The Rise Of The Spa For Dudes

The space is dark. The lights are dark, the wood flooring is dark, and the leather chairs are dark. Keep walking and you’ll find a bar serving complimentary wine. Jazz is playing. Scattered around are succulents and candles, neutral in both scent and appearance. In the next room is a desk where a man with headphones is receiving a manicure, and a row of plush chairs with sinks at the foot of each. Because this isn’t your garden-variety man cave. It’s a spa—for men. Fresh Living Men’s Spa in New York, specifically. It is just one of the several men’s-specific spas that have popped up across the country, mostly in big cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Miami, but also in Columbus, Ohio, and Minneapolis. This is not a contained phenomenon. The spa industry is growing—it’s worth $16.8 billion today, compared to only $4.2 billion just over a decade ago—which means the spas-for-men industry is growing, and everyone wants to dip their pedicured toes into the business. The International Spa Association, or ISPA, has been tracking the industry in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers for over a decade. In 2005, it found that only 29 percent of spa-goers were male. Today, that figure has rocketed to 49 percent, thanks in large part to changing attitudes men have towards grooming. This is a new phenomenon. A 2013 ISPA survey listed the following reasons men didn’t go to spas: 11 percent say it’s “too indulgent,” 14 percent said because “none of my friends go,” 17 percent said they were embarrassed to go, and 19 percent said “spas are for women.” “[Guys] have that masculinity hang up and that’s something that helps us exist,” says Jose Girona, Living Fresh’s general manager. The male spa business is built on these concerns, worries, and anxieties. Read more at GQ.