Quick Fixes for Your Summer Image

Written By Donna Engle

Jean Lawyer of Westminster wants to look her best in every season. The retired home economics teacher, 75, greets summer with regular pedicures and manicures and a sunless tan to give her legs a healthy glow.

Lawyer is not alone. Make-up, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills comprise a $160 billion global industry.

Summer brings increased demand for pedicures to beautify bare toes, treatments to give skin a glow and hair highlights for a sun-lightened look. Cosmetic surgeons and vein specialists see an increased demand for Botox to erase wrinkles, hyaluronic acid injections to fill facial lines or spider vein removal to beautify bare legs. Waxing or laser treatments rid bikini areas and underarms of unwanted hair or get it off men’s backs. Many seek advice on makeup design for heat and humidity. Some seek massages to relax muscles overworked by lawn care or seasonal sports.

Acupuncture has a role in a summer look, too.

“With the change of seasons, your body goes through changes. Your skin, hair, everything changes. Acupuncture is great for a pick me up,” said Betty Thomas, co-owner of Samsara Salon and Spa, Sykesville, which offers the service. Acupuncture helps detoxify the body when the flow of energy is stuck, she said.

Carroll residents can brighten their summer image at spas where they can emerge feeling and looking good all over; plastic surgery or vein reduction centers, or beauty salons where they can finish off a hair treatment, manicure and pedicure with a facial, massage or makeup consultation.

A sampling:

Massages

Bladerunner Hair, Nails & Skin, Inc., 104 E. Main St., Westminster, 410-848-5353. Deep tissue, hot stone and other forms available.

Fusion Mind Body Spirit, 558 Jermor Lane, Westminster, 410-857-3863 or www.fusionconcepts.org. A West Coast spa experience, focusing on harmony of mind, body and spirit. Sixty or 90-minute massages, therapeutic or intensive, hot or hot and cool stones. Baltimore Ravens players often come for massages after a hard day of practice in Westminster, said owner Crickett Cimino, a massage therapist, esthetician and makeup artist.

Freestyle Hair & Body Spa, 400 N. Center St., Town Mall, 410-848-3358 or www.freestyledayspa.com. Westminster-Swedish, deep tissue, hot stone; reflexology.

Samsara Salon and Spa, 7606 Main St., Sykesville, 410-552-6900 or www.samsarasalonandspa.com. “Samsara” is a Sanskrit word meaning rebirth or evolution.

“Everyone walking through our door is always evolving, rebirthing themselves,” said co-owner Betty Thomas, a certified massage therapist. Massages with healing stones to increase circulation and detoxify; a massage “room for two” for couples or friends that has proven very popular; reflexology.

The Spa at Roop’s Mill, 1019 Old Taneytown Pike, Westminster, 410-871-0023 or www.thespaatroopsmill.com.Some customers take a full spa day to get ready for their summer vacations, said staff member Patina Casazza. Swedish, deep tissue, hot stone or couples massage.

Facials, Body Treatments and Wraps

Our ancestors often carried parasols to protect them against the sun. Today, spas and salons offer waxing; exfoliation; body wraps to eliminate toxins and firm up loose, sagging skin; and moisturizing treatments to refresh and help repair damaged skin.

Nearly all salons do waxing to remove unwanted body hair. Many also bleach facial and forearm hair. Waxing treatments for bikini areas range from hair removal only from visible areas to the Brazilian, complete pubic hair removal.

Demand for exfoliation increases in summer.

“Everyone thinks about their skin. You want to shed your old skin and get a fresh, new look,” said Samsara’s Thomas.

At Fusion, “A lot of times we have clients who forgot to preapply sunscreen and their faces are a little more sunburned than they would like,” said Cimino. A cooling facial helps soothe sun or windburned skin.

Miscellaneous Treatments

Bladerunner – Oxygenation facial; for women over 40, facials with special attention to the area around the eyes and cleavage. Body wraps.

Fusion – Youth facials; deep cleansing facials. Detoxifying body wraps, which are prerequisite to cellulite wraps.

Wrapping to reduce the appearance of cellulite, “is a commitment, not a quick fix,” said Cimino. “It’s for people who want to do exercises, lose weight, manage their lifestyle. I don’t want people to waste their time and energy if they don’t understand that.”

Exfoliation with a sugar scrub body polish, followed by a wrap in seaweed and mud is intended to speed up cellular mechanisms and remove toxins.

Samsara – Facials. Full body exfoliation with sea salt scrub. Detoxifying herbal wrap to increase circulation and fight aging. Cellulite control wrap with caffeine for a temporary smoother, firmer contour. The cellulite wrap is best done in a series for maximum effect, said Thomas.

