Facials, spa treatments & body wraps

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve never been one for massages and facials and things. In fact, I never had a professional facial until a few months ago. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it – I don’t usually like manicures or massages or things like that where you sit still while someone works on you. But I did enjoy the facial I had. It was relaxing and I did think it improved the look of my skin for a while. So I’m thinking of having another this week.

Now the ads for the day spa I go to mention something called an herbal body wrap. It’s supposed to actually permanently take off inches, which I don’t believe, but it’s also supposed to improve your skin texture and so on – like a full-body facial, I guess. Or, they also offer a salt ‘glow’ thing where they rub you down with sea salt and wrap you up with warm towels, and then rub you down with lotions afterwards – that sounds nice, too.

Have any of you Dopers had one of these body treatments? Are they worth the money ($75 or $80) and time (1 or 2 hours)?

2

Here is my take - what don’t you like about massages…cause wraps and rubs can be very “intimate” and “relaxing” (as opposed to a facial) - if you don’t like the intimate, you probably won’t like a wrap.

Wraps. The usually give you a 20 or 30 minute massage with some heavy duty smelly lotion. Then they wrap you in electric blankets and let you sweat. I like them in about Feburary in Minnesota, but don’t think they are worth much in July, when I sweat enough, thank you very much. If you like being hot, they are very relaxing no matter what time of year

Salt/Sugar scrubs - ever had an exfoliation on your face? This is that - but all over - part massage, part exfoliation. Useful if you have to take off a layer of dry skin. Less relaxing than a wrap - a little more intense and you don’t get left alone.

3

I’ve had something similar to the salt treatment you mention. It involved a full body exfoliation/massage after which I was saran wrapped for awhile, then wiped down with warm towels. Although I was very oily my skin was soft (really soft - I kept running my fingers up and down my arm) and glowing afterwards. It was extremely relaxing and I did feel as if a layer of skin had been removed - although this “layer” was quite possibly the saran wrap.

For me, facials are relaxing, they make a long-term difference to my skin, and they involve procedures that I couldn’t duplicate at home. The salt rub was relaxing and made a short-term difference to my skin. I might try it again if I feel like being pampered.

4

I had a lovely facial and massage last fall, and am considering one of those warm stone treatments. Anybody have experience with them?

I might do a pedicure too, since I could use it and have never had one.

5

Body wraps can feel great. The first time I had one, it was a little claustrophobic for me - the spa used layers of hot wet towels and sheets, covered with a heated blanket, and it got surprisingly heavy after a bit. But the second time I knew better what to expect and I enjoyed it.

Hot stone massage feels lovely. I really, really like it, both to give and to get. For what it’s worth, some massage therapists spend hundreds of dollars on custom ground river rocks and heating kits. I gathered rocks out of my friend’s stream and use a little crock-pot. :smiley:

Scrubs can be good, but if you have sensitive skin they can be too harsh. Never scrub more than twice a month, or you risk over-exfoliating and getting little microscopic cuts that can harbor staph or strep infections.

None of these have any long term health effects. If you make them a regular part of your life, they may help destress, and the attendant stress-related illness may be reduced, but no wrap makes you thinner in the long run. It may dehydrate you (and for all of these procedures, the therapist should be telling you to drink quite a bit of water the rest of the day), and take off some excess bloat, but you’ll replace that pretty quickly.

WhyNot,
Massage Therapist

6

I had a body wrap done several years ago. After having some type of mud rubbed over my body, I was wrapped in sheets and blankets. I was then left in the room with low lighting and soft music playing.

I remember thinking “Please God, don’t let the fire alarm go off now…”

7

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
Hot stone massage feels lovely. I really, really like it, both to give and to get. For what it’s worth, some massage therapists spend hundreds of dollars on custom ground river rocks and heating kits. I gathered rocks out of my friend’s stream and use a little crock-pot. :smiley:
[/QUOTE]

WhyNotcould you explain abit about the hot stone massage is done? I keep hearing that it’s great, but fear the actual massaging of sore muscles part would be missing. The couple standard massages I’ve had felt so good, I’d be pissed if all I got was a bunch of rocks flopped on my back.

