Vampire Hands @ Cinema and Civics TONIGHT

A MAN’S PLACE IS AT THE DAY SPA

The Columbian (Vancouver, WA) September 18, 1999 | ANGELA ALLEN, Columbian staff writer Buff, polish, wax. Why waste all those treatments on the car? Men want to look as pretty as their machines, and for varnish and touch-ups, they’re buying eye creams, bronzers and concealers.

A 1997 study by Euromonitor, an international market analyst firm, said American men peeled off $3.5 billion in toiletries. God forbid we call these products makeup. Nor are men likely to buy them over the drugstore counter.

“Men are interested in skin care but not too open about it,” says aesthetician Cathy Baisley of O’Hair Studio in Vancouver. “But they’re buying loads of products over the Internet.” The pretty boy movement is riding the wave of day-spa proliferation from 30 spots nationwide 11 years ago to 1,600 today, according to Spa Finders, a location resource. Men account for about 25 percent of clients, and they’re booking time for more than a massage.

The plastic-surgery boom reflects the male-beautification trend. The American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery reports men request 28 percent of facial plastic surgical procedures. And guess which operation is the most popular for guys? The nose job. web site oasis day spa

Body-altering surgery is big-time stuff that requires as much money as a new roof. For many men, the less radical preening route paves the more practical inroad to good looks.

At Oasis Day Spa in Vancouver’s Towne Plaza, men —- about 20 percent of the clientele —- are paying for pedicures, manicures and waxes. They don’t whine about the prices (area pedicures range from $25 to $40) and “they never miss an appointment,” says Oasis’ Sherri Weinstein, a former teacher and onetime bento-cart owner. here oasis day spa

“Our men clients will schedule for the next month. Right then. Right after their pedicure,” Weinstein says, explaining how she indulges her customers’ heels and toes with a sea-scrub exfoliation, scrapes off calluses, pushes back cuticles and wraps feet in a cooling therapeutic masque.

“Men just want to feel good. It’s not as much cosmetic, as it is therapeutic,” Weinstein says. “You know men: They like to be pampered.” Waxing is anything but pampering, but beauty has its price in pain. At a number of salons, hair removal via hot wax or electrolysis is commonplace. At Portland’s Hickox Salon & Spa, several men have requested eyebrow waxes (“too thick, too much hair in the middle,” says manager Heidi Laske). More want their backs, necks and chests silky-smooth.

“Women don’t like hairy backs,” Laske says. “Or the man doesn’t like it.” Waxing hurts. Hot wax pulls hair from the root, but sprouts continue to surface, though less profusely over time because the roots weaken. The treatment costs from $25 to $40.

Clark County appears to be on the tip of the nail for men’s beauty workups. Men request hair tints and facials along with manicures and pedicures, but as Baisley says, “if there’s any chance of bumping into their boss at the salon, they back off.” Still a pedicure may prove as routine as an oil change. Be patient: This isn’t LA.

ANGELA ALLEN, Columbian staff writer