Weight Loss Spas / Detox Wraps / Find a Spa in  

 

 

This article is brought to you by Spavelous.com.

 

I should have bought an expensive girdle, I thought. Forced myself to the gym three times a week. Counted my Weight Watchers points. Accurately.

 

And you panic. And you pick up the phone, and you schedule a body wrap that “guarantees” you’ll lose 10 to 30 inches in an hour.

 

At least — I did. Within 48 hours of booking an inch-loss “power wrap” at a Body Wraps of Texas shop in Fort Worth, I was wrapped from toenails to temples in warm, wet Ace bandages, covered with a poncho for warmth, with plastic bags catching cloudy fluid around my feet as I glided on a Gazelle exercise machine about as gracefully as the Michelin Man might. Except, I’m sure the Michelin Man can feel his right arm; mine was starting to go numb. I wondered if I might faint. I envisioned being rushed to the hospital, paramedics madly unswaddling me as they searched for a vein to start an IV.

 

But I called the “wrap tech” over, she loosened one of the bandages and I survived the Gazelle. Lost 10.3 inches, in fact (and also $155). Dress fit well. The wedding was beautiful.

 

But if you’ve ever banned carbs from your plate, sucked dinner through a straw or admit you’d have better luck finding “South Beach” on your bookshelf than on a map, you know the kind of allure that comes with a “guarantee” of inch loss or weight loss, or even the promise to correct cellulite or saggy skin.

 

You can’t swing a credit card around a salon or spa these days without hitting someone who’s being swaddled or smeared in a “body wrap” for just those purposes.

 

Before you schedule a body wrap to “detox out” that extra turkey you gobbled and stuffing you scarfed around the Thanksgiving table, here are answers to some questions that don’t often get asked — but should.

 

Are all body wraps kind of the same?

 

No; so-called “slimming” wraps are only one in a very, very long list of wraps.

 

They’re also offered for relief from aches and pains, to boost immunity, help diminish skin diseases such as eczema and psoriasis, and generally improve skin tone.

 

The substances used in treatments include almost any natural element you can think of — herbs, seaweed, mud, food, minerals. And the processes differ, too: Some wraps involve lying down; others, exercising; others, sitting in a sauna. For some, you’re wrapped in plastic, in others, bandages. Sometimes, “treatments” are painted onto your body.

 

What’s the science behind them?

 

It depends on which kind you get and what they’re supposed to do. Generally, they claim to “detoxify” the body or skin through an osmosis like process that “draws out” toxins. The body, practitioners say, has lots of toxins that build up (from food, caffeine, the environment, even stress). Extra toxins, they say, cause cellulite, excessive body fat and even illness.

 

Some wraps claim to “liquefy” and eliminate cellulite through the skin or waste, and some are said to stimulate the body’s metabolic processes to encourage weight loss. Others simply claim to hydrate the skin.

 

Michelle Wilson, founder of Body Wraps of Texas, says Power Wraps for inch-loss purposes use bandages soaked in a highly concentrated solution of minerals and electrolytes in purified water. The solution soaks into skin and releases toxins, practitioners say.

 

So, do they serve a wellness or aesthetic purpose?

 

Body wraps fall into a gray area between health and beauty. Some offer purely cosmetic results but explain those processes using biochemistry that may sound like medical speak to clients. Others promise medical results — such as relief from arthritis.

 

What do doctors think of wraps?

 

Again, it depends on whom you ask. No major studies by mainstream medical researchers have been done on body wraps. Dr. Joel Schlessinger, president of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery, is an outspoken critic of body wraps that promote weight loss or cellulite reduction — especially those that promise permanent results.

 

“While I think there is a place for them as a feel-good treatment in a massage or aesthetician-applied situation, the use of body wraps as weight loss is clearly more hocus-pocus than anything,” says Schlessinger, a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon and president of skin care company LovelySkin.com.

