Today I took a much needed mental health day. I had a few “use it or lose it” vacation days left, and I was overwhelmed by the number of errands on my to-do list that I couldn’t seem to find time to do. I’m proud to say that I accomplished the majority of them this morning. I also got some much-needed spa treatments this afternoon.
A week ago, a friend posted that her amazing husband bought her a spa package at the Umstead Hotel and Spa. I wanted to find a way to SPA on the CHEAP! So, I called the Paul Mitchell School and booked a facial, pedicure, and eyebrow tint for $38 total.
You have to have a sense of humor if you want to “spa” at a beauty school. I mean, facials come in all kinds of prices and styles: Using Groupon can get you a $40 facial. Or, you could pay $85-$110 at a moderately-priced spa. Or, you could go to a fancy spa and pay upwards of $150. However, at the Paul Mitchell School, a facial was $20.
I was curious about what kind of facial you could get for $20. Luckily, I had low expectations. Here’s what I got: 1) my face exfoliated. 2) A mud mask that the student had a hell of a time removing. 3) Toner put on my face with a cotton ball. 4) Moisturizer. No wait no moisturizer. They were out of facial moisturizer. She offered to use pedicure cream on my face but I turned her down.
As for the pedicure: The student dragged a bucket over to a bench. She soaked my feet, exfoliated, lotioned, pushed back my cuticles, trimmed my nails, painted my toenails (lots of errors and fixing), and did that scraping thing that removes the calluses. My toenails look like I had a friend paint them but they don’t look too bad.
Eyebrow tint: I almost left with brown dye all over the skin surrounding my eyebrows, but an instructor came over and fixed it and made me presentable. My eyebrows now look pretty good.
Overall: my skin looks good and my eyebrows look good. I went in there with a sense of humor, and came out feeling relaxed and spa’ed. And I will say: they take sanitation VERY seriously – everything was super clean.
Afterward I drove over to the Healing Arts Massage School. That place is very different from Paul Mitchell. If you get a massage from a student for $35, it will be out-of-this-world amazing. I opted for a $60 massage from an instructor, though, because the students use limited modalities and I needed deep tissue work.
Total spa cost: $98.
Treatments received: massage, facial, pedicure, eyebrow tint.
My skin: Pretty fabulous.
Overall a pretty good day! Now to flop.