Do you med spa? Has it been good for you?

I was taking a nice little stroll through our lovely downtown this morning and passed a couple of our med spas.

The International Medical Spa Association defines a medical spa as a place where you get more than massages, facials, and pedicures. It is:

“A facility that operates under the full-time, on-site supervision of a licensed health care professional. The facility operates within the scope of practice of its staff, and offers traditional, complementary, and alternative health practices and treatments in a spa-like setting. Practitioners working within a medical spa will be governed by their appropriate licensing board, if licensure is required."

The whole concept of a med spa is a bit elusive to me, I admit. Just this week, I had written something—a tad snarky, no doubt--about how I hoped that the developers of new buildings around Locust Street and Mt. Diablo Boulevard wouldn't fill their new retail spaces with more med spas.

I thought, how many more places in town do we need where you can get Botox or Collagen injections and chemical peels?

Personally, I shudder at the idea of the whole idea of Botox or Collagen injections—in order to reduce lines or to plump up the lips. Personally, I just think it’s weird, and it’s symptomatic of something even weirder in our 21st century world these days—but that’s the topic of a whole something else…

Some readers may have a different experience. Maybe for some readers, getting one of these treatments really made them feel better about themselves, physically and emotionally. I don’t want to discount that, and I would very much like to hear from a reader who has had these treatments, and for whom they have made a major difference.

Meanwhile, in trolling around websites about Walnut Creek med spas, I saw that their fans didn’t mostly patronize them for Botox and Collagen treatments. They relied on them for other services, notably laser hair removal, which is something, apparently, you need a licensed health care professional to perform.

Laugh if you want. But, there some of us gals who want that shadow removed from above our lips. Or some women--and men--have a serious medical condition that leads to excessive hair. And it doesn't make them feel too good about themselves. It makes them feel ugly and unworthy in a society that values smooth, hairless, wrinkle-free skin.

From reading Yelp and other online reviews of Walnut Creek med spas, it does sound like laser hair removal is a highly valued, popular treatment.

I don’t want to dump on med spas, and maybe some readers are die-hard fans and for very important reasons. If so, please share. And, of course, as always, you can be anonymous.

At the same time, I think it’s interesting how Walnut Creek has so many beauty-oriented shops, including med spas and regular spas. The blocks of Main and Locust streets are lined with places where we can get our hair highlighted, our eyebrows shaped, and our toe nails made to look like something way beyond the Stone Age.

It’s vanity. It’s the times. ... Of course, humans have always had their ways of being vain, of decorating themselves, of trying to look good.

And, Walnut Creek is not so different from a lot of other places that aspire to provide the Good Life—which these days apparently includes Botox and laser hair removal treatments.