Pressure points

It took ten straight days of shoveling snow and the resulting back spasms for Hyde Park resident Elizabeth Lockwood to finally decide enough was enough: She got online and found a spa she could visit for a massage while seeing relatives over the holidays. For Old Town resident Kate Bongiovanni, it took a brutally active autumn of competing in endurance events—an Ironman and two marathons—to admit her battered body needed a sports massage, recession or no recession. “I’m not going for relaxation but for working out the kinks in my shoulders, hips and legs from athletic overuse,” she says. “It was really all about my body breaking down and having to limp from one place to another that prompted me to go.”

What these women—and many other Chicagoans—have in common is that in these difficult economic times they need a compelling reason to spend money at a spa. “Instead of deciding to treat themselves, it’s more of a ‘I can’t move my neck because I can’t sleep because I’m so stressed out’–necessity,” says Stacy Levy, spa director at exhale in the Gold Coast.

At exhale, sales are about 20 percent below projections, and the hardest-hit services are the ones clients consider indulgences, such as body scrubs and facials. But maintenance treatments—like waxing, manicures and pedicures—are down, too. “Our regulars are waiting longer between appointments,” says Stephanie Gerard, publicity coordinator for Bliss Spa. “Somebody who used to come for a monthly facial now comes every two months. For nail care, if they used to come every two weeks, now they do it once a month.” Lynne McNees, president of the International Spa Association (ISPA), which certifies spas and tracks industry trends, says, “People are still going to spas—but instead of a 90-minute service, they get one that’s 60 or 30 minutes.” (The org will release industry sales numbers for late 2008 and early 2009 later this month.) “It’s similar to right after 9/11, when we all held our breath and wondered what would happen,” McNees says.

To extend the time between treatments, clients are channeling their inner aesthetician and attempting to perform their own treatments at home. “I’ve forgone my usual brow wax in favor of plucking myself, though I’m less happy about those results,” says Stacey Finkelstein, a University of Chicago graduate student. If there’s a bright side to former clients DIYing spa services, Gerard says, it’s that people often buy the products used in their favorite treatments at venues like Bliss for at-home use. So customers may be spending less on services, but they’re dropping more on products.

Some clients are forgoing other splurges—new shoes, eating out—so they can continue spa-ing, according to Kelly Mack, a facialist at Lakeview’s Absolute Precision Skin Care. “I’m surviving,” she says. “I still have some clients cancel because they need to make ends meet. But I have a wait list, so if someone does cancel, I can usually fill it.”

Others are holding off on booking spa treatments until they can get a discount. “I’ve been hoping that treatments go on sale,” says Alexia Koelling, who works in the Loop. “I really want a facial, but I don’t want to pay $100!” Koelling shouldn’t have much trouble finding a good deal right now, says ISPA’s McNees. To stay afloat and keep clients walking through their doors during this challenging fiscal time, spas are rolling out scores of discounts and promotions on a weekly, daily, even hourly basis. For example, at the Four Seasons, Swedish massages are $30 off Monday through Thursday; at exhale, facials and massages are 50 percent off at 8am, seven days a week; and at Bliss, the “Farewell to Bush” special offers 20 percent off Brazilian waxing through February 12. So if you’re smart about when and where you go, there’s no need to wait until a back spasm to book a massage.

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