You can wrap up all you like, but the frosty NYC weather can wreak havoc on your skin and hair. There’s nothing for it but to treat yourself to a spa visit. Fortunately, the Lower East Side is jostling with establishments that will leave you feeling rejuvenated, revitalized, and ready to face that winter wind once more. We’ve selected four of the best spas, close to the One Manhattan Square condos.
Daphne European Skincare & Sugaring Studio | 375 Broome Street
Daphne is about combining traditional, natural treatments with high-tech beauty solutions. Take the detoxifying algae wrap: a firming and lifting process that wraps the body in an infrared blanket with natural algae and essential oils. You’ll come out hydrated and oxygenated — in short, a new person. This Upper East Side spa is also well known for its “sugaring” treatments. Harking back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia, this hair-removal process uses a paste made purely of lemon juice, water, and sugar. Sometimes the old ways are the best.
Christine Chin Spa | 82 Orchard Street
A slew of famous names from the worlds of fashion and film have counted themselves clients of Christine Chin, including Gisele Bündchen, Hilary Swank, Rachel Weisz, and James Franco. Give yourself the A-list treatment by indulging in one of their beauty treatments. A customized green tea mask will usher new life to your weather-beaten features. Or, get smoother skin with a microdermabrasion session, which will leave you looking and feeling younger.
Shampoo Avenue B | 14 Avenue B
This well-loved East Village hair salon has elicited praise from the likes of Vogue, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York. Take an (extremely comfortable) seat below one of the salon chandeliers, and let a specialist stylist give your tousled hair a much-needed lift. Updos, textured cuts, balayage, and highlights are on the menu for your new hairdo. However chilly it may be when you step back onto the streets of Manhattan, you won’t be wearing your beanie home.
Hello Spa NYC | 20 Avenue A
A favorite at Hello Spa is the “illuminating luxury facial,” which is a cleansing, steaming, exfoliating experience, performed in the luxury of a candle-lit room. After you’ve sampled that, return to try out the organic seaweed facial — precluded, perhaps, by a 30-minute face massage. Once you’ve developed a taste for this place, you’ll want to make the most of its location: a 20-minute stroll from One Manhattan Square.