Dayle Ciampa loves to travel. It’s not unusual for this attractive, long-haired brunette to take off to Rome, Florence, Sedona, Boca Raton or Palm Springs — places where she deems spa treatments a necessary part of her itinerary. And why not? As spa owner of Dayle’s European Skincare and Day Spa in Marblehead for 25 years, a lot has changed for Ciampa. Thirty years ago, the only travel she experienced was taking the MBTA bus from Saugus to Marblehead to clean homes.

From her early 20s, Ciampa struggled as a single mother, taking care of her daughter Lisa. But out of those struggles was born her drive. Living in a small apartment in Saugus, Ciampa added to her welfare income by cleaning homes in Marblehead and, for an extra $20 a week, making soup and cleaning for an elderly woman who lived on the floor below. Her brother would help her out with groceries, and her grandfather assisted as well.
“I had to survive,” she states simply.
But she always had a desire for more.
She vividly recalls discovering her passion at the age of 8.

“When my mother was going out, I always wanted to do her makeup,” says Ciampa.

Unbeknownst to her mother, a hard-working woman who sold Fashion 220 cosmetics out of a hatbox, it would be her job — and a book that cost $5.75 that would lead her daughter to her chosen career.

While at a bookstore, a young Ciampa discovered a manual on making your own shampoo and beauty products. But back then, the price tag was more than her mother could afford.
“The woman on the cover looked just like me!” she recalls.

At the suggestion of her mother, Ciampa went to her grandfather for financial aid — and as always, he came through for his granddaughter.

Book in hand, Ciampa went to work concocting cleansers and exfoliation masks in a blender. Ingredients included strawberries, bananas, oatmeal and avocado. During dinner, the family of five, including her stepfather, would try out the homemade products.

“Sometimes the product would be so soupy, we’d be dripping,” laughs Ciampa. “I would imagine if anyone ever knocked on our door, they’d think we were like the Addams family, but I loved making my own products.”

As she grew into a young adult, fate led Ciampa down a difficult road, one that had nothing to do with the beauty business – at least not at first.

It would be through the support of her family that Ciampa would survive the struggles of being a single mom, especially after she decided to pursue her passion.

“I was tired of watching the lifestyles of the successful Marblehead homeowners,” she says of those for whom she cleaned — before deciding to pursue her interest in becoming an esthetician. She saw a better life for herself and knew from her mother’s example that hard work could pay off.

Once again, her family offered her support. She moved in with them, stopped cleaning homes in Marblehead and attended the Elizabeth Grady School to become an esthetician. Then, one day, something incredible happened. Before she even graduated, she was offered a job by owner Joe and teacher Genevieve Grady, parents of Elizabeth, to work at Elizabeth Grady, then located on Humphrey Street in Swampscott.
“Nobody in my class got hired to work before you graduate,” she explains. “I couldn’t believe it.”

She worked there for five years before the Gradys sold the franchise (eventually opening their current location in Vinnin Square in Swampscott).

It was then that Ciampa decided to start her own business in Marblehead.

“I’ll never forget when I told Joe and Elizabeth Grady,” she says. “They gave me a hug, but most importantly, they gave me confidence.”

She chose the seaside town with which she was already familiar, mainly because she didn’t want to open a spa in the new owner’s backyard.

The former nail salon “Margo’s” at 261 Washington St. would become home to Dayle’s European Skincare and Day Spa, which opened in 1984 with a staff of two. Ciampa’s daughter, 13 at the time, would run the front desk on Saturdays. Many of her former Elizabeth Grady clients followed her — and remain faithfully after 30 years.

She rented from David Payne, who owned the building that also housed Pellino’s Italian restaurant. She remained a tenant until 17 years ago when the building turned condo.

Things were changing for Ciampa. She was making enough income from the spa to buy the condo space. Her now husband of 14 years, Gary Goldstein, a public adjuster in Beverly, and father to 25-year-old Josh, helped her map out the road to getting a mortgage. And then she renovated.

“I gutted the whole place, never closing, except in February for one day,” she proudly says.

Ciampa’s drive is no secret, and she had finally paved her path to good fortune.

When her grandfather made his visit to Marblehead, the impact of his statement ran deep.

“You’re going to do really well here,” he said to his granddaughter.

In fact, even though she was told she couldn’t have another child, two years after she married — and shortly after her grandfather died — her son Richard was born.

“He died, and against all odds, I was with child,” says Ciampa. “I thank my grandfather every day for my little boy.”

Lisa continued to work for her mother, becoming a manicurist and esthetician before leaving four years ago to pursue her own career in medical skincare out of Palm Beach, Fla.

Medical spa care was fast becoming a trend worthy of expansion, and Ciampa was on board. She renovated again, and hired Groom Construction to remove the roof and add a circular staircase leading to a floor now utilized for medical spa services.
The proof is in the pudding

Just how well Ciampa has aged is a sign of her success, and most women who find out she is 53 years old want “whatever she’s having.”

