After a Spa Day, Looking Years Younger

Adult spas are adding separate menus of services for girls, usually ages 4 to 14. In most major cities, there are now dedicated day spas for children, offering a range of massages, facials and other treatments for girls (and sometimes boys) too young to have had their first pimple.

“I feel like the best princess in the world,” said Paige Ehresman, who celebrated her seventh birthday at Sweet and Sassy, a USA chain of spas that boasts that its cosmetologists are specially trained to work with children. After the beauty treatments, Paige and her guests walked down a red carpet and disappeared into a pink limousine, which took the children on a trip around the parking lot. One 6-year-old guest documented the ride in a series of selfies.

On the high end, the “kids treatments” menu at the Beverly Wilshire spa in Beverly Hills, Calif., charges $50 for a 15-minute “princess facial,” which includes “a facial cleanse and massage.” For the mass market, there is the $30 Orbeez Luxury Spa at Toys “R” Us, a toy that looks like a pedicure station in which girls can immerse their feet in tiny gel-filled balls.

At the party here in Aurora last month, Paige’s mother, Kari Ehresman, 33, said she paid about $400 for the party.

The International Spa Association said that 25 percent of the country’s approximately 20,000 spas now offer services specifically for the under-13 set — up from 15 percent just four years ago. And half of all spas offer services for teenagers, up from a third over the same time period.

Some are new businesses focused exclusively on children, while others have expanded into the child market, offering kid-friendly music, banana-scented facials and an age-appropriate vocabulary — customers are “princesses”, for instance

The spa association’s president, Lynne McNees, said it was good for girls to learn that beauty treatments can reduce stress and promote health. “It’s very similar to taking little kids to the dentist,” Ms. McNees said. “Let’s get them early, and get those really good habits.”

Most of the child-oriented spas make their money on birthday party packages. At one New York-area chain, Seriously Spoiled Salon and Spa,  parties cost $500 to $3,000, and options include a “bath-bakery” experience, with lotions that smell like edible treats.

Lisa Gadzinski, 48, and her sister opened Seriously Spoiled on Long Island in 2008. The business, based in Patchogue, N.Y., is expanding to two more locations. Several clients are single fathers, lost in the world of girl-care

“I feel reeeeeeeally relaxed,” said Peyton Ruddell, who had just turned 10. She sat on a soft couch with soapy water bubbling at her heels while a cosmetologist, LiShall Michel, 47, clipped her toenails.

Peyton’s mother, Love Ruddell, 37, is a mechanic at the Denver Zoo who wears boots and gloves to work, but also wears her fingernails long, manicured and painted  red. She said she tried to teach her daughter that “you can be beautiful and tough.”

“This is honoring the feminine,” Ms. Ruddell added.

       Madeline Levine, a child psychologist and author, calls the child spa “the worst idea ever.” 

              What do you think?