8

[QUOTE=indecisive1]
WhyNotcould you explain abit about the hot stone massage is done? I keep hearing that it’s great, but fear the actual massaging of sore muscles part would be missing. The couple standard massages I’ve had felt so good, I’d be pissed if all I got was a bunch of rocks flopped on my back.
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Well, everyone is different, but most hot stone massage includes all or most of the regular Swedish Massage, so that’s not missing.

Basically, you lay the client down and drape, just like a Swedish. You’ve had your stones heating in a crock-pot (or hot stone massage warmer) in a pool of water for at least an hour, so they’re around 125 degrees - you should be able to handle them, but they should be quite warm to the touch. Always ask the client if they’re too hot, and keep asking them as you place the rest of the stones. Also check the stones periodically to make sure they’re not causing any burns. Then you apply oil to the body (so the hot stones don’t stick and burn) and lay a series of stones on the back and back of the legs. These feel warm and just slightly heavy, and begin to relax the muscles. Then you do your regular massage routine, moving the stones when you get to those parts. Finally, you use the stones themselves (or new warmer ones if the first ones have cooled down) to do some long, deep strokes (called “gliding”). Flip the client over and redrape, and do the same on the front. When you’re done, disinfect your stones (professionals use everything from rubbing alcohol to this stuff called Odoban, at home you can boil them in water for 15 minutes) and store them for next time.

Some people are now using cold stone massage for tissue damage or sports injuries, basically using chilled or frozen stones as cold packs during massage to constrict blood vessels. I’m not sure how I feel about the effectiveness of that, since massage itself opens blood vessels. I haven’t used it myself.

There’re multi-hundred dollar training courses in hot stone massage. You just got the whole dang thing for $14.95. The rest is practice. Go gather some rocks and try it with a loved one today!

9

I actually have a massage question for you WhyNot. I’ve had a number of pedicures recently and they all come with mini-massages, even including the hot stones, which I haven’t tried. Inevitably, the masseuse finds a delicate spot and contiues rubbing and whatever until it’s really painful. Is this normal, or am I just really sensitive?

10

[QUOTE=Morelin]
I actually have a massage question for you WhyNot. I’ve had a number of pedicures recently and they all come with mini-massages, even including the hot stones, which I haven’t tried. Inevitably, the masseuse finds a delicate spot and contiues rubbing and whatever until it’s really painful. Is this normal, or am I just really sensitive?
[/QUOTE]

No, tell her to cut it out.

Well, maybe. If she’s found a knot of muscle, she might be trying to get it to relax. She may be trained in “reflexology” which states that the sore bits are the bits that need the most attention. I’ve personally found that when I find a sore bit I should slow down. Like reeeeaaaalllllly slllllloooooowwwww dooooooowwwwwnnnnn, and even stop, keeping firm pressure but not moving at all. That lets the spasm relax and melt away. Rubbing at it vigorously keeps it in spasm.

Hijack: Have you ever played with oobleck, a mixture of corn starch and water? It’s got these weird properties: if you hit it with force, it’s hard and crumbly, but if you hold it still or just gently touch it, it oozes between your fingers like a liquid. Muscle tissue is much the same way - go in too hard or too fast, and everything tightens up. Move really slowly, and it just sort of melts and lets you in. This is probably showing the taint of my deep tissue and myofascial release training bleeding into my Swedish work, but I use what works.

One of the hardest parts of being a massage therapist is getting your client to communicate with you. Too often, people think it’s supposed to hurt or “no pain no gain” or that it’s a “good pain”. Generally speaking, I should not be causing more pain then you felt lying down, at least not for more than a few seconds. But, good as I am, I can’t always tell when I’ve hurt you. I try - I listen to the rate of your breathing, I look for twitches and jerks, I feel for spasms and knots, I listen to the sound of your voice, but some of you are just too good at hiding when you’re in pain.

Tell me when it hurts. Then I can adjust what I’m doing, or at least tell you why it hurts and ask if you want me to keep hurting for just a few seconds because it will get better, or stop what we’re doing. You’re the boss, but I need memos.