For the record, Ciampa’s regimen includes SkinMedica Peels, the cutting edge of skincare, as well as microdermabrasion and HydraFacial treatments that resurface, hydrate and deep cleanse pores simultaneously. And a little TNS doesn’t hurt either.
TNS is a cellular serum treatment used to rejuvenate the skin.

“It’s the latest in skincare medical products,” says Ciampa, who oftentimes discovers treatments while traveling, during which she always checks out the spa services. “When I love something, I want to bring it in.”

Momentous discoveries result from many of her travels; her latest offering resultant of a trip to Boca Raton, where she experienced a medical-grade paraffin treatment that heats up with natural minerals. Included in the treatment is customized aromatherapy, and the apparatus doesn’t require electricity. Better yet, each treatment is individual and sanitary. And then there’s VelaShape, a cellulite treatment-and-reduction procedure with tissue manipulation that, after four treatments, will leave you with a slightly smaller waistline, and smoother skin where it counts.

In order to offer medical spa services, Ciampa had to hire medical director Dr. David Chrzanowski, a facial plastic surgeon who is an expert in minimally invasive facial rejuvenation procedures. He administers Botox, Juvaderm, Restylane and Radiesse to Ciampa’s clientele.

Despite there being so many spas in the community, Dayle’s competition is kept to a minimum because she’s the only spa in the area to offer certain med-spa treatments, such as HydraFacials, but she admits the crowded marketplace keeps her on her perfectly pedicured toes. And those toes can get tired after administering HydraFacial treatments from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., non-stop.
There is no doubt this spa has sustenance.

Today, Ciampa has a staff of 13 women in the nail area downstairs and the upstairs wet room, which offers Vichy showerhead body wraps, a SunFX spray-on tanning booth, ultrasonic facials and more.
Why so many treatments?

“I do it because it’s good for the client, and I want to make the client happy,” says Ciampa.

During her commute each day to Marblehead from her home in Middleton, Ciampa’s wheels are spinning with new ideas. Her latest, in between planning her daughter’s wedding and her son’s bar mitzvah — is to buy out Frank Pellino and add a children’s spa.

Dayle’s 5 secrets to staying youthful

1. Never forget where you come from. “It’s nice to know that when I come in to work that I’m still the same person I was 25 years ago,” says Ciampa. “It’s never gone to my head. And I always treat people the way I’d like to be treated.”
2. Be thankful for family.
3. Live your life with gusto — and lots of travel and pampering. Ciampa plans a visit to Greece and Italy this August with her son and husband.
4. Splurge when you can — actually, this is advice from Ciampa’s husband, Gary Goldstein, who convinced his wife to purchase a Mercedes. Although initially against the idea, she says she’s glad she did.
5. Use Calcium Bentonite Living Clay. Ciampa drinks it, eats it and bathes in it. If she’s the proof, then this mud is the pudding.

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Masachusetts Spa, Spas in USA Day spas in MA, MA Day Spas, Marblehead Day Spa

Joyce Hampers creates a beauty of a business

When Joyce Hampers finished stimulating small business growth as head of the U.S. Economic Development Administration, she did just what she had been helping others across the country to do – build a thriving business from scratch.

Over the past 14 years, Hampers, as founder and CEO of Joymark Inc., has revolutionized the day spa and salon concept that she began as Giuliano on Boston’s Newbury Street.

In fact, business and demand grew to the point that she opened the sophisticated Emerge Day Spa and Salon a block and a half down the street from Giuliano, which she revamped and rebranded as the trendy G2O.

Today, Hampers is drawing up plans to move and expand G2O into a new, even larger building that she’s purchased across the street from Emerge. And to think that when she began her business, she didn’t know her idea for one-stop beauty and wellness care was an emerging industry.

With an initial lease for 5,000 square feet, Hampers didn’t want what she calls “a hair warehouse.” She knew she sometimes skipped having her hair or nails or a facial done because she was too busy and so she thought others would appreciate catering to every need in one place.

It wasn’t until Hampers was working on the floor plans with an architect, however, that she learned she was joining a fledgling industry.

“The architect kept saying, ‘Well, most day spas have this,’ and finally I said to her, ‘What’s a day spa?’ And she said, ‘It’s what you’re building,’ ” Hampers relates, laughing.

Hampers had her first clue to the potential of Giuliano when the state licensing inspector said he’d never seen anything like it in the state. “That’s when I knew I was onto something,” she says.

What gave Hampers the courage to start a business she knew little about was her background in law, finance and government.

One of five women to graduate out of a class of 135 at Boston College Law School, Hampers never gave much thought to the challenge of having to be twice as good as her male counterparts – while birthing all three of her children. Later she learned her classmates were betting on whether she’d make graduation. Little did they know!

