Review: Swedish massage at Mystic Salon & Spa, Delhi

If the road – it’s a lane actually -- leading to Mystic Salon & Spa is a disaster, the therapy, which lasts for the next one hour, is just the divine intervention that’s needed. It’s a place that doesn’t disappoint. It’s a spa centre that ensures you a very polite staff, a gorgeous ambience and a luxurious setting in the midst of a maddening, bustling lane. It helps that the windows are close to 80 per cent — if not more — soundproof, it certainly helps that the rooms are plush, complete with a very Zen-like feel and immediately inviting. In short, it’s clean, rich without being overtly opulent and very, very inviting.
Having gone there just a few days ago, I found myself gazing at the vast menu of therapies that the spa offers. I took another 30 minutes to make up my mind; wondering if I should opt for Ayurveda, Thai massages or just stick to reflexology. The centre also offers other regular salon services, by the way.
I decided on the traditional Swedish massage, a heady therapy, which, according to one of the staff members at Mystic, was the best. Decision made, I was then led to the first floor of the spa where, after getting served a cool bottle of mineral water, I was staring at one of the most beautiful rooms of the space. A special mention about the interiors of the place: It was large and spacious with spectacular wooden flooring that broke into little pebble-stone islands. There were faux palm trees, a bamboo plant (to further add to that Zen-like tranquility), Jacuzzi area with luxurious Grohe fittings, a therapy bed on which – unfortunately — a wilted carnation greeted me.
Anyway, Maria, my therapist, got down to the business of kneeding different points which, in my case especially, are inflicted with stress knots. What she used was orange-flavoured oil, which had extracts of – what else – orange and what I suspected, even a hint of pepper. This feels warm on your body and is especially suited for those who are prone to dry skin. Actually, I was impressed that Maria, looking at my skin, could immediately tell it was dry. However, I do wish spa therapists – in different centres, and not just Mystic – specifically ask clients if they’re at all allergic to certain oils.
The massage felt blissful but my only concern was the Maria’s hands, though deft and soothing, were very soft on the massage. No, it felt right but considering the bundle of knots and draining energy filled inside the body, a good, firm massage was really what I’d needed. She slid and grasped and twisted and turned – gently, very gently – different parts of my body that one almost felt the rhythm in her hands. Working her way from head-to-toe, which is the main aim of this therapy, Maria tackled the neck, arms, shoulders, legs and feet and the soles of my feet, back with unequivocal ease. I even muttered, “Bless you” a dozen times, I think.
Smelling like one large, humungous orange, Maria, with her gentle smile, rounded off the 45-minute therapy with a head massage. “It’s complete,” she said finally while I struggled to rise from the most blissful stupor. In 45 minutes of surrendering myself for the massage, I’d journeyed into luxury and a state of calm, all at once. A quick shower and change and a steaming cup of frothy cappuccino with no one, just silence and a room where a faint fragrance of the orange essential oil filled the air, I was geared to face the madness of the outside world all over again.

45-minute Swedish massage treatment. Price: Rs 2,800

Just another trip to the salon

In my previous blog entry that I had written on Kim Robinson, I'd mentioned about why I hate visiting beauty salons. The experts there will take a look at your face, sulk and wonder why you were created in the first place. "What's with the pimples, ma'am?" "Your hair sucks", "You should come regularly", "Oh, your face, so dull"... these are just some of the many comments that I've encountered each time a salon expert has looked at my face. They've wanted to sell me their products, they've punctured my thoughts of being a fairly presentable person, they've cribbed about my sun tan and they've "tsk-ed tsk-ed" about how terrible I'll be when I grow older than I already am.
This article was published as part of our Mystery Guest column in Business Standard http://www.business-standard.com/india/

You need two things when you hit a beauty salon: money (lots of it) and patience (in abundance). After spending three hours at a beauty salon, I realise I lack patience, and whatever money I had has been spent on a face that is “dry, dull with fine lines and prone to pimples, white heads, black heads...”

But let’s go back to the beginning. Perturbed by some recent remarks made by a friend (“Pamper yourself. What are you earning for?”) and an elderly family member (“Why do you work? Sit at home and work, and pamper yourself”), I trudge to Limelite, a unisex beauty salon in the NCR. It’s a spectacularly clean salon, very spacious, with an excellent staff who greet me with wide smiles and a glass of water.

They proceed to show me a “rate card” with different treatments including a chocolate facial. But the one for me is skin lightening facial treatment, because, “your face is too tanned”.

“Your face is very dark, madam. You don’t take care at all?” asks beautician No. 2. “I don’t get the time,” I say coldly, to which she adds, “Looking at your face, no one will believe you earn so much money. You should find the time to take care of your skin.”

Sometime later, a hairdresser, holding a clump of my hair, tells me my hairstyle, “is hopeless” and can be saved only if I get hair colour, followed by a quick wash, a special conditioner and hair serum.

