Bamboo Spa Salon
Adding A Personal Touch
 Working
in any type of service-oriented industry can be trying. The key to happy customers
is to offer services or products they want, not just items they need. That’s
probably why days spas, especially quaint little establishments like the Bamboo
Spa Salon in Charlestown, S.C., are one of the nation’s hottest and happiest
trends.
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Bamboo opened its doors in August 2002. Shannon had been working as an independent
contractor for another spa. Feeling limited in terms of the services she felt
the spa’s clients deserved, she decided to begin anew and do it her way.
“I started my own spa so that I could offer exclusive services in a warm, inviting
environment with a personal touch,” she says.
The Bamboo Spa Salon has a very tropical, West Indies feel to it. It’s very
streamlined and clean and has a soft, golden-beige color throughout with rosewood
floors, palm trees and natural wood furniture.
“Our theme is very conducive to a spa environment because of all the spa therapies
that originated from Eastern methodologies,” Shannon explains.
Themes are important in day spas because they can influence a client’s first
impression. But what really makes the Bamboo Spa Salon stand out is that it’s
smaller and much more personable than its competitors. In Charlestown’s crowded
marketplace, a majority of the day spas focus on expanding and opening up more
and more locations like a chain of Starbucks or Blockbuster video stores. There
are few strangers at Bamboo, Shannon says.
“We know all of our clients by name,” she adds. “We’re like a big family. Our
clients really appreciate that because it fosters an inclusive feeling. They
feel like they belong here. They don’t just feel like a number. We have a very
upscale ambience so our clients feel like they are walking into a nice place
and treating themselves not only to the services but to the whole atmosphere.”
Exclusive Treatments
 Staying
true to its multiservice roots, Bamboo offers clients a plethora of facial treatments
for men and women, several different soothing massages, nailcare services, waxing
treatments and lash and brow tinting. One particular offering, airbrush tanning,
has been one of the spa’s smartest investments, Shannon says.
“I had been doing self-tanning treatments for about five years, using the lotion
method, which generally took me at least two hours,” she says. “In the spa world,
time is money, so I had to charge a lot for each treatment. It also was very
laborious for therapists to spend two hours applying a cream by hand and trying
to blend it perfectly for an even, golden-brown tan.”
But the labor intensity vanished with the addition of airbrushing, and Shannon
also was able to reduce the price by two-thirds.
Like any new service, purchasing airbrush equipment might have been a risk,
but it paid off almost immediately and tripled the number of sunless tans sold
compared to the older cream application. The spa sells 12 to 15 airbrush treatments
a week during the warm season, charging $45 for full body and face and $85 with
an initial salt scrub. Two trained technicians operate the equipment. They take
their time and are extremely detailed to make sure the client looks beautifully
tan before he or she leaves.
“We use BreeZe Products’ Tinted DHA Spray Solution blend because it is the
most natural color available, even for the fairest skin,” Shannon says. “There
is no streaking or orange color, and it fades evenly just like a natural tan.
We think it’s the best thing since sliced bread.”
Bamboo also offers multiple day packages, including a special package for men
only. The His Day package features a men’s skin-saver facial, one-hour body
massage, sports pedicure and a men’s haircut.
“Spas are becoming more of a playground for men as well as women,” Shannon
says. “Our male market has been growing consistently over the last few years.
Men are getting facials, pedicures, massages and airbrush tans, and some even
are requesting hair-coloring treatments just like women.”
The spa’s most unique service undoubtedly is the Japanese Thermal Hair Straightening
treatment, which, until now, only had been found in big cities such as New York
and Los Angeles. This six-hour treatment is gentle on the hair and permanent
until it completely grows out.
“Normally, to achieve that straight, sleek, blown-out look, women will spend
at least an hour applying products and painstakingly blowing it out to smooth
out the curls and frizz,” Shannon says. “And then, unfortunately, within a few
hours, especially in a humid climate, the curls and frizz start coming back
and by the middle of the day the hair is back where it started before all that
grueling work.”
Japanese Thermal Hair Straightening, first introduced in the United States
two years ago, forces moisture into the hair shaft during the straightening
process, protecting it from damage and drying out. Clients are left with manageable,
soft, sleek hair for up to eight months.
“The first part of the process breaks the hair down,” Shannon says. “Next we
iron it with a flat ceramic iron for three hours and then put a neutralizer
on the straight, ironed hair. So it’s basically a smooth, straight perm because
the hair cuticles have been flattened out, and the frizz and the curl won’t
come back because they are all the way out. Girls who used to spend an hour
on the hair only spend 10 minutes on it after this treatment, and the curl doesn’t
return.”
As 2003 wraps, Shannon already is thinking about future developments, which
include adding another massage suite, expanding its makeup services and adding
a few more deluxe body treatments. A new location could be in the future as
well.
“You never know what the future holds,” Shannon says, “but no matter what the
address is, we’ll never lose our customer-oriented approach or our personal
touch.”
|
