlike other, distinctively chilly locales-say, New York, Chicago, or Boston-Palm Beach enjoys autumn at a balmy 80 degrees under cloudless blue skies. It's the beginning of a major social season, distinguished by the annual migration of sun-seeking New Yorkers like Fernanda Niven, Samantha and Serena Boardman, Celerie Kemble, and Amanda Cutter Brooks. There's tennis in the morning, lunch poolside, late-afternoon shopping on Worth Avenue, and evening dance cards packed with soirees at tile-roofed mansions erected by Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and Carnegies. In fact, the only indulgence this luxe getaway has been lacking-almost inconceivably, considering the year-round, hair-ruining humidity-is big-time beauty talent.

Enter hair wizard and international charmer Frederic Fekkai, a man as capable of filling a spot on a hostess's guest list as crafting her flawless coif, and-since the opening of his brand-new salon and spa this past summer-a PB local. "My clients have been after me to come down here forever," says Fekkai in his famous Provencal lilt. "Years ago, I thought Palm Beach was old. But now I'd say it's simply the chicest town in America."

Indeed, Palm Beach has recently undergone a major ...