Spa sampler

With so many Baby Boomers looking for the fountain of youth, it's natural that spas would become a big draw.

"The growth of spas is phenomenal within the past five years, but not as much in resort or destination spas as in day spas, because they're so much more accessible and affordable to the consumer," says Leda Kopach, executive editor of Modern Salon magazine.

At least 628 Illinois salons are called day spas--legitimately or not.

"People call themselves spas because it's a hot thing to be; just because a beauty salon adds one treatment room doesn't mean they're a full-service spa," says Judy Singer, who with partner Patti Monteson founded Health & Fitness Dynamics, Pompano Beach, Fla., developers of resort and day spas worldwide. "It is said there are 1,600 day spas (nationwide), but there's no uniform system of accounting."

There's no absolute number of day spas--or absolute way of defining prerequisites. But some spa owners have clear ideas about the sort of atmosphere necessary to earn the day spa title.

"Can a hair salon perform a relaxing aromatherapy facial with the smell of perm solution wafting through the room?" asks Cheryl Renella, owner of Channing's Day Spa on Oak Street. "Can a nail salon provide a soothing Swedish massage with six nail technicians outside the massage room, or an aerobics class within earshot?"

Renella thinks not, and concentrates on de-stressing her clients.

De-stressing has become crucial as career concerns dog us far beyond the office. As if to drive home the point, Maxine, originally a hair salon that expanded in 1997 to become a spa on Rush Street, includes the Studio, a third-floor conference center with a full kitchen and and terrace--owner Maxine Kroll's response to executive clients who wanted a place to network and conduct business outside the usual workplace. Then when they're ready and able, they simply slip out to the spa's lower level for a massage or body wrap, and the world recedes.

More men also appear to be embracing spas. Olga Nisenboim, owner of Olga's Skin Care Apothecary and Day Spa in Highland Park, says 20 percent of her clients are male.

It helps that some have downplayed or reinterpreted the "spa" name, perhaps to shake the stereotype of a pampered-princess clientele.

Says Helene Gelman, owner of the recently opened Haven on Armitage Avenue, "I don't call it a spa; it's a relaxation center."

Relaxation comes in an amazing variety of forms these days, whether it's a mask applied by Mila Bravi at Face and Facial, 104 E. Oak St. (312-951-5151), a lush facial at Anna Kay, 100 E. Walton St. (312-944-8500) or a pedicure while you sit on a sofa "throne" at Parlor, 210 W. Kinzie St. (312-755-9925). In no particular order, here are some other highlights of my sampling--and this is by no means a complete list--of the abundant relaxation services Chicago and the suburbs have to offer:

Janet Sartin Institute of Skin Care, 46 E. Pearson St. (312-397-1550). Her products are available other places, but this is the only Janet Sartin spa/salon beyond Manhattan; it arrived in 1999, and not a moment too soon. Sartin's products are a big draw, but the treatments here are also incredibly soothing and regenerating. I had a massage, appreciating the heated table on a cold day, and Linda Cruz went to battle with my tight muscles and won ($72 per hour). (Cruz once gave a massage to Brad Pitt, but that's another story.)

Neiman Marcus' Atelier, fourth floor, 737 N. Michigan Ave (312-943-6683). No massages are on tap at the Neiman Marcus Premier Salon Atelier, but the pampering extends from eyebrow shaping ($15) to the Atelier Experience package ($250), elevating hair, skin and nails to the heights. I had one of the best pedicures I've ever had, $35, complete with paraffin wax applied for softness ($15), the artistry performed by Mary Moore, who has been doing this for 20-plus years.

Kiva, 196 E. Pearson St., Chicago, 312-840-8120, is an urban take on the Anasazi Indians' sacred dwellings of the Southwest, and "wholeness, healing and peace" are taken seriously. Purchase essential oils, Kiva teas and gourmet edibles, then banish the trappings of urban chaos as you climb the staircase to one of eight treatment rooms. After your botanical blend facial, have an Ayurvedic Shiro Dhara massage ($85). Warm oil is dripped onto your "third eye" (forehead); both scalp and body are massaged. (The Swedish massage is $80 for 50 minutes). Emerge from your coma downstairs before exiting by imbibing a "Renewal" multivitamin/flaxseed shake ($5.25).

arilyn Miglin, 112 E. Oak St., Chicago, 312-943-1120, known as a perfume/cosmetics entrepreneur, revamped her headquarters last year and now offers treatments for face and body (she focused on products and makeup application before). Pleasures range from "The Ultimate Pedicure" ($65) to oxygen facials, $110, which use patented Oxygen 600 cream and two masks, the second an oxygenated foam applied over moisturizer. My superb facialist, Patricia Aguilar, customized exactly what my skin needed (which was everything). Retail products here are Miglin's own concoctions.

Salon Lorrene, 833 N. Quentin Rd., Palatine, 847-202-7078, is in a shopping center, but it's serene (no clocks, no hurry). A Sea Mud Mask (mineral mud, kelp and enzymes) nourishes the skin. Have a sports massage, $60 an hour, or an herbal wrap ($50); a pinch of rosemary, allspice, ginger root, and you haven't been this lulled since you were in diapers.

Maxine, 712 N. Rush St., Chicago, 312-751-1511, is quietly contemporary: four floors with immaculate nooks and crannies for privacy. Offering hair services for 13 years, Maxine Kroll was constantly asked by clients to recommend spa sources. So she broadened to offer hair services, manicures, pedicures, waxing, massage (one-hour Swedish massages are $75) and fashion (a custom line by Nonuro Inc.), plus exemplary beauty products, some Kroll's own.

Elizabeth Arden, 919 N. Michigan Ave., fourth floor, Chicago, 312-988-9191, is where I let a therapist apply heated lava stones to my back. (Would skin care's late grand dame have chortled?) The Native American treatment combines Swedish massage technique with the stones, deliciously warming muscles and joints, for $85. (Regular Swedish massages are $70.) By 2002, there will be 50 worldwide Red Door Salons and Spas, sources for the Advanced Skin Renewal Facial ($100), with ingredients derived from Canadian maple trees, ideal for maturing skins. Micro-Dermabrasion ($150 and up) is hot here; so are retail products like the B. Kamins skin care line.

Haven, 1024 W. Armitage Ave., and Salon 1800, 1011 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago, 773-929-6010, are the brainchildren of Helene Gelman. Salon 1800 provides skin, hair and body treatments, even weight programs. Haven, across the street, is for de-stressing, where one can get a Swedish massage ($65), and dip into a lovely warm pool--Bonnie Cortez cradled my head and pushed/pulled me through the paces of "Watsu," or water shiatsu ($40 for 25 minutes). It's California-born (naturally), and I surfaced feeling so relaxed I could barely remember how to drive home.