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“IS THIS THE RELAXATION ROOM?”
I was rudely jolted from my post facial induced snooze.
“Sorry… what?” I said, completely disoriented.
“IS IT THE RELAXATION ROOM? WHY ARE YIS ALL IN THOSE DRESSING GOWN THINGS? WHERE WILL I PUT MY UMBRELLA?”
My friend struggled to her senses, on her lounger, confused, rubbing sleep from her eyes. Well she had just had a 90 minute massage.
“What’s wrong?” she asked the woman who stood wildly in the centre of the room shouting at us.
“I’m here for a back massage – but whats going on? They told me to come to the relaxation room – is this it? Do I have to get out of my clothes?”. (Still shouting but I’m not doing any more caps for a while, you get the drift.)
Yes, we explained and asked if she’d a key to her locker where she could get a robe and then er relax while she waited for her therapist.
“Fecks sake, I’m not getting into one of those yokes! DO I HAVE TO STRIP? WELL DO I??”
Er, not if you don’t want, we said. “BUT CAN I KEEP MY BRA AND PANTS ON?” she shouted getting more and more irritated and irate. The more we tried to explain the more she ignored us and kept asking us the same things over and over.
Now irrevocably awake I hurried to hide in a changing room until she was led away. As I got dressed and zipped up my boots I could hear “BUT DO I HAVE TO TAKE OFF MY BRA?” and “WHAT ABOUT MY UMBRELLA?” fading down the corridors.
It can be really confusing when someone is new to the whole spa or salon thing like this crazed lady. It’s like there are loads of unwritten rules. For example:
1. Thou shall not speak in tones louder than a hushed whisper
2. Thou is not to worry about the taking off/leaving on of ones bra. You can do whichever you like. No one will wrest said bra off you.
3. Thou shall realise that thou is in a sacred space of relaxation
4. Thou must fully submit to the relaxation
5. Thou must realise that others have fully submitted to the relaxation and thusly must not shout at them while they are asleep.
6. It is unlikely that anyone will run off with your umbrella.
Have you got any others? Or any boo boos you’ve made while in the salon?
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Hilarious, my friend took her bfriend to a hot springs place in estonia and she didnt realise that it was a completely nude place til they went out by the pool/relaxation place with swimsuits on, an attendant ran after then to say they needed to be in the nip, she said they were slinking out by the side of the pool with their hands over their bits mortified, so Irish
I went to a bathhouse in Russian bathhouse NY. I went for a massage after and as the usual etiquette is bra on knickers off when told to take everything off left on the knickers. The extremely fierce female Russian masseuse said .. Get them off I told you to take everything off .. and then took me apart (literally)…
Oh this so reminds me of when my sis and I went to Powerscourt Springs years ago…we went in to the relaxation room and lay down all nice and cosy and a woman in there started snoring…we just couldn’t stop laughing…and you know when you are trying not to laugh and do it quietly and it just gets worse and worse…we fell out of there in the end…we were like kids – that was therapy in itself!
My sister was getting a massage in Vegas and whipped everything off. When the therapist came back in she freaked out saying ‘Oh my God, you can not remove your panties – that is not acceptable, we do not allow that – put them back on straight away!’ Needless to say the massage wasn’t very relaxing with the post panty removal morto she was feeling
kids …. i often get beaten with the stick cos i dont have kids and what would i no, im only 22 still a child myself they say, but to be fair to other ladies who have paid there money i thing kids is a bbbiiggg NO NO, even in nail bars or your regular salon, im sorry but i think its rude and selfish
My God Aphrodite, I can’t believe that happened to you! Talk about ignorance! I went to the Auriga Spa in Castlemartyr Resort, Cork a few times. It is one of the nicer spas of recent times and there definitely wasnt a problem with spa etiquette! I think the recent crop of spas popping up all over the country might have something to do with it, making them more accessible to everyone etc. It seems to be very ‘in’ to do a spa day at the moment with nearly every hotel offering special deals.
Ashyho – I do have a child but know exactly where you are coming from! I hate when you are in hairdressers or somewhere you are trying to relax and someones child is annoying you…and what makes it worse is that the parent never seems to be bothered…they have a great old time relaxing and chatting whilst you are being bugged by their kid!
Ooooh, even more annoying is the kid coming under the curtain/door & staring at you in the changing rooms, and not leaving when you ask them to.
Hate it when people in the spa talk really loudly about really personal stuff. I don’t want to know their gynaecological issues!
Laura – haha! This happened to me a while ago, I WAS ON THE LOO in Liffey Valley’s foodcourt toilets and all of a sudden there was a 3-4 year old boy on the floor looking in at me. AAIIEEE
Oh and my no. 1 Spa Hate – when the therapist keeps talking to you…all throughout your facial…non-stop…and even worse than smalltalk is when they are constantly trying to sell you all the products throughout your entire facial or massage.
I have to say, and you may call me a prude, but I’m not a fan of being in the sauna with completly naked people letting it all hang out.
Pink – I’d be the exact same. I don’t like the relaxtion rooms and can manage about 3 mins in a sauna before I’m twitching,
Oh christ I can’t think of anything worse than being in the nip with a load of strangers.
