Anti-Aging Treatments – If you feel you look good, you feel good
A couple of years ago, the buzz word at spas was “detox”. You could check-in, spend a couple of hours and check-out lighter by so many toxins. Today the word-de-jour is “anti-aging”. Now, you might be thinking if that means checking in looking 50 and checking out looking 45, you’ll take half-a-dozen treatments. Me too! But the term anti-aging means different things to different people.
By Anne Dimon
For some it means maintaining a lifestyle that keeps body, mind and soul fit and healthy regardless of age. For others, anti-aging means reversing the visible signs of aging. There are spas that cater to both definitions. At one end, Willow Stream, the Spas at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts combines sophisticated products with a nurturing touch and lifestyle education helping clients achieve a healthy mix of ageless attitude, energy and confidence.
At the other end of the scale, there are spas that offer facial peels, Botox and laser treatments. In the middle are spas that bridge the gap – offering alternative medical treatments (such as acupuncture) in a holistic environment. These days, you’d be hard pressed to find any spa worth its sea salt scrub without at least one anti-aging treatment on its menu of services. Some even offer non-surgical face lifts or acupuncture facials.
“Our life span has been extended and we want to look as young as we feel”, says John Goldhar, cosmetic dermatologist and owner of Cosmedix MD in downtown Toronto. “Thanks to boomer demographics we have demanded and forced the development of technology that can keep us working and playing longer,” he says, “and that includes how we look on the exterior.” But he’s quick to add that even though people want to look good, they don’t want it at any cost. “People don’t want downtime,” he says. “They want to avoid surgery.”
Donna Holtom, owner of Holtz Spa with locations in downtown Ottawa and at the Hilton Suites Conference Centre & Spa in Markham, Ontario, agrees that people are looking for alternatives to cosmetic surgery, and timing, she says, couldn’t be better. “Products, equipment and services that give clients the alternative to surgery are coming into the market place,” she says, “and they are becoming more accessible to the spa industry.”
Here, at the intimate Rosewater Spa in Oakville, esthetician Melissa Chong is telling me that the defining feature of this 75-minute Thermal Corrective Facial, ($120) is its double-layer mask – a honey mask as the based topped with a self-heating clay mineral mask from the German line of products, Biodroga.
As typical of most facials this one start with cleansing, followed by an exfoliation with alpha-hydroxy (a natural fruit and vegetable enzyme that exfoliates natural) based product, extractions if needed, then a firming serum, a facial massage then the double mask. It’s not a good choice if you’re claustrophobic.
“Honey is very hydrating for mature skin,” says Chong, “and the clay mask acts like an air tight barrier between skin and the environment making the active ingredients of the honey mask more effective.” The heat generated by the clay also helps increase circulation and purify the skin, she says. During the 20-minute mask, Chong turns her attention to other parts of the body – the feet receive a scrub with salt from the Deal Sea, the hands and arms are treated to a massage. After the clay mask has hardened and is removed, there’s a toner and a final moisturizer for mature skin and an eye cream. “The whole process is geared to reducing fine lines and wrinkles”
Of course, feeling rejuvenated after a spa treatment – any spa treatment – is nothing revolutionary. “Every spa has exfoliation, rehydration and moisturizing treatments,” says Gordon Tareta, director of spa operations at Hyatt International, “so we’ve had ‘anti-aging’ for a while.” He adds, “spas also play an integral role in stress reduction which, in itself, is anti-aging.” But what has changed, he points out, is the science and technology behind the anti-aging product, and the marketing of it in keeping with growing demand.
Consequently we’re seeing the evolution of medical spas – those with a full-time, in-house doctor - offering more potent and medically sophisticated anti-aging treatments than those available at the typical resort spa. At Hyatt, Tareta says there is only one true medical spa in the chain’s worldwide family of 44 spas – the holistic-influenced Medical and Skin Spa at the Hyatt Regency Grand Champion in Indian Wells, California. In Canada two facilities with on-site medical doctors include the Institut de Santé Spa in Calgary, and in Toronto, SpaMedica specializing in a wide range of anti-aging producers both surgical and non. Two other Insitut de Santé spas are expected to launch in spring of 2006. One at the new-opened Spirit Ridge Vineyard Resort & Spa in B.C.’s Osoyoos region and the second at Victoria’s Bear Mountain Resort, opening next March.
In the words of Mae West “You are never too old to become younger.”
Anne Dimon is a Toronto travel writer, spa columnist and founder/editor of www.traveltowellness.com
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