The Spa at Roop’s Mill – Revitalizing or calming facials; men’s facials; spa facial with steam inhalation. Pumice peel exfoliation. Herbology body wraps for intense moisturizing.

Tanning

Concerns about skin cancer and an awareness of how sun ages skin have led many salon and spa owners to banish tanning beds. But they offer a summer look without exposure to damaging rays.

Bladerunner – An airbrushed tan that lasts for 10 days and won’t damage skin. “Women who are aging don’t want to be too tan. It makes you look older,” said owner Lisa Nightingale.

Fusion – Gold body wrap that leaves traces of gold on your skin to reflect a summer sheen.

Samsara – A bronzer-like product that produces a glow when spread over the body, more subtle than a spray-on tan.

Spa at Roop’s Mill – self-tanning lotion can be applied after body treatment.

Nail Treatments

Bare toes call for polish, and their owners pick up the phone. At Bladerunner, “We see a huge surge in the pedicure business when people start wearing sandals,” said Nightingale.

Some customers want nails lacquered in colors that reflect the bright hues of the season. “Coral is really big this year,” Casazza of Roop’s Mill said.

French style manicures and pedicures, a natural look with white tips and a white or pale pink base, are very popular, said Vicki Brown, stylist at Main Attraction Salon, 1341 Liberty Road, Eldersburg. More information: 410-795-8158 or www.mainattractionsalon.com

Manicures and pedicures are available at nearly all beauty salons throughout the county. Many also do nail extensions.

Fusion and The Spa at Roop’s Mill offer 100 percent vegan nail lacquers without animal byproducts or chemicals.

Makeup Design

Most salons offer makeup design.

“In the summer in Maryland, it’s not feasible to wear a full face of makeup every day,” Fusion owner Cimino said. “So we teach how to apply lighter make up, to make it fit the summer lifestyle.”

Samsara’s owners favor a natural mineral makeup they tout as “sweat proof.” The makeup contains sunscreen and is healthy for skin, Thomas said. “You don’t have to reapply this makeup. It doesn’t run or smear,” she added.

The Samsara staff sees increased demand for eyelash extensions from beachgoers who don’t want to bother with mascara. The attached lashes shed naturally and last about one month before fill-ins are needed, Wagner said.

Latisse, a new prescription-only treatment aimed at growing longer, thicker and darker eyelashes has proven “very impressive,” said plastic surgeon Dr. Guy Cappuccino.

For more information: Dr. Cappuccino, 1001 Twin Arch Road, Mount Airy, 301-829-4110 or www.drcappuccino.com. Also available from: Dr. Marilyn D. Miller, plastic and reconstructive surgery, 295 Stoner Ave., Westminster, 1380 Progress Way, Eldersburg, 410-876-3380 or www.marilynmillermd.com; Sinno Center for Plastic Surgery, Dr. Fady Sinno, 826 Washington Road, Westminster, 410-751-2348 or www.sinnoplasticsurgery.com

Non-Surgical Medical Treatments

In the battle against wrinkles, Botox is the go-to weapon. “The most popular non-surgical thing I do is Botox,” said Dr. Miller.

“We see more Botox in this economy,” said Rima Sinno, practice manager at the Sinno Center. There is a slight trend toward temporary fixes by injection rather than a forehead lift for eyebrow elevation, she said.
Soft tissue fillers, commonly injectable collagen or fat, have become very popular in the last five years, said Dr. Cappuccino. Botox, fillers and laser resurfacing “are a nice way to turn the clock back a few years,” he said.

The Spa at Roop’s Mill also offers Botox and lip collagen injections.

Chemical peels are complementary to fillers to improve skin texture, Rima Sinno said, but patients must stay out of the sun for one week after treatment. Dr. Miller and Dr. Cappuccino prefer not to do chemical peels in the summer because of the danger of hyperpigmentation, patches of darker skin. Dr. Cappuccino said he does a chemical peel in the summer only after pretreating the skin and making sure the patient uses sunscreen after the peel.

Spider Vein Treatments

Varicose veins may require surgical treatment, but the thin, spider-shaped veins that sometimes appear on legs may be removed without surgery. Treatment is generally an injection of saline solution that causes the vein to inflame and then close off. Some very fine spider veins may be treatable with a laser.

Vein treatments are available from Dr. Cappuccino; Dr. Miller; Sinno Center; Vein Center of Maryland, Dr. Yash Kumar, 826 Washington Road, Westminster, 410-840-0023 or theveincenterofmaryland.com.