Time to drop the towel, women's spa proposes
Women have been known to drop a lot of things in the spas that dot the Toronto landscape: inches of hair, a week's worth of stress, random pieces of gossip and large amounts of cash.
The owners of Body Blitz, a new 10,000 square foot urban water spa opening this Saturday on Adelaide Street, hope they will be willing to drop something else: their towels.
The spa, housed in a century-old warehouse space between Spadina and Bathurst, is the first Toronto spa modeled on Asian bathhouse principles, where women soak in pools of saltwater and green tea before being scrubbed, covered in mud and massaged into a semi-comatose state.
Here, the staff wear red T-shirts and the clients can go nude, a far cry from the sterile atmosphere of many of the city's spas and salons.
''Toronto is very conservative, but I think we're ready for this,'' said Laura Polley, the president of Independent Film Financing, who is opening Body Blitz along with her sister, Rena, who worked previously as an entertainment editor and publicist.
The women first conceptualized Body Blitz, which they plan to expand into other locations, when Laura visited a spa in Germany that put her through a 12-step water and skin treatment.
''I was very unsure about the whole thing,'' she said of the experience this week. ''But afterwards I felt amazing.''
The women realize that steam baths have long been associated with old Italian men or young promiscuous ones, but believe women will embrace the detoxifying and moisturizing benefits of water treatments.
''We live in an urban environment that is so toxic,'' said Rena. ''And this just makes your skin feel incredible.''
Treatments at Body Blitz range from $35 for access to the spa's warm sea salt pool, hot green tea pool and cold plunging pool, to the $195 body bake and beyond, which includes a mud treatment, face mask, massage and hair wash.
The former offices of Eye Weekly have been transformed into a surreal chamber of bouncing light and softly falling water. Circular chandeliers hang above the pools, and the sand-coloured cement floors radiate their own heat.
Laura believes Body Blitz is in line with an industry movement toward more single-service spas, that has seen other spas dedicate themselves to manicures or facials.
She hopes to tap into the growing condo community in the area, a population of young upwardly mobile women with disposable income and a taste for indulgence.
''People in this area treat themselves well,'' Laura said.
Adelaide, once little more than a speedy thoroughfare from east to west, is developing into a strip of high concept bars, offices, stores and other creative endeavours, including a nearby studio that will teach pole dancing as exercise.
Their biggest challenge is the mindset of women who like to treat themselves, but not necessarily in the nude and with others present.
Hygiene is not an issue, the sisters adamantly protest, as the pools' filtration system is so advanced it could have been designed by NASA.
The scrubs and mud treatments are done in private rooms, and bathing suit bottoms and tops will be sold in the spa's retail area for women using the pools.
''We have some educating to do and once we get them in, they'll be back,'' Laura said. ''But I think the majority will be in bathing suits.''
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