Pink / Kirstie – it wouldn’t bother me so much if it was all women…but if it was mixed then I’d be too worried that some slimey greasy guy with spittle on his chin would be there just to perv.
Jesus I hate someone putting their had in my crisp bag in case they haven’t washed it after the loo…let alone sharing a sauna bench with someone in the nip. Eeuuggggh.
In my gym there are 2 large changing rooms, one has a sign saying it is a designated “family” area. Fine, so I use the other one as I have a major aversion to children and babies. Which is why I get very annoyed when the mothers bring there sprogs into my changing room. Is there no sacred space left away from breeders?!
I think the therapists/reception should ask you upon arrival if you have been in their establishment before and if not to quickly run through the basics with you – that lady should have been instructed where her locker and robe were, advised about the underwear and been told that ‘indoor voices’ are used in the relaxation room.
I was once going for a spray tan and brought into a treatment room and the therapise told me she would be right back, i took this as my cue to get ready – i stripped off and stood ready and waiting – she returned moments later…opened the door and practically screamed before telling me that she was just waiting for the tanning booth room down the corridor to become free…back with the clothes on, totter down corridor and off again
A wee bit of cummunication goes a long way…
Hannah, you jsu reminded me of about two years ago my bfriend got a couples spa package yoke for us in the aveda place in aghadoe, it was all lovely and relaxing til we went to teh final resting room or whatever they called it, they have kinda of heated beds and headphones with ‘sleepy’ music and eye masks, myself and the bfriend lay down but at this stage he was geting restless from all the pampering so when this woman accross form us started warbling away (obviously not realsng that more people had come into the room)we were nearly hysterical
Im talking top of her voice kinda hippy chanting, in a kinda breathy manner, comical.
i think some poeple get carried away at these places, we had to get up and leave though
This is a really interesting discussion because – the crazy lady was there with an O2 treat card… obviously spas weren’t for her but because it was free she went along
dancing queen thats a good idea indoor voice… good thinking batman
Why is it that when you go for a bikini wax you either wear your own knickers or the paper ones (which are essentially nothing and are more in the way than anything else!) And when you go to get spray tan done you whip off the bra without a thought, but still therapists freak out when a client is in an unexpected state of undress? “I can’t see you naked in this room it’s against the rules! – next door is the NAKED ROOM!” what?
Not a common one for most people, I’m sure but my pet hate is when the therapist in the spa stares and then talks to me about tattoo and piercings. All of them are below the neck so generally people can’t see them but when I go to either of these places, they automatically become the main topic of conversation with the therapist.
I do think that the removal of the pants in a slightly differnet league to the removal of the bra…
I’m used to baring all for a bikini wax (got over the shame long ago, sure they pull the paper modesty knickers to the side anyway), but a while ago I went somewhere I wouldn’t normally go and the therapist left me ‘to get ready’.
Which in my previous experience had been ‘take off everything below the waist, get on bed, put towel over self’.
Imagine my mortification when the poor girl came back in, whipped off the towel and immediately covered me up again looking at me like I was some sort of a pervert – I then realised that the little ‘bump’ I thought was a bump in the bed was the disposable knickers she had left me to ‘get ready’ in!
Why oh why can therapists not be more specific….
i would have cried if that was me in there but on the other hand the poor stupid woman i hate it when you go somewhere and people just assume you kno where everything is and ahat you should be doing.
i think a therapist being a therapist should be comfortable with the nakedness of other people they do wax womens innards after all theres nothing worse when youre somewhere and you just kno the therapist is uncomfortable in my eyes they shouldnt be doing it if theyre that uncomfortable
this is so funny!! the poor woman was prob never in a spa before sure she should of asked at the reception or actually she should of been told. the first time i went to a spa was with my sister i hadn’t a clue what to do she kept telling me to lower my voice!!
This post really reminds me of a time, i was on holidays and me and a friend went to get a mud-wrap. i’d never had one before so I didn’t know what to expect… So the therapist came in and told us to remove our underwear if we wanted to, that it would be easier that way. I asked my friend (who was older and had been through it before) “Do they see anything?” “No, not a thing” she replied.
I decided to whip off the bra and get under the towel. The 2 therapists came in and started preparing everything, but something was annoying me so I turned my head and asked friend “How do they get the mud on then, if they don’t take off the towel?” She turns around and goes, “Sher they do!!” I nearly died… She started laughing at the face I was making. So I was lying there, panicing and to make things worse, over walks this young (early 20s) lad and tells me hes my therapist!! I was 16 at the time and nearly died! To top it all off, I fell asleep halfway through and started snoring!
cathyfly i’ve had a similar experience gettin waxed, the paper knickers are really pointless! i find the places that use them actually dont tend to give the proper wax as advertised! i normally go to urban wax so im used to no knickers & a very thorough wax! (mortifyin @ the time but worth it for a job well done) but when i went to a small local salon (i live in the sticks!) they had the paper knickers & what was advertised as a brazillian was more like just an ‘extended’ in urban wax. if therapists are too embarrased to do the treatment properly they shouldnt offer it
paper knickers….eeeew