My first spa experience, if it can be called that, was at the 10th Street Baths on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Situated among rows of what some called run-down brownstones and others called tenements, the Russian/Turkish baths of 10th Street were a little on the rough side. One had to overlook the cracked, fallen tiles and the thin, unraveling towels to enjoy the Russian steam room, made unbearably hot by the burning coals underneath. Tradition required that you take wooden buckets of ice water into the steam room and pour it over your head as a way of cooling down. When you tired of the steam room, you could have a Dead Sea salt scrub, jump into the icy water of the narrow, two-lap pool or be beaten with a broom of oak leaves soaked in olive oil. Good for the circulation, they said. Amenities were few, and the ambiance, tolerable. Definitely not the spa experience of baby boomers today.
With spas representing the fourth largest leisure industry (in revenues), outpacing ski resorts, amusement/theme parks and box office receipts, it's a $15 billion industry today and growing. Spas are no longer there just for pampering; they offer a wide range of services, directed toward the renewal of mind, body and spirit, with services and products designed to encourage relaxation. According to Lynne Walker McNees, President of the Lexington based International Spa Association (ISPA), "Spas play a significant role in today's culture. One in four American adults have been to a spa and know what they want from a quality spa experience. The trends are being driven by educated spa-goers," McNees said. "Baby-boomers, for the most part, see regular spa visits as an expected part of their lifestyle.
ISPA is one of the leading professional organizations and voice of more than 3