The spa industry is realising that men need and want pampering too, writes Haydn Shaughnessy
As we bask in the warm weather, few men will be thinking: spa.
Spa is not the bright light bulb that flickers when the average man turns from work to indulgence. Red, might be - Bordeaux, burgundy. Amber - Jim Beam or black stout. But not yoga, t'ai chi, facial massage or manicure.
Nonetheless, men are beginning to take care of themselves more, dipping a toe in the spa bath, risking a hot shave, secretly permitting themselves the facial while wondering about the big plunge: a full body massage.
Their tentative steps into the world of pampering and spoiling are sometimes met with consternation from spa providers who designed the spa experience for women.
Society is only slowly waking up to what men want.
"Over the past 10 years," says Amanda Moss of specialist spa travel agents Erna Low in the UK, "We've seen some growth in male spas. Men's day spas are growing quickly but other than that, for hotel spas, I'd say we've seen about a 15 per cent increase."
That figure accords almost precisely with Merrion Hotel general manager Peter MacCann's estimate of the Dublin spa market. "Men make up a very small market," says MacCann,
"I'd estimate it at less than 15 per cent of our treatment room business."
The low turnout of men in the massage and manicure rooms has not been the experience of Kenmare pioneer of separate sex spas, Sámas, which was recently voted best spa in the UK and Ireland and Condé Nast traveller's number two in Europe.
Set up in the Park Hotel, Kenmare just over two years ago, Sámas's male bookings are already nearly on a par with its female.
"Sámas was born when I went into a spa in Edinburgh, Scotland," says John Brennan, the inspiration behind Sámas and the hotel's general manager.
"Two women were sitting there talking about their week and when I walked in they left. They didn't want me there. And the truth is men don't necessarily want to relax in female company either.
"That's why we developed separate areas for men and women. We have a couple's suite at Sámas and the truth is it's not much used."
Perhaps the most famous men- only spa is The Refinery in London's Mayfair. There are now four Refinery venues spread across London.
Treatments at the Refinery focus on barbering and the wet shave, both very manly, leading onto facial massage and the head massage, and the massage for aching sporting muscles, and then for those men who hate body hair, intimate waxing.
Yes, it's there!
It's a formula that imbues the men's spa with a level of ambiguity that John Brennan wanted to avoid at Sámas.
Men's day spas, meanwhile, are experiencing phenomenal growth.
Man Kind is part hairdresser, part de-stress spa in the middle of Cork city. Set up by Pat O'Donovan and his partner, Susan Ryan, its origins go back to Susan's beauty parlour which attracted a significant male clientele, even though her shop was painted pink and the air hung with female fragrances.
"We do facials, waxing, massage, head and body, and steam treatments," says O'Donovan, "as well as Turkish shave." Man Kind's bookings are so positive that O'Donovan would happily expand to new venues if he could find trained staff.
What kind of Corkman comes in for the different treatments?
"The age range is 25 upwards. We have men who come from Dublin and Galway, too. Many of them we think are under orders from their wives or girlfriends: a mechanic who gets a manicure before a wedding, fellas having their backs and shoulders waxed before going on holidays."
Francis Brennan, proprietor of the Park Hotel, says men from all kinds of background go to Sámas: "The very first customer I had walk through the door was a farmer from 15 miles up the road and he's still coming back."
Ireland, the Brennans claim, is a focal point for new age spa development, meaning that spas here eschew the middle European medicinal ethos.
"It's not medicine nor wellbeing," says John Brennan, "It's relaxation, chill out, time out."
Peter MacCann acknowledges that to date either the Irish industry has under-served men or men have not been able to get their wishes across. "Our spa was one of the first in the city centre," he says, "and the spa industry has moved on, so it needs updating."
Does that mean paying more attention to men's needs?
"We'll be paying close attention to male needs," says MacCann.
Sámas has what the literature calls a Signature Male Experience, three hours spent first in a sauna and then a steam room, moving onto the Irish mist shower and building up to the Monsoon, before dipping into a warm pool for jet and bubble treatments to the whole body. Then the massage. And finally the quiet room.
I tried Sámas on behalf of all men everywhere across the nation.
The Sámas experience began for me with yoga and then t'ai chi in a wooden lodge deep in the Park's grounds.
Jez Cooper has trained in India in an authentic Ashram where, he reports, more men than women take part in yoga practice. At