What have you done to prepare your clients for summer?
Summer. It’s that time of year when our client’s body’s are unwrapped from their winter layers and exposed to the harsh sunlight without a second thought. My question to you as therapists is how have you been preparing your client’s skin for the summer?
What treatments have you done for them over the winter to get their skin glowing and healthy and ready for the sun? I’m not talking about the skin from the neck up or doing facials I’m talking about the skin from the neck down and providing body scrubs and body wraps. We’re all too busy focusing on our clients skin from the neck upwards that we forget that the rest of the skin that covers our bodies is just as important, if not more so.
So, what are your clients using and doing for the rest of their skin?
It’s likely that some of your clients are using a supermarket branded body scrub occasionally and then slather themselves in an equally similar body cream both of which are probably full of parabens and other horrible nasties which the skin absorbs. Remember the skin has the largest surface area for absorption, so whilst you’re busy focusing on the face and décolleté, what about the rest of the skin? What are your clients putting on that to keep it healthy?
I was once told by a therapist in New Zealand that body scrubs and wraps are not as popular here as they are in Europe and that it wasn’t worth offering them in their salon. I was stunned by this as surely the skin on the body is just as important as the skin on the face? Why aren’t therapists promoting body scrubs and wraps in their salons? Body scrubs and wraps actually compliment facial skin care treatments as very often bad skin can stem from a poor digestion or a toxic gut, both of which can be helped by carrying out a body scrub and wrap.
Benefits
There are many benefits to offering body scrubs and wraps in your salon, for both you and the client.
1. You are likely to earn more money from doing a 1hr body treatment than you are from doing a 1hour facial. Not only that but you can still ‘add on’ extra treatments such as an eyelash/brow tint/shape or a mini facial or even a hydrating eye treatment therefore increasing your profit margin further and that’s even without the added retail.
2. There are the benefits to the client. Their skin is softer, it is hydrated, smoother and better prepared for waxing and other hair removal treatments that they will probably book over the summer months. By preparing the skin throughout the winter, there is less chance of in growing hairs occurring in the summer and dry skin which happens during the winter months.
3. Their skin is better prepared for the sun as it is properly hydrated and nourished therefore their tan will last longer, whether this is a natural tan or a spray tan.
4. Body products usually sell themselves as most of them smell divine. Nine times out of ten your client will purchase a scrub and the cream from you just because it smells yummy, and you haven’t even tried to ‘sell’ it. Have you ever purchased something just because it ‘smelt nice’?
5. Regular body scrubs and wraps help to reduce the appearance of cellulite by smoothing out the texture of the skin, improving circulation and lymphatic drainage. Surely your clients would love you forever if you offered this to them?
6. Talking of cellulite, what about those clients who are on a diet? Body scrubs and wraps will help improve their digestion, increase cellular activity and metabolism, and sometimes aid weight loss! But most of all they leave the client feeling clean from the inside out.
7. Body Scrubs and wraps are ideal for those active clients who regularly visit the gym or exercise as they are great for recovery. The essential oils in body masks can aid muscle recovery and this in turn helps to reduce injuries for active clients.
8. Regular body scrubs can help skin conditions, such as back acne and other facial skin conditions. They increase cell metabolism helping the cells to function more efficiently and effectively ridding them of toxins. A body scrub will help re-energise and boost healthy cells all over the body. This then helps to enhance the facial treatments that you’ve been doing for your clients.
9. Regular body scrubs increase circulation and lymphatic drainage therefore increasing overall health and wellness and gives the body and the client a boost after the winter months of hibernating in layers of clothing and heated buildings, all of which dry and dehydrate the skin.
10. For your stressed out clients offering a body scrub and wrap enables them to actually relax and take time out for themselves and this increases the clients overall health and wellness as well as their state of mind .
Barriers to offering scrubs and wraps
There are probably many reasons why salons don’t offer body scrubs and wraps the biggest one being that they have no shower for the client to be able to rinse off the product. That’s not too much of a problem as lots of professional products can be wiped off using hot towels instead.
"They are messy and offer no privacy to the client". In fact body scrubs and wraps are probably no messier than doing a facial if you know how to do them properly.
"Body scrubs and wraps are ‘cold’". Not really as you can make the treatment room look, smell and feel lovely and warm for your client. Lots of candles and essential oils burning , you can put an electric blanket on the couch as well as providing an extra heater (if you need to) to make the room cosy and inviting.
Another reason is that many therapists get complacent and generally stick to what they know and doing a facial is easier work than doing a body scrub. True however the outlay of a body scrub and wrap service is more cost effective than doing a facial.
Body scrubs and wraps are not really taught in the schools and colleges here. It’s a day that the tutor spends with the students to show them something different instead of the body galvanic or G5 machines. However with the Spa Industry continuing to I do feel that this needs to change and I hope that with the new qualifications coming out that this has been taken into consideration.
Promote and Introduce clients to this service
Whilst visiting salons and talking to therapists, one mentioned to me that she has a body scrub treatment on her menu but nobody ever books in for a treatment. Why not? Body treatments are easy to sell and easy to promote and easy to up-sell and with summer coming up here are a few ideas:
• Offer a half hour back scrub with every full facial purchased for a limited period of time. The cost of doing this is minimal and still costs the salon less than doing a facial.
• Offer a half price body scrub with every tanning treatment booked.
• Offer a free half leg scrub with every full leg wax booked or something similar.
• Instead of using your foot scrub during a pedicure, use the body scrub for a change.
• Offer a free eyelash/brow tint with every full body scrub and wrap booked.
• During a facial treatment, instead of doing a scalp massage during the mask, apply body scrub to the feet and lower legs before rinsing off and applying a beautiful body lotion, now that really is a top-toe treatment!
There are lot’s of ideas that you can do to promote, introduce and educate clients on the wonderful benefits that body scrubs and wraps can have.
Summer is almost upon us, although the recent weather would have you thinking otherwise. Will it ever warm up, I wonder, so I can shed my winter layers?