Odd Spa Treatments Without the Human Touch

By: Arti Patel

The above image thanks to The Globe and Mail.

If you asked someone to pick up a snake and put it around their neck, they might hesitate and eventually try it out. Now, imagine asking someone to lie down and have six different sized snakes slither all over their body---for relaxation. How many takers do I still have?

There is a recent trend hitting the spa market that has a unique way of maximizing customers’ desires and relaxation levels, while using alternative living-things and even objects for pure satisfaction.

A slithery offer:

A spa in Israel owned by Ada Barak offers snake massages as one of their most popular services. Six non-venomous snakes unwind and slither over the spa-goers body. For $80, Barak believes her hissing helpers provide a “kneading sensation.”

Not too fishy:

In Malaysia, Sampuoton Spa offers a pool-massage with hundreds of nibbling “doctor fish.” The fish work their way around your uncovered skin and eat away at dead skin cells. The fish treatment is completely painless and some people even find it ticklish.

Hot-ball service:

However if you are thinking there isn’t something more geared toward males, you are wrong. Even though spa treatments are very popular among men, some companies have catered services especially for them. Endulge, a spa based in Illinois, offers hot-golf ball massages for men for $150 for 80 minutes.

The worry about jobs being replaced by robots seems out of the ordinary now, especially when one of our most favourite features of touch is suddenly replaced by snakes, fish, golf balls and other odd spa treatments like Nightingale dropping and 24-karat gold facials.

With the art of massaging that once required the use of talented human hands, they are now used as the supporting roles. As trends change so do the massagists. People will pay money to feel what they think is the ultimate relaxation treatment, even if they are under the care of reptiles or objects they once took for granted.

So the next time someone scares you with a snake story, close your eyes, sit back and indulge yourself in the feeling of ultimate comfort.