To that end, The Post tried out self-care services in the D.C. area that are relative bargains. We found great deals on the usual treatments, like manicures and pedicures, plus more exotic options, like acupuncture, reiki healing and anger explosion. (More on that last one below.)
Read on to find out how to pamper yourself and your savings account.
Express facial at Studio Chique
$65
Standard facials are usually an hour, and as a result, it’s hard to find one that’s not about the same price as a nice dinner (plus drinks and desserts) for two. That’s what makes the express facial at Columbia Heights’ Studio Chique so great: It’s reasonably priced because it’s only 30 minutes long.
Don’t let the express in the name fool you. There may be less of it, but this is still a quality facial. The narrow three-floor studio sits on busy Georgia Avenue; when you walk up the stairs, you’re immediately welcomed by a bustling hair salon and a kind receptionist whose desk is sandwiched in between stylists’ chairs. You walk past chatting customers and stylists, blow dryers dying hair, and running sinks washing hair to a serene, private facial room. The shades are drawn, a fresh robe to protect your clothes is hanging, and calming music plays in the background. The stage for relaxation is set.
If you’ve never had a facial, Studio Chique’s aesthetician explains the process. Your questions are answered before you lie down so that during the facial, there isn’t a lot of chatting — just you relaxing. They fit a lot into a half an hour: a thorough cleanse, an intense exfoliating scrub, a creamy mask. All throughout the process, the aesthetician is generous with the soothing massage-like rubs on the face.
At the end of the appointment, instead of hawking the salon’s products as many employees of other establishments do, the aesthetician shares what they observed about your skin. You’ll walk away with a subtle new glow, inside and out.
Studio Chique, studiochique.com, 3013 Georgia Ave. NW.
Anger explosion at Kraken’s Rage Room
$30
Most times, self-care is good for you and good for the people around you. This is especially true when the self-care means expelling pent-up frustration in a healthy and safe way. Enter Kraken’s Rage Room in D.C.’s Chinatown neighborhood.
You can book a rage room just for yourself or with up to six other people if you’ve got a group’s worth of anger to let out. The Rage Room guide explains how it goes down. You put on a protective jumper over your clothes, grab a pair of rubber boots, and tighten an all-purpose helmet that features ear protection and a face guard. Then you pick what you’d like to smash (mostly different-sized plates) and choose a weapon. You get to select two out of a plethora of bats, hammers and large wrenches.
And then it’s just you and your rage in an industrial room. You get 15 minutes and a choice of silence or the Kraken’s soundtrack (featuring songs from Rage Against the Machine, of course). Besides one tiny window on the door, the walls are solid, so you can smash, throw and destroy without fear.
Kraken Axes & Rage, experiencekraken.com, 840 E St. NW.
Reiki at Eye Street Massage
$70
The National Institutes of Health classifies reiki healing as a “complementary health approach.” Practitioners of reiki healing barely touch you. Instead, they hover their hands over your body as a way to channel energy. In reiki, which comes from Eastern tradition, moving energy within you is supposed to facilitate healing.
Eye Street Massage downtown offers a 30-minute reiki session for $70. The downtown parlor’s massage room is quiet and comfortable. The reiki practitioner is patient with newcomers’ questions about this energy-based practice. And the reiki itself? It’s hard to say whether someone shifting your energy within your body is making a physical difference. But when you have a busy or stressful life, taking even half an hour to focus on your body and how it’s feeling is a luxury that might make all the difference.
Eye Street Massage, 1634 I St. NW, eyestreet-massage.com.
Acupuncture at Little Bird Community
$25-$50
Acupuncture uses tiny needles to activate locations on the body known as acupoints, a process that is said to help with ailments like chronic pain. A 2018 meta-analysis found that acupuncture can alleviate osteoarthritis, back pain and headaches.
Little Bird Community in Adams Morgan has a stated goal: “provide acupuncture to as many people as possible at affordable rates in a cozy community setting.” Little Bird’s sliding pay scale allows customers to pay as much as they can afford for receiving acupuncture in a community setting. That community setting means a couple of comfortable chairs set up across a tranquil room.
Little Bird’s acupuncturist is curious about any pain customers may be feeling before they insert the tiny, barely-there needles at the acupoints. The best part is there’s no rushing the deep relaxation people tend to feel during acupuncture. You can sit there, needled-up and resting, for as long as Little Bird is open.
Little Bird Community Acupuncture, 1640 Columbia Rd. NW, littlebirddc.com.
