Two Mud Treatments -- to Go

By EMILY MITCHELL

Fast cars, faster food -- everything is getting quicker, including the rush to relax. Hard-driving Americans who will not -- or cannot -- take time for $ the lengthy luxury of a resort spa still want tiny bites of that bliss. Increasingly they are getting them by popping around the corner to a day spa, where a body scrub, mud bath or Shiatsu massage can be had in a jiffy. From Manhattan to Los Angeles, the body-friendly pit stops are becoming the trendiest way to deal with clangorous city existence. "All the stress just falls away," says Susan Luokkala, a Los Angeles financial manager who makes regular visits to an urban oasis.

City spas probably owe their popularity to the growing number of women professionals who want to cram the benefits of a massage or body scrub into their crowded business day. But the facilities cater to both sexes, and for rushed executives or work-out enthusiasts, they help unknot kinks and ease tensions. Corporations are joining the trend by rewarding employees with day- spa gift certificates; rather than woo clients over lunch at a chic restaurant, many businesswomen now treat them to a short stint at a day spa, where a la carte treatments replace the lengthy regimens at full-time facilities.

At Susan Ciminelli's retreat for the tired masses in Manhattan, New Age music fills the air. Rock crystals are placed throughout the establishment to give "a sense of calm relaxation," she explains. Ciminelli, who calls city spas "maintenance," offers a menu of seaweed facials and body treatments, all priced at about $65. Patrons at Beverly Hot Springs in Los Angeles bathe in marble-and-stone pools, then stretch out to be rubbed with a velvety mixture of oil and honey, and finish off with a facial pack of freshly grated cucumber. Total cost: $70.

Dorit Baxter opened a spa in midtown Manhattan after listening to her skin- care clients say how they longed to visit a spa for only two hours. Now they can get slathered in a thick green paste made from Mediterranean seaweed, baked, cooled, cleansed, and then zip back to the office in little more than an hour. Her first male customers, Baxter reports, appeared reluctantly, at the urging of a wife or a girlfriend. Now, they book such treatments as a head-to-toe application of mud from the Dead Sea or a deep-muscle vibration massage. Robert MacDonald, partner in a venture-capital firm and a regular client, frankly enjoys the pampering. "This is not the no-pain, no-gain part of well-being," he says.

Day spas are a lot easier on the pocketbook than the residential variety, where prices can zoom to more than $3,500 for a week's stay. Day-spa regimens can start as low as $35 for a 40-minute facial or head toward the $100-plus range for a massage or cleansing treatment. At the Burke Williams urban spa in West Los Angeles, attendants smooth on plant and flower oils, each with its own purpose: some stimulate fatigued muscles; others soothe them. While classical music plays softly, clients are pummeled into tranquillity with a deep-tissue sports massage, followed by the application of cooling citrus- scented lotions. Owner Bill Armour's clientele has grown 350% in the past year, to as many as 80 people a day, and next year he will be moving to bigger quarters. In the austere '90s, it seems, a little pampering can still go a long way -- so long as it happens fast enough.

With reporting by Georgia Harbison/New York and Diana Mathers/Los Angeles