After graduating from BC and while working in corporate law, Hampers was the only woman in her taxation graduate program at Boston University. A few years after finishing the night program with an LLM degree, she opened her own practice.

In 1975, then-governor Michael Dukakis asked Hampers to become associate commissioner in the state’s Department of Revenue. Finding it impossible to tackle her charge – to restructure the DOR due to bureaucratic entitlement – Hampers resigned, only to be asked in 1979 by the next governor, Ed King, to be the DOR commissioner. It was then that Hampers streamlined what had been separate bureaus by restructuring along functional lines and sharing the processes that were once duplicated.

When King lost his reelection bid in 1982, Hampers joined a private law practice. In 1986, she ran for state treasurer, capturing 46 percent of the vote against the Democrat incumbent at a time when, she says, “Republicans in this state could fill a phone booth.”

Her success captured the attention of then vice president George H. W. Bush, who asked Hampers to co-chair his Massachusetts presidential campaign. She didn’t immediately accept his offer but met with him to learn his policies before committing to the position.

At his election, Bush in 1989 appointed Hampers assistant secretary of commerce for economic development in the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, a position that reported directly to the president. Again, Hampers went about making government more effective and efficient.

The policy of the previous administration – supporting local tax abatements for large corporations with federal funding – had created ghost towns when the corporations moved on. Hampers used the empty buildings to create incubators and offered small business, the real driver of the U.S. economy, low-interest loans to start and flourish.

At the end of Bush’s term, Hampers thought she could apply her background to business and then set to deciding what type of business. Hitting upon her one-stop idea, she teamed up with her hairdresser back in Boston to start Giuliano in 1994. The business started with hair, massage, facials, nails and water therapy, including steam, sauna and Swiss showers.

By 1997, Giuliano was breaking into the adjacent building for more space plus opening on Sundays to accommodate customer demand. Around this time, spas were evolving from pampering for the ladies-who-lunch to providing beneficial health results for all types of women – and men.

“We grew like topsy,” Hampers says. “We had to take what space was available and reconfigure as best we could to run smoothly and efficiently.”

In 2001, Giuliano also expanded into the lower level of the building and by 2005, Hampers was refocusing the day spa and salon as the contemporary and cutting-edge 11,000 square foot G2O, while planning the 2006 opening of the 10,000 square foot Emerge, her “dream” spa and salon catering to clients wanting the traditional European experience.

Hampers early on wore every administrative hat until she could add personnel as the business grew. Accustomed to the ways of business, she gave staff benefits – unheard of in the industry at the time. She also expected employees to work regular hours vs. come and go. Her biggest challenge was getting everyone, the nurturing spa staff and the creative salon staff, to peacefully coexist as one business. This she accomplished through group meetings that continue to this day.

“I had to get them to the mentality that they were working for an organization, that they were a team, that we are all working toward the same goal and that, as the company prospers, so do they. I had some sleepless nights over that,” Hampers says.

Free to be a true CEO these days, Hampers is constantly looking for the next trend and the best improvements to her day spas and salons. And she’s having fun thinking about what to add to the new 12,000 square foot G2O.

A brine inhalation room is one idea – after breathing in salt air “guests won’t want to return to the real world,” Hampers says. Steeping pools for hot and cold plunges are another new-wave treatment she’s considering.

Hampers is also contemplating the more medically related, another spa trend, by adding in services for breast cancer patients, partnering with fertility clinics, and offering cosmetic and laser treatments as well as the latest in injectables.

Hampers says she has never considered establishing a chain out of her day spas and salons, and herein is the key to her success.

“The chain lends to a cookie-cutter approach,” Hampers says. “A spa is so personal. I would rather do what I’m doing – creating different kinds of spas, each one innovative and unique, catching more markets and doing different things in each market – than duplicating things. I think this is much more exciting. There’s just so much to spa.”

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Boston Spas, Day Spa, Masachusetts Spa, Massachusetts Day Spa, Spa Openings

Spa Employees to Share Millions in Gratuity Settlement

The luxury Canyon Ranch Spa in Lenox, Mass., where patrons pay thousands of dollars for services including facials and tai chi classes, has agreed to pay $14.75 million to hundreds of waiters, massage therapists, yoga instructors and other employees who said the spa denied them tips they were owed.

The settlement, which was completed Monday in Federal District Court in Springfield and awaits a judge’s approval, is thought to be one of the largest wage cases in Massachusetts history.

The lawsuit, filed last year, claimed that employees were the intended recipients of an 18 percent service charge the spa levied on all bills at the all-inclusive resort. The spa told patrons that tipping was not necessary because Read more…

Destination Spa, Masachusetts Spa, Massachusetts Day Spa, Spa Legal Issues