I recently heard about the “Beautiful Bride” program that The Medical Spa at Nova in Ashburn, Va. added to its service menu. The beauty of the program is that it gives brides-to-be the ease of having three distinct ongoing pre-wedding services — nutrition consultations with a dietician, exercise sessions with a personal trainer, and discounted spa treatments like waxing and facials, all at one location (now, if only the spa would sell wedding dresses and do alterations…just kidding.) This is seriously a great idea; I mean who, brides least of all, has the time to shuttle between multiple locations for all sorts of errand-type of activities?

Last year, I wrote a profile on ManKind for Men, a Ft. Lauderdale salon, that also caters to this time-starved clientele idea. The service menu there includes traditional offerings like hair, nails, skin, massage, and shaving, but also boasts an array of other services like a steam room, shoe shine and repair, dry cleaning, and a tailor. “When it comes to men, they’re typically lazy and would rather establish rapport with one place they know and trust, than a variety of different places,” Garipoli said to me. “More amenities means it’s more convenient.”

Let me add to Garipoli’s comment that men aren’t the only ones who’re lazy; I’m lazy, err, efficient, as well. I would love it if there was a salon near me that offered tailoring services. (I’m pretty short and always have to have my pants hemmed before I can wear them, so I wind up at a tailor about every other week.) Plus, the added bonus to the salon would be that the client would have to come once to drop off the clothes, then come back again about a week later to pick them up (which would be the perfect time to get a second manicure).

Have any of you tried packages like this in your salon? What sort of response did you get? Do these extra services work or is the extra expense not worth it? Let me know in Feedback.

— Sree

Photography by Glenn Campbell