TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/072291/0722140.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 81 lines

                                                                                LIVING, Page 60

Two Mud Treatments -- to Go


Feeling stressed? In major centers, a quick trip to a day spa is
the trendy way for busy people to relax in a hurry.


    Fast cars, faster food -- everything is getting quicker,
including the rush to relax. Hard-driving Americans who will not
-- or cannot -- take time for the lengthy luxury of a resort spa
still want tiny bites of that bliss. Increasingly they are
getting them by popping around the corner to a day spa, where
a body scrub, mud bath or Shiatsu massage can be had in a jiffy.
From Manhattan to Los Angeles, the body-friendly pit stops are
becoming the trendiest way to deal with clangorous city
existence. "All the stress just falls away," says Susan
Luokkala, a Los Angeles financial manager who makes regular
visits to an urban oasis.

    City spas probably owe their popularity to the growing
number of women professionals who want to cram the benefits of
a massage or body scrub into their crowded business day. But the
facilities cater to both sexes, and for rushed executives or
work-out enthusiasts, they help unknot kinks and ease tensions.
Corporations are joining the trend by rewarding employees with
day-spa gift certificates; rather than woo clients over lunch
at a chic restaurant, many businesswomen now treat them to a
short stint at a day spa, where a la carte treatments replace
the lengthy regimens at full-time facilities.

    At Susan Ciminelli's retreat for the tired masses in
Manhattan, New Age music fills the air. Rock crystals are placed
throughout the establishment to give "a sense of calm
relaxation," she explains. Ciminelli, who calls city spas
"maintenance," offers a menu of seaweed facials and body
treatments, all priced at about $65. Patrons at Beverly Hot
Springs in Los Angeles bathe in marble-and-stone pools, then
stretch out to be rubbed with a velvety mixture of oil and
honey, and finish off with a facial pack of freshly grated
cucumber. Total cost: $70.

    Dorit Baxter opened a spa in midtown Manhattan after
listening to her skin-care clients say how they longed to visit
a spa for only two hours. Now they can get slathered in a thick
green paste made from Mediterranean seaweed, baked, cooled,
cleansed, and then zip back to the office in little more than
an hour. Her first male customers, Baxter reports, appeared
reluctantly, at the urging of a wife or a girlfriend. Now, they
book such treatments as a head-to-toe application of mud from
the Dead Sea or a deep-muscle vibration massage. Robert
MacDonald, partner in a venture-capital firm and a regular
client, frankly enjoys the pampering. "This is not the no-pain,
no-gain part of well-being," he says.

    Day spas are a lot easier on the pocketbook than the
residential variety, where prices can zoom to more than $3,500
for a week's stay. Day-spa regimens can start as low as $35 for
a 40-minute facial or head toward the $100-plus range for a
massage or cleansing treatment. At the Burke Williams urban spa
in West Los Angeles, attendants smooth on plant and flower oils,
each with its own purpose: some stimulate fatigued muscles;
others soothe them. While classical music plays softly, clients
are pummeled into tranquillity with a deep-tissue sports
massage, followed by the application of cooling citrus-scented
lotions. Owner Bill Armour's clientele has grown 350% in the
past year, to as many as 80 people a day, and next year he will
be moving to bigger quarters. In the austere '90s, it seems, a
little pampering can still go a long way -- so long as it
happens fast enough.

    By Emily Mitchell. Reported by Georgia Harbison/New York
and Diana Mathers/Los Angeles