Are you one of those people who go to the spa only for special occasions or when you have extra money? Do you think of day spas as purely for aesthetic grooming or an expensive way to indulge yourself occasionally?
While the experience can be beautiful and luxurious, it’s neither superficial nor indulgent to take time for yourself regularly. A trip to the spa is nothing short of therapy. It’s a way to release accumulated stress and stay on top of your physical and mental health.
More and more people are realizing the importance of a reset for your body and mind using spa treatments. Mental health experts agree that’s a critical part of your well-being. A national survey found that people who practice regular self-care had enhanced self-confidence (64%), increased productivity (67%), and happiness (71%). “It’s critical to schedule regular self-care time – plan time to do something that gives you joy and helps you recharge,” says the National Council for Mental Well-being.
Day spas offer various treatments, including hair care, massage, facials, manicures, pedicures, and more. Our expert stylists, massage therapists, estheticians, and nail technicians weigh the benefits of regularly and routinely taking time out for each service.
Hair Care
It’s no secret that a great cut or color can do wonders for your self-confidence. Seeing your stylist at planned intervals keeps your hair looking great and your scalp healthy. Plus, those routine visits build trust. That means you’ll get exactly the hair you want and the feel-good hormone-producing human-to-human bond that does a body and mind good—win-win.
Each hairstyle requires a specific schedule. For example, you might need a trim every six to eight weeks. But if you bleach and tone, you might need to see your hair stylist every three to four weeks instead. Here’s where that trusting relationship comes in again. Talk to your stylist to outline the routine that works best for you.
Massage
Now more than ever, we are sitting hunched over for prolonged periods, thanks to our ever-growing reliance on computers and cell phones. Our sloppy posture can cause tension throughout the body, which leads to pain and overworked muscles. Massage helps to retrain your muscles, improve posture and chronic pain, and allow your lungs to expand to promote better breathing.
Beyond retraining muscles and treating pain, massage releases endorphins, your body’s natural mood enhancers. Our bodies bounce back and forth between two states: 1) fight or flight and 2) rest and digest. With today’s life stress—traffic, deadlines, or balancing home and work—your body spends much time in fight or flight mode.
Massage puts the body in a state of rest and digestion, allowing it to start healing. Being in rest or digest can help strengthen the immune system by lowering cortisol levels by up to 53% and adrenaline in the body leading to reduced anxiety and depression. In today’s world, massage is no longer a luxury but a necessity your body requires regularly—we recommend it every four to eight weeks to combat the day-to-day damage we do to our bodies.
Facials
We recommend a facial every four to six weeks, depending on your skin concerns. Having clear, healthy, glowing skin can boost your confidence level, but as with hair care, scheduling regular facial treatments has many benefits beyond the aesthetic. Forming a relationship with a highly skilled esthetician—one that includes trust and genuine fondness for one another—goes beyond the gift of improving the health of your skin. You’ll get that hormone boost essential for overall mental and physical well-being.
In addition to the feel-good boost from that trusting relationship, you’ll be very pampered during your visits. Your face will look and feel amazing, and your body will too. The level of relaxation you’ll experience can lower blood pressure, reduce muscle tension and pain, and improve concentration and mood.
Manicures and Pedicures
Did you know you have about 7,000 nerve endings in your feet? And an astonishing 17,000 in your hands? Your feet give you stability and balance, grip and strength to walk and run, and they absorb shock so that the rest of your body is not jarred as you move. Your hands are the primary mechanism for interacting with the world.
The hands can reveal health conditions like heart disease, Raynaud’s, psoriasis, nickel allergy, and more. The feet can tell a trained eye everything from diabetes to nutritional deficiencies—including skin cancer, the signs of which often show up on the foot or calves first. And, as with everything else on this list, taking care of our hands and feet is crucial for our physical health and can positively impact our mental well-being.
We recommend manicures every two to three weeks and pedicures every four to eight weeks, depending on nail growth and other factors (such as being diabetic or immunocompromised). The older you get, the more you might need to see your nail tech, too, since our nails become more brittle, and our skin becomes drier and less elastic as we age.
Day spas like ours, which offer hair care, massages, facials, manicures, and pedicures, can be your sanctuary for self-care. Take time to visit one regularly. Your body and mind will thank you.
