Starting in the 1990s, you couldn’t swing a plush white towel without hitting a client in a “day spa” that had once been known simply as a salon.
Spas picked up way more steam in the late 1990s and beyond, when treating herself to a facial, massage and manicure/pedicure (now simply known as a mani/pedi) was simply what a woman did.
People worked hard and soon seemed to consider pampering mandatory as a reward. Facials, once something you only got on vacation or on a cruise, became, for some, a monthly must.
Consider this: According to Ohio’s Board of Cosmetology, the number of licensed estheticians in Ohio (they are permitted to do facials, skin treatments and waxing) grew from 453 in 1998 to 3,204 in 2008, a jump of 607 percent.
But just as analysts expect 2009 to bring retail store closings, some local day-spa owners expect their industry to shake out as well, with smaller spas either closing or salons cutting back on the spa services they offer and going back to their bread-and-butter haircut and color services.
Reps from beauty-supply houses are telling their customers — salon owners — that their sales to salon/day spas are dipping, noticeably, especially for nonhair-related products.
Like many working women, Tara Templeman, an events planner who lives in South Euclid, is considering financial priorities.
“I consider the economy, and my spending, and there’s some shakiness,” she says. “I definitely still make the same number of haircut and brow-wax appointments, but I’ve cut back on facials, manis and pedis.”
Frank Alvarez, of the Markfrank salon chain, has been in the business for 50 years, so he knows something about economic ups and downs.
He remembers the days when the “spas” were Helen Milner on Cleveland’s Shaker Square and Dominic’s in Beachwood — places patronized by wealthier women — and considers the more recent past, when every corner seemed to have a day spa.
He predicts a shakeout this year.
“I’ll tell you, this is the first time I’ve really see the beauty business affected,” says Alvarez, who, along with his family, owns the two Markfrank salons in eastern suburbs.
Hair salons have long been dubbed recession-proof. People, especially women, likely will always want to have their hair cut and usually colored, too.
But in the past couple of decades, beauty salons began offering facials, waxing, massages, body wraps/exfoliation, pedicures and manicures. They had to add space to provide most of these services, which didn’t have as quick a turnaround as a small haircut station.
That meant less income per square foot.
Yet “it was a big trend, and people didn’t want to be the last ones to get on the boat,” says John DiJulius, owner of four John Roberts salons, two of which also have spas (Mayfield Heights and Solon).
An explosion of spa additions ensued, with supply fueling more demand.
Consider Charles Scott Salon and Spa, with salon-day spa locations in Rocky River and Westlake. In 1996, the Rocky River location had –in addition to a staff of hairstylists — three estheticians, one massotherapist, four nail technicians, one electrologist and a spa manager, says owner Chaz Henline. Today, it’s got six estheticians, five massotherapists, eight nail technicians, the same electrologist and the spa manager.
Henline opened a Westlake location as a full-service salon in 1993. “We had one esthetician, three nail techs, no massotherapists and no spa manager,” he says.
That location also evolved into a day spa in 2004 and now employs four estheticians, four massotherapists and five nail techs.
Henline took the new kind of business seriously, building dedicated areas to create the sanctuary-environment such services require.
One area in which spas likely won’t see a big drop is waxing. Until the 1990s, salons used to do a little brow and upper lip waxing, sure, but bikini waxes were an exotic oddity. Now, every spa will vouch for how that portion of their business has grown — which is why there are so many licensed estheticians in Ohio now.
Nicole Flesher, spa director at John Roberts, says: “Waxing has skyrocketed. The numbers continue to go up still, every year. People never used to get Brazilians, and now I might do six or eight a day – maybe 10 a day in summer.”
Kelli Hosso, spa manager for Charles Scott, concurs. “Body and face waxing is very steady. People are not willing to give that up,” she says.
Some spas are using creative means to try to head off dips in other services, including massages. Many businesses, such as Charles Scott and the Five Seasons day spa in Westlake, have created “massage clubs,” which give people discounts if they commit to several appointments.
Still, in dire times, people do cut back on things that aren’t necessities, and they reconsider what necessities are.
Plus, says Alvarez, “You have so many day spas now. The spa thing is overplayed, it’s saturated.”
Still, he and DiJulius say the spa/salon industry’s ace in the hole is the personal relationships people develop with their hairstylists — and estheticians, manicurists or massotherapists.
“So many things that used to provide human contact — going to the bank, or the video store — you can do online now,” says DiJulius. “We’re one of the last legal ways to pay someone to touch you — someone you trust.”
As Alvarez says, “You continue to give the best service you can, you’re nice to people.
“And you wait it out.”
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The spa industry has been stressed by the recession—which is great news for your aching wallet.