“The shampoo and conditioner,” I’m told, “are available at the salon”. With my hair in a “colouring” mess, I find a five-year-old kid quietly staring at me, as if he’s found an alien sitting on a throne.

Is there anything right about me? “Oh, no. Why are your fingernails not shaped?” whines another girl, who’s getting ready to give me a manicure. By now the word “patience” has vanished from my dictionary and I’m wondering why people refer to a salon trip as a “relaxing experience”?

Having wiped off one-third of my salary in three hours, and finding out that, genetically speaking, my skin loves to burst into pimples, I head home with a new hairstyle, a “lightened” face and neatly painted fingernails. At home, my mother opens the door, looks at me lovingly and says, “Hi, bad day at work?”

Hair spa review: Aman, New Delhi

"Who'll style my hair?" Rod quipped while giving me a hair spa treatment



What is hair spa, I thought aloud, looking at Rod Anker, who was busy studying my scalp at Kim Robinson, the brand new salon that opened its doors recently at New Delhi’s Aman. While I relished my cappuccino with cookies, sinking comfortably into the plush chair, surrendering my scalp and mane in the able hands of Rod, I found myself struggling to keep awake thanks to the soothing music that played in the background and Rod’s firm yet comforting head massage. But Rod began: “Hair spa is all about studying your scalp, knowing which treatment to give for a lustrous, shiny mane and really, doing justice to your hair that should be well maintained.”
I suppose, he would know better. As creative director of Kim Robinson at the deliciously serene Aman, the world class hospitality chain that opened its magnificent gates to the junta (audience) just a month ago, Rod is working overtime to ensure that everyone who walks into Kim Robinson walk out feeling confident, feeling wonderful.
So, what was the best part or the one defining moment about my spa treatment? It would be unfair to pin it down to just one, for the joys of being treated at Kim Robinson are aplenty. Number one: No one will tell you, “Madam, your hair, very bad. And miss, what is this thinning of hair? You should put oil in the head madam, see how bad you look. You should use our volume enhancing cream madam, only with that can your hair look better, or else, tsk tsk tsk.” I hate this about salons and the manner in which people cluck their tongues in disgust after carelessly holding a clump of my hair and feeling sorry for my existence. So it’s surprising when Rod looks at my hair (even taking pictures of my scalp from a complicated looking gadget) and pronounces, “So, your hair’s very clean. Nice.” He’s convincing too, immediately giving my hair a good rub and then proceeding to cut my hair.
“Wait! You won’t spray my hair with water?” No, exclaimed Rod stunned at the suggestion. At Kim Robinson they use what’s called a dry technique. Instead of wetting hair and then snipping it away, the promoters believe that hair should be treated in as natural a way as possible. It means hard work for the hairstylist but Rod says it’s worth it. A regular haircut at any other salon would mean the hairstylist spraying jets of water all over the name, helping it to concentrate in one area which makes it easier for them to snip it away. After that is a quick blow dry, a yummy hairstyle which draws everyone’s attention. But what happens the next morning? Don’t you invariably sulk looking at your hair which is back to its usual look with no volume, no bounce and absolutely no convincing haircut.
Surprisingly, that’s where Kim Robinson haircut with its dry technique works. After snipping away with his scissors, Rod gently rubs and massages orange essential oil by parting my hair in different sections and soon after, I’m ushered into a room where his assistant Akram diligently gives my hair a smart wash. This is done after he’s parted my hair in sections and applied a cooling hair mask that’s then treated to a “micro mist” steam. This is clearly the best part of the treatment and I find myself snoozing for 20 minutes before Akram wakes me up by lathering my hair in shampoo. I feel like I’m floating on clouds what with the steam mist rising gently over my face. Akram proceeds to apply a quick conditioner followed by scented linseed oil which is mild but gives my hair a soft, feathery touch.
I look into the mirror with dreamy eyes [still sleepy, you see] and by now, Rod’s done a swell job of setting my hair. “It’ll stay like this,” he reassures while I walk out of the experience, glad that Rod touched my hair and created magic. But that’s what a creator does, no?

Spa Notes
· The overall experience of a hair spa treatment at Kim Robinson, Aman, New Delhi, is wonderful. I just wish they’d give at least five-10 minutes of a power nap to clients who, after such a great experience, have to walk out to the usual stress of the city.
The cost of a hair spa treatment: Rs 9,700 ($194) + taxes
Contact Rod on (91) 11 43633475 at Aman, Lodhi Road, New Delhi
PSSSST!!!

• Overheard that Ms Shobhana Bhartiya, chairperson and editorial director of the Hindustan Times group, walks into Kim Robinson twice a week with her shampoo, conditioner and hair spray for hair wash and blow dry.
• Actor Karishma Kapoor and her cousin Riddhima Kapoor Sahni are ditching their previous haunt Salon de Ravissant for Aman