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Relax, a day spa is nearby
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Looking for a day spa? You probably won’t have to leave your neighborhood. The day spa is no stranger to the streets of Charleston, and spas can be found in nearly every suburb including West Ashley, Mount Pleasant, North Charleston and Summerville.
High-end hotels tout their spas, and hair salons have also gotten on the bandwagon, adding spa treatment rooms and natural skin care products.
But Charleston wasn’t always so spa-infused. Earthling Day Spa, which now includes a Pilates studio, was once the lone spa experience in town. Owner Aby Cass has seen the industry grow and change since she and partner Deborah Demme opened their downtown day spa location in 1993.
Demme had founded Earthling in Mount Pleasant in 1989 and operated it herself before being approached by Cass about a partnership. Both women had a background in holistic medicine, massage and skin care.
Cass, who is originally from Louisiana, had studied massage therapy in Boulder, Colo., where the day spa industry was already well established.
“There were so many therapists out there and I wanted to go somewhere else where I felt like I had an opportunity to develop something,” Cass said.
Cass and Demme began talking about a partnership in March 1993, and by May of that year Earthling had moved to Ansonborough Square on East Bay Street.
“I thought it was the right location, it was the right time and Charleston was ready for it,” Cass said.
Earthling did more business in its first six months on East Bay Street than it had done in its fifth full year in Mount Pleasant, Cass said. The industry was also expanding nationally, at a rate of about 20% a year.
That growth has continued steadily as spa visits have become more mainstream across the nation. The International Spa Association recently reported that there were 13,757 spas in the United States as of August 2006, compared with 9,865 spas at the end of 2003. The 39% jump in spa locations represents an 18% growth in revenue. There were 131 million visits to U.S. day spas in 2005 and the industry employed about 267,400 full-time staff nationwide.
While the Southwest and Northeast are home to the largest percentage of the nation’s day spas (23% each), the South isn’t far behind with 20% of the nation’s spas. Revenue from spa visits in the Southeast in 2005 was nearly $2.5 billion, surpassing the Northeast’s revenue of nearly $2.3 billion.
For Cass, who is now the sole owner of Earthling, a growing business prompted relocation to a larger facility on East Bay Street in 2003. The business started with eight employees and now has 30.
Cass said people are making more routine spa visits; it is less of a special-occasion event. She also thinks people are learning at a younger age about the benefits of skin care and massage.
“Our parents did not do these things,” Cass said. “When I got out of massage school, I offered my mother a massage and she said, ‘Oh, no thank you.’”
Peggy Rash, a regular client at Earthling, moved to Charleston from Chicago three years ago. She and her husband had visited a Chicago spa regularly for massage therapy, which they believe helps relieve stress and improve overall health.
“I figured Charleston was big enough and cosmopolitan enough now that it would give me everything I needed,” Rash said. “I used to kind of look at (massage) as a luxury. Now, I still think it’s a luxury, but I think it’s a necessary luxury, health-wise.”
As day spas continue to emerge across the tri-county area, owners are trying to find their niche in a business that is becoming increasingly competitive. Some are opening spas in communities where the concept is new.
Jennifer Wyndam, receptionist at SoCa Day Spa on East Montague Avenue in North Charleston, said the three-year-old spa got a warm welcome and business has been better than expected.
“North Charleston needed it,” Wyndam said. “The time was right.”
Linda Lopez, who spent more than 20 years as an ophthalmic technician, opened the Kara Linda day spa in Summerville a year ago. She takes only one client at a time and offers what she calls “medical-grade facials with all the feel-good extras.”
“I know the baby boomers of my generation are looking to take care of their skin and those are the people with the money to do it,” Lopez said. “I knew what the competition was, and I knew that I would be a little different, a little more medical grade and a little more private.”
Lopez has had clients come to Summerville from as far away as Mount Pleasant and Seabrook Island. She doesn’t advertise and says clients find her through word-of-mouth, she said.
“When the right people know you and you’re giving good results, you really get the business,” Lopez said.
Male clients are becoming another niche group for day spa operators. The ISA reported in its “2006 Spa-Goers Study” that men made up 29% of regular spa visitors.
Men have been visiting Gents Barber Spa on East Bay Street for the past three years, where they are tempted with a menu of services that includes facials and manicures as well as haircuts and shaves followed by the application of steaming towels.
“It’s a real indulgence,” said Paul Magier, who recently visited the spa for a shave and a haircut.
Cass feels the spa industry has become somewhat saturated in the Charleston area and is starting to remind her of Boulder, but she isn’t worried about the future of her business.
“I don’t really have reservations about the business,” she said. “I have a great staff that has been with me, some of them, for eight, nine and 10 years. When you have that and can continue to provide the level of professionalism that they provide, I really feel like we will survive the growth and continue.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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