If you’re telling her and she’s still hurting you without explanation, then it’s time to find another therapist. Either she doesn’t care or she’s got mits of stone and isn’t good at what she does.

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[QUOTE=vivalostwages]
I might do a pedicure too, since I could use it and have never had one.
[/QUOTE]

Having what are The World’s Ugliest Feet, I shunned pedicures for much of my life. The only times I’ve allowed people to view and touch TWUF were during the late stages of pregnancy when I couldn’t reach my toes. It gets really hard to reach them around that belly and I didn’t want to go into the hospital with hooves. In fact, my last pedicure was two days prior to giving birth and I tend to light the bright oranges (Jasmine) for my toes. More than one nurse commented on how I must’ve gotten the pedi for them.

They’re nice, IMO. And I HATE people even gazing upon TWUF. I had ingrown toenail surgery as a teen and it resulted in having part of the nail bed still alive under the skin, the doctor goofed, I think. So I have toenails that protrude through the skin at really odd angles, like sideways, on my big toes. Add to that my habit of picking to blood every appendage that gets rough skin and they are indeed, TWUF.

IOW, sure, go for a pedicure! :slight_smile:

12

I’m the same way. I love facials but massages creep me out to the extreme.

13

I’ve found facials feel more or less useless (though I intellectually know they’re good for me, I don’t notice any difference that lasts more than the afternoon after the facial. Heavy moisturizing on my own could do that).

I had a body wrap once, and while it was theoretically good, I started to itch and couldn’t move to get at it, well instead of being relaxing was not. Plus, they had me lie on my back, which is not a comfortable position for me.

The salt rubs are pretty nice.

My favorite thing at a spa is this body rub, where they make you sit in a pool for a half an hour and then using just friction they exfoliate the hell out of you. No frills, no plinky music, no soft lighting, they just rub all the dead skin off.
All of it.
More than you thought you thought you could possibly have…
It feels so clean afterwards. I need to do that again soon.

14

[QUOTE=Smitten Swine]
For me, facials are relaxing, they make a long-term difference to my skin, and they involve procedures that I couldn’t duplicate at home.
[/QUOTE]

This is what I’m trying to understand. The last time I went for a facial, almost everything I got–cleansing, massage, exfoliating, masque, moisturizing–I already do on my own at home. The only thing I got at the spa I haven’t done at home is steaming, and we have a facial steam thingy around here somewhere, I just haven’t dug it out.

I guess the one thing I can get there that I wouldn’t have at home is total serenity to relax and not feel I needed to jump up and do anything. Undoubtedly the serene relaxation is good for my facial muscles. Now that is a luxury–but worth $80 per hour? I don’t know…

15

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
There’re multi-hundred dollar training courses in hot stone massage. You just got the whole dang thing for $14.95. The rest is practice. Go gather some rocks and try it with a loved one today!
[/QUOTE]

Thank you WhyNot I’ll have to give it a try. My $14.95 has been well spent. I’ve learned so many new things and laughed my ass off many times on this message board. Also, recently the wonderful SDMB people saved me from buying a new refrigerator when all I needed was a simple repair.
::snif:: I love you guys!

16

I always wince when I hear that a bride and her bridal party are all going to have facials the day before the wedding. The likelihood of the facialist coaxing out a nice whopper of a zit for the big day is really pretty high (YMMV, of course). I like the way facials feel sometimes, but I feel they’re pretty useless, too. And too likely to cause outbreaks on my sensitive skin. I’d rather put the cash towards a Botox treatment or some microdermabrasion that actually makes a real difference (for the better) in how I look.
Pedicures are very nice, so long as they spend lots of time buffing away at my heels and stuff. I can do a nice polish change by myself, thanks. I want someone else to do the heavy lifting!
If you have sensitive skin, salt scrubs can hurt, like burn. And even if you don’t, a salt scrub will burn if you’ve shaved your legs before you have one. The ones I’ve had have been kind of slapdash, too. I’d do better with a loofah and some bodyscrub in the shower.
I’ve had wraps, too, just for fun…meh. I’d rather have a massage.
I like spas with lots of novel water features to play with. I recently went to a great one in Maui (Grand Wailea) that had all sorts of jacuzzis and baths and bubbly things and showers that dumped gallons of water on your head - it was so much fun!

