John DeVore hadn’t given much thought to spas until he found himself in Las Vegas with a friend who suggested they get a few treatments at their hotel.
“He was like, ‘If you love your car, you take it to the car spa. So why not yourself?’ ” the 43-year-old writer tells The Post. “Fast-forward one hour, and I’m in a plush robe sipping cucumber water.”
DeVore, who calls his 2012 Vegas experience an “awakening,” is part of a growing gaggle of guys who opt for spa treatments.
The International Spa Association reports in its new Consumer Snapshot that 49 percent of spa customers are men, up from 29 percent in 2005. Guys are heading to spas alone, with a partner and even for quality time with the buds. “I’ve heard tell of some friends who are spa-ing for a bachelor party,” says DeVore, who lives in Fort Greene.
Mia Saini, co-founder and CEO of men’s skin-care company Oars + Alps, says that her fitness-minded customers see saunas and facials as another way to stay healthy. “Just like they’re spending $12 on a green juice,” she says, “they’re spending money to go to a spa.”
But Saini says that guys are still grappling with an experience that runs counter to major tenets of masculinity.
“Guys want to be pampered, but they don’t want to put that much effort into being pampered,” she says. “Walking into a place with cucumber water can feel overly indulgent.”
It can fall upon the spa, then, to cater to those insecurities with a military-grade operation.
At the Julien Farel salon and spa inside the Loews Regency Hotel on the Upper East Side, male clients are hidden away from their female counterparts, in the JF Men section.
“We’re very popular for facials, manicures and pedicures, and hair removal for eyebrow and nose hair,” says France-born owner Farel. “But what we’re most popular [for] is privacy.” That means individual rooms, not mentioning the spa when calling to confirm appointments and no discussion of clients between employees. “Most of the time,” says Farel, “their wives don’t know.”
Many of his gentlemen clients will come in the morning, order breakfast from the room-service menu and eat while they have a cut, color, mani-pedi and a facial — all within an hour.
“They’re not here to have a day of beauty; they’re here for efficiency,” says Farel, who also offers customers a complimentary scotch — the bougie brother to the fizzy Champagne offered at many spas — to sip as they primp.
“Before, it used to be just going to the barber,” says Farel. “Today, men have an image. They want their hair to always look the same, to make sure their skin does not age.”
Blushington beauty lounge CEO Natasha Cornstein thanks Instagram for some of the bump in male traffic. She says that her Midtown West and Upper East Side salons began offering men’s skin-care services (which include a facial peel, hydration and brow shaping) earlier this year and launched a package deal this month due to increased demand.
“With the rise of social media and phones, everybody’s starring in their own movie day in and day out,” she says, noting that such images can alert normally oblivious dudes to skin woes and body hang-ups. Plus, dating apps are largely visual, and having clear skin in your profile photo just might earn you a swipe right.
Marcus Stewart, a 28-year-old stylist on the Upper West Side, has been getting manicures, massages and facials — including regular peels at Blushington — for years, but is now starting to see his friends who work in the financial industry get in on the action, too. He says they’ve realized that sprucing up their appearance can make a good impression, but they don’t quite know how to get started.
“They’ll ask, ‘Hey, where do you go to get a manicure?’ ” he says. So he’ll take them with him the next time he gets his nails done or goes in for a facial and massage.
“It’s a cool bonding thing,” he says. “At a lot of the spas, you can have [a drink], talk about the day, talk about your personal lives.”
The percentage of male clients at the Upper East Side Kiehl’s Spa 1851 has shot from 30 percent in 2015 to roughly 40 percent in the past year, says spa director Ashley Nowicki. The brand’s un-flashy products and packaging have earned it plenty of male fans, who are then drawn into the stores and, ultimately, the spa.
“The spot is relatively no-fuss,” says Nowicki, and the treatment rooms are purposely “very gender-neutral,” bearing names such as “Adventure Room” and “Rainforest Room.” The walls are covered in pictures of mountains and forests — reinforcing the idea that the offerings will feel more like an exciting trek than a blissed-out beautifying session.
It’s a delicate balance: Spas hope to break down gender barriers by providing treatments with tougher-sounding names — think “tension-busting massages” and “pore-excavating facials” — which, in turn, reinforce the stigma that regular old spas are feminine.
But while the secrecy and macho offerings may cover up the fact that they’re spa treatments, they also get men in the door. “There’s going to be guys that are lured in by that language and, after a couple of times, are like, ‘This is just good,’ ” says DeVore.
Once they’re in, DeVore hopes his fellow men will have the same realization he did: that “there’s no weakness in carving out time just to be.”
“Everyone is stressed, but stress management is very much in the shadows for a lot of dudes,” he says. Taking time to breathe — be it in a sauna, on a massage table or covered in French clay — can help men and women alike clear their minds and their skin.
Take Kevin Bowen, a 27-year-old musician in Bushwick who started getting BeautyRx facial peels at Blushington after a group of female friends convinced him to give it a try when he complained about his ragged appearance.
“I get bags under my eyes because I’m up late writing music,” he says. The peels, which exfoliate his skin, help him look better and more awake while performing and in the music videos he films. He now opts for the $50 treatment once a month.
“Looking more polished does come across to people,” he says.
Plus, he points out, kicking back and letting someone massage your face doesn’t suck. “As a dude, there aren’t many opportunities in life to feel really pampered,” he says.
Now that he’s comfortable with a facial, he’s dipping his toes deeper into the (steaming plunge) pool.
“I’m going to try getting a pedicure soon,” he says. “I’ve never done that.”