Massage at Potomac Massage Training Institute
$45-$65
Who doesn’t need a massage? From the mental benefits (like better quality of sleep and lowered anxiety) to the physical ones (improved circulation and decreased joint inflammation), massage targets the tension we store in our bodies. Unfortunately, it’s expensive — which can create more tension.
Enter the Potomac Massage Training Institute. The massage school in Silver Spring offers two ways for you to get a delicious hour-long massage experience without dropping a Benjamin.
First option: the $45 student Swedish massage. Intermediate or advanced students work on you for 55 to 60 minutes with supervision from their instructor and peers. This is not for clients who have serious medical conditions or would like to request a certain gender of massage therapist, and it runs generally from Wednesdays to Saturdays when class is in session. Second option: the $65 graduate massage. This is just a normal, excellent massage from graduates of the clinic who are working to gain relationships with clients. These are fully trained massage therapists whom you can book seven days a week and who will spend the session targeting whatever issues you have with whatever pressure you prefer.
Potomac Massage Training Institute, pmti.org, 8701 Georgia Ave., Suite 700, Silver Spring, Md.
Lash and brow tint at Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute Arlington
$25
When I don’t dye my eyebrows, I look like that 2014 internet trend where people Photoshopped celebs without eyebrows to laugh at. So for the past half-decade, I have been dyeing my eyebrows with Just for Men. Getting my brows (and eyelashes) tinted was an elevated experience.
The Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute in Ballston Quarter has a laundry list of beauty services, from waxing to haircuts and, yes, lash and brow tinting. After checking in at the front desk, you’ll be directed to a private partitioned space in the back of the institute. In the softly lit quarters, an Aveda Institute student will discuss what colors you’re going for and explain the process. All you have to do is sit back and not open your eyes.
The tinting costs $15 for either lashes or brows and $25 for both and is a bite-size pampering experience for those who don’t want to spend the extra minutes in the morning doing their brows and lashes. Keep in mind that the stylists are still students and will have different experience levels, but if you find a student you particularly like, you can call and request them in the future.
With all the student training deals, remember to bring cash or have your Venmo ready to tip. Lots of them don’t have the option to tip with card.
Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute Arlington, aveda.edu/locations/location/arlington-va, 671 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 1280, Arlington, Va.
ASMR Massage at TheraKneads
$65+
Are you someone who is always asking your mom, partner or sibling to play with your hair or give you back tickles? Then this ASMR massage is tailor-made for you.
ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and basically means the tingles you get when you watch a satisfying video or when someone plays with your hair. Enthusiasts often watch ASMR videos to fall asleep, and ASMR-tagged videos on TikTok have garnered over 370 billion views.
With such a huge audience, it’s hard to understand why there are so few places that do ASMR massages. TheraKneads recognized the lack of practitioners in the area and looked to fill that role. People now travel from hours away to get the unique experience, for which you can choose to have the sound of either a crackling fire or a thunderstorm in the background.
As with a traditional massage, you are instructed to undress to your comfort level, but they request that you remove any bra straps for back and shoulder tickles. From there, you lie on a heated massage bed as your massage therapist begins playing with your hair; brushing your face and arms with a soft brush; and lightly scratching or tickling your arms, face, back and neck. They can also focus on areas like your hands or legs if that’s what gives you relaxation.
Starting at $65 for a half-hour massage, this is an unusual and luxurious, yet incredibly personal service.
TheraKneads, therakneads.com, multiple locations.
Manicure at the Salon Professional Academy D.C.
$11+
Located conveniently in NoMa, the Salon Professional Academy D.C. is perfect for pampering on a budget. It’s particularly ideal for when you want Carmela Soprano nails without paying New Jersey mob wife prices.
In a small nail service area of the salon, you will find a petite wall of polishes parallel to chairs for pedicures and a few manicure stations. Here you can get services like an $11 manicure, a $23 gel manicure or a gel full set for $30. If you want something more complicated and your manicurist has the skill set, you may pay a few dollars more.
A 10-minute walk from the Union Station Metro, this brightly lit facility offers other services, too. Facials run $25 and up and are given in a bright, communal room so instructors can easily view the process. This environment makes the facial less calming and more pragmatic, but it’s a price you can’t beat.
Just be aware that these are students and they’re not as quick as professionals. I brought a guest to get a facial and manicure, but the student doing her facial didn’t pace it correctly and she was unable to get her nails done because the facility was going to close. Arrive earlier in the day and space out your appointments for the best results.
The Salon Professional Academy D.C., tspadc.com, 90 K St. NE, Suite 103.