 

His biggest concerns for body-wrap clients, he says, are the risks of severe hydration, overheating and circulation problems — though he has never seen patients who’ve had medical complications during a body wrap.

 

Schlessinger, like many mainstream doctors, doesn’t subscribe to the notion that the body needs to be detoxified, he says, because the liver and kidneys are always ridding the body of toxins.

 

“There’s absolutely no data to say [wraps] help with cellulite or saggy skin,” he says.

 

It isn’t just traditional medical doctors who are skeptical. In the current issue of his Essential Guide to Natural Healing, natural-healing guru Dr. Andrew Weil writes in an article headlined “Detox Basics: Cleansing for Health,” that he “hasn’t seen any evidence that [body wraps] will melt away anything but your money.” He also worries about the potential for dehydration and even anxiety attacks in people who are claustrophobic.

 

 

Typically, those who perform wraps at salons and spas are licensed massage therapists and have some training in wrap procedures, says Wilson of Body Wraps of Texas. To perform the kind of inch-loss mineral wraps done at her salon, she says, wrap techs must undergo two weeks of training in topics such as biochemistry of the product and the structure of the body, to earn a license from the national parent company, Suddenly Slender.

 

How much do they cost?

 

Ellis estimates that basic wraps at resorts and spas cost $65 to $75. However, more exotic wraps that use expensive products and add, say, a massage component, will go up from there. A quick check of Tarrant County spa menus shows a range from about $65 to $200. A Power Wrap at Body Wraps of Texas costs $135.

 

PEEK UNDER THE WRAP

 

The three main procedures

 

Hot sheet: Sheets that have been soaked in the treatment product — substances such as herbs, coffee, milk, honey, seaweed, or mud, dissolved in hot water — are wrapped around the client.

 

Used for: detoxification, to stimulate metabolism as part of a weight-loss program, to decrease water retention or boost immunity

 

Cocoon: The treatment is applied directly to the client, who is then wrapped in plastic and a blanket.

 

Used for: detoxification and slimming treatments

 

Tension: These wraps are usually made of terry cloth strips soaked in a treatment (herbs, seaweed, etc.) or of heavy cellophane.

 

Used for: “Forcing” fluid out of a limb that’s wrapped or compressing tissues so they appear slimmer. Also, detoxification.

 

10 TYPES AND THEIR CLAIMS

 

Coffee wrap: Firms tissue, decreases water retention, evens out skin’s texture

 

Hot cider or juice wrap: Brightens and firms skin, stimulates circulation and lymph flow

 

Sea clay wrap: Cleanses skin and fat cells of toxins, “shrinks” the body

 

Moroccan mud wrap: Heals eczema, psoriasis and skin sensitivity

 

Parafango wrap: Decreases the appearance of cellulite, detoxifies and compresses fatty tissue; treats muscle soreness

 

Homeopathic-naturopathic wrap: Relieves pain; improves sleep, mental sharpness and vision; eases aches and pains; anti-aging

 

Power wrap: Reduces inches; tightens and firms skin

 

Protein wrap: Sloughs off pollutants from the skin; tones sluggish skin

 

Thalasso-therapy (sea water) wrap: Accelerates metabolism by boosting body’s blood and lymph circulation

 

Desert heat wrap (using self-heating bubbly wrap rich in copper from Arizona): Revives and repairs skin; relieves joint pain

 

 

BODY-WRAP HISTORY

 

Body wraps were used thousands of years ago by Chinese and Egyptians — Cleopatra reportedly underwent them — to detoxify the body, tighten and tone skin and stimulate the body to rid itself of excess fat and lymph fluids.

 

19th century: They were used in Europe by Austrian natural healer Vincent Prissnitz.

 

1940: The founder of Rancho la Puerta spa in Mexico, one of the first destination spa resorts, offered them to guests as a balm for aches and muscle discomfort.

 

1970s: Live demonstrations on The Phil Donahue Show caught the American public’s attention.

 

1980s: First became widely used in salons

 

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