By SVERRE BAKKE
The Enterprise
A flurry of activity culminates this weekend in the grand opening of the Day Spa at Strawberry Mountain Salon.
White Salmon's newest beauty- and health-related business opens its doors to the public Saturday afternoon, from 1-4, just in time to ride the coattails of the Valentine's Day fanfare.
According to manager/co-owner Connie Riley, the grand opening celebration consummates two years of planning to bring to the Bingen-White Salmon area "A place to discover your natural beauty...naturally."
Located at the corner of NW Loop Road and N. Main Avenue in White Salmon, the day spa offers total-body services for women and men, ranging from massage therapy and upright tanning, to individualized skin treatments, and hand and foot care.
Riley said the idea for the day spa -- which operates in conjunction with a full-service hair salon and workout facility -- came to her about two years ago.
With her career as a hair stylist at an end because of chronic shoulder pain, she began to look into related services that would complement her hair-styling business.
"The business had gotten to the point financially where it was big enough and to the point where, physically, I needed to do something different," Riley explained.
In 2000, Strawberry Mountain began a brief relationship with the husband-wife team of J.J. and Nina Jasper, licensed medical estheticians who specialized in facial and skin care.
Riley said the couple exposed her to the need for their kind of health-related services in the Columbia River Gorge region.
"I've always wanted to be able to keep up with the demand for different services in our community," she noted, "and the kind of services we're now offering are going to become more and more in demand."
She said the spa's services are tailored for people of the Baby Boomer generation, "like me," who are beginning to see and feel the effects of aging on their bodies.
"We're really excited to be able to make these services available to our community, and we hope people will stop in this weekend to see what we have to offer," Riley added, "because there really is something here for everybody."
Facial and Skin Care --
Esthetician Shannon Keaveny recently joined the Strawberry Mountain staff. The skin care specialist is a 2002 graduate of the Aesthetics Institute in Portland, Ore.
The spa's skin care fitness program, based on the Skin Blends professional custom blending skin care system, offers treatments for an array of skin types, conditions and problems by combining clinical treatments with home-care regimens designed to help clients achieve the best results.
A feature of the program is micro-dermabrasion, a non-invasive process performed with a skin care device that removes dead surface skin cells and stimulates new cell growth to improve the look and feel of the skin.
Benefits of the treatment can include reduction of fine lines, stretch marks and some types of acne and acne scarring, and removal of such pigmentation disorders as age spots.
Riley said micro-dermabrasion treatments typically are applied in a series of visits; the severity of the skin problem determines the number of treatments.
Moroever, she added, micro-dermabrasion can produce the same results as laser and chemical peel treatments, but without the "burn effect" and healing period commonly associated with those alternatives.
Massage Therapy --
The services of massage therapist Debbie VanDeVanter will be available three days a week at the Day Spa at Strawberry Mountain Salon.
She is trained professionally in a variety of techniques, including the intensive Swedish full body massage.
VanDeVanter also performs massage for specific injuries, which can be combined with hydro therapy, the application of warm, moist heat; stone therapy, which focuses on the body's Chakra (energy) points; and paraffin hand dip, which is great for sore muscles in hands and joints.
Pregnant women can also enjoy the benefits of massage by scheduling an appointment with VanDeVanter, who offers a gentle, soothing, 90-minute rubdown for expectant mothers.
Hand and Foot Care --
An old-fashioned barber's chair is the centerpiece of nail technician Sarah Rouse's work station.
One take of her services will leave "hands and nails beautiful" and "feet feeling energized and smelling terrific."
In addition to manicures and pedicures, Rouse offers waxings that remove unwanted facial or body hair.
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