Word: spa
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...enthusiasm for massage, a practice at least as old as grooming? (Earliest known spa: the Roman bath.) Many therapists attribute it to people's greater awareness of the effect stress has on health, and the wider acceptance of alternative or complementary medicine. Then there's the Pashmina effect, wherein goods and services originally marketed to the very rich become repackaged for the mass market. And some point to the isolation and lack of physical contact in contemporary society, where much communication is done electronically and any touch could be considered inappropriate. "People don't touch that much. They're watching...
...rise of spa culture also plays a role in the mainstreaming of massage. Hotels, such as the hip L'Ermitage in Beverly Hills, Calif., that formerly touted their state-of-the-art gyms are ripping them out and replacing them with spas. Radissons are adding spas, as are many health clubs. Choosing from the variety of rubdowns offered at these oases can take the kind of focus and endurance normally expended on choosing a career. There is traditional Swedish massage in which muscles are stroked and kneaded, Shiatsu and other acupressure-based Eastern techniques, reflexology (in which the hands...
...fanciest purveyors try to top one another with combinations of techniques, spiced with beauty treatments. Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa in Asheville, N.C., offers "Fire, Rock, Water and Light," in which the client's body is patted down with cool water, exfoliated with a blend of sugar and aromatic oil, painted with buttermilk and honey and then wrapped, whereafter cool rocks are stroked on the face. Once demummified, the client is given a "waterfall massage"--a spraying by multiple showerheads. In September the North Carolina Association of Realtors will send 1,000 participants to a conference at Grove Park...
...nice weekend retreat," says Joy Menzies, a British woman who has lived in Thailand for 10 years. "Quiet, peaceful, the place nobody outside Thailand really knew about." That's no longer true, and Menzies is part of the reason. She's general manager of the Chiva-Som, an opulent spa and health center that serves stars like Hugh Grant and Naomi Campbell. Clients pony up $500 or more per day for facials, aquatic therapy, papaya foot wraps and a full menu of East-meets-West massages...
...Already, Chiva-Som's splash on the international spa scene is sending ripples of change through the sleepy getaway. Hyatt Regency recently became the newest resort to stake a claim upon Hua Hin's regal beach. Up and down the sand, hotels are being re-branded as fashionable spas. But there are no beach parties, no raves. And don't expect any soon, since the King has taken up permanent residence in his town palace Klai Kangwon. The name means "far from worries." That has long been Hua Hin's mantra, more than ever now that royalty is back...