17

I’ve had a wrap with " herbs". I hated it. Like KatieCats I was incredibly bored the whole time I lay wrapped in that room alone, and a bit afraid I wouldn’t be able to move in case of fire.

And the wet hay pricked and itched like hell. And I couldn’t move. My skin looked worse afterwards, not better, but what would you expect from wet hay?

18

[QUOTE=Johanna]
This is what I’m trying to understand. The last time I went for a facial, almost everything I got–cleansing, massage, exfoliating, masque, moisturizing–I already do on my own at home. The only thing I got at the spa I haven’t done at home is steaming, and we have a facial steam thingy around here somewhere, I just haven’t dug it out.
[/QUOTE]
I have a combination of sensitive, dry, blemish-prone and easily-scarring skin. I get the Guinot super-duper deluxe facial (I presume they have another name for it - Hydrosomething and Beaute something). If I get the combo it takes about an hour and a half.

To begin with Amanda (my beauty therapist) does a basic clean. Then she extracts any blemishes that are at or near a head (basically a controlled popping, compared to an uncontrolled popping which will scar me). It’s actually kind of frightening how many almost-blemishes I accrue in a month. A gauzey material is soaked in a BHA solution, placed on my face and gently massaged in. After a couple of minutes some sort of effervescent mixture is poured over the material and my face and again massaged in. Everything gets sponged off. From here on I’m not sure about the order of things, but it includes high frequency (a buzzy thing being passed across my face for a couple of minutes), different gels for different areas of my face, and probably some other things that I’m forgetting. (Plus if I’m feeling a bit achey Amanda will give me a massage - I went in once when I had a neck ache and could barely turn my head, and she worked on my trapezius for ages. When I went home I could feel the difference and the next day I was as good as new.)

The facials have definitely made a difference in general skin tone (for a day or so my skin will feel “plumper”, and it feels more hydrated afterwards), the frequency of breakouts, and improved old scarring.

19

[QUOTE=WhyNot]
No, tell her to cut it out.

Well, maybe. If she’s found a knot of muscle, she might be trying to get it to relax. She may be trained in “reflexology” which states that the sore bits are the bits that need the most attention. I’ve personally found that when I find a sore bit I should slow down. Like reeeeaaaalllllly slllllloooooowwwww dooooooowwwwwnnnnn, and even stop, keeping firm pressure but not moving at all. That lets the spasm relax and melt away. Rubbing at it vigorously keeps it in spasm.
[/QUOTE]

All right. Thank you. I usually do just let them go on, not because I think it’s supposed to hurt, but because I’ve never had a hurt-free masage. Even those special chairs hurt, and everyone tells me I’m crazy and too sensitive, so I just wait for the ‘good’ feeling I’m supposed to get. That and their first language is not English.

20

[QUOTE=Morelin]
All right. Thank you. I usually do just let them go on, not because I think it’s supposed to hurt, but because I’ve never had a hurt-free masage. Even those special chairs hurt, and everyone tells me I’m crazy and too sensitive, so I just wait for the ‘good’ feeling I’m supposed to get. That and their first language is not English.
[/QUOTE]

I get fairly regular massages. For me there is a sweet spot for knots in muscles where there is a bit of pain involved, but when the therapist lets go, the muscle relaxes. However, too much pain just makes the muscle tense even more and doesn’t relax. Wimpy massages feel great, but I’m just as knotted up later as I was going in.

Tell the therapist you want a light touch massage and see what it does for you. Almost every therapist I’ve had has asked the question. And they want feedback. Yeah, its nice to relax and be quiet during your massage, but if it isn’t relaxing, quiet isn’t helping. Just say “that’s a little too much” - “back off there” - or “I feel a knot just to the right of where you are working now.”

Another trick is to have someone hit you with Biofreeze or Icy Hot or Tiger Balm or a heating pad or something about an hour before you go in. That will give the heat a chance to start on the muscles before the therapist gets there.