My daughters have a their own distinct personalities. If you created a Venn diagram of the three of us — focused on our personality traits and interests — the overlapping section would be minuscule.
While both of my 20-something daughters were visiting recently, a minor miracle occurred. The three of us came upon an activity that we were all excited about. This aligning of the stars is rare. Greer, who has just moved back to the South from the New York City area, told us about head spas. We were all — on the spot — up for going together.
Not sure what a head spa is? It’s a salon that focuses on scalp and hair health. The spas originated in Asia and are also known as scalp or hair spas.
Piper Naudin relaxes in a massage chair at Lotus Head Spa in New Orleans.
“They have these cameras that they put in your hair and on your scalp and they show you what is going on,” she said, adding that there was one in New Orleans.
“I’m in,” I said.
So was Piper, our younger daughter.
Realizing the magnitude of this moment, I went straight to Lotus Head Spa’s website to see the options. There were plenty.
There was the $40 “essential headicure,” the $75 “nourishing Japanese headicure,” the $100 “Lotus luxury headicure” and the $200 “24K Gold headicure.”
I decided to add to their holiday gifts and splurged on the 90-minute $100 package for each of us.
Two days later, the three of us walked into the salon together — greeted by ladies who directed us to full-body massage chairs. To add to the experience, they put pulsating eye masks on our faces.
It was one of those situations where we all three just went with whatever was happening. The masks blocked out all the light and kind of massaged the eyes — a sensation I had not previously experienced.
After about five minutes, we were taken to a different room where one of the technicians used a camera to look at and show us our scalps.
“You use water that is too hot to wash your hair,” the woman said to me.
Later, when we were recounting the afternoon to my husband, he said, “I could have, for free, told you that the water you use to wash your hair is too hot.”
“But would you have massaged my scalp for 90 minutes?” I asked.
Moments after the cameras to scalps, we moved on to a third room, which, I will confess, is a bit of a blur for me.
On the way though, I caught a glimpse of their bathroom — which was a 24K gold kind of experience all within itself.
In the treatment room, I remember that we had to put on special robes and that my daughters were on tables to either side of me. Once they started working on my head and hair, things get fuzzy.
Here’s what I know: We were in that room for an hour. First, she put some sort of hot wrap on the top of my head. It smelled lovely, but it was not a scent I could identify. Then they put strips of something on my face — about 14 of them.
My daughters say those were cucumber strips — I couldn’t be sure. They smelled like cucumber, but they didn’t feel like cucumber to me. Then, she put something on top of that which felt like very cold little metal balls chained together.
There was a lot going on in an effort to restore and relax.
Piper said, “It felt like a million different oils went on my face.”
To be sure, there were multiple creams, rinses and oils involved. At one point, my head was under what I can best describe as a rainbow-shaped waterfall. The water temperature was perfect. The technician continued to massage my scalp and work a cream through my hair as the water flowed for about 20 minutes.
Then, there were hot stones and she massaged my feet. From there, the table’s built-in foot and leg massagers added to the sensory overload.
Afterward, we were ushered back into the second room where they re-examined and used a red light treatment on our scalps — while putting our feet in a detox bath and offering us treats to eat — during the last few minutes of head to toe pampering.
Overall, it was a wonderful experience — not just because I walked out of there feeling like I had the cleanest head around, but because I got to share the adventure with my daughters. We would all would do it again!
Lotus Head Spa is located at 1831 Rousseau St. in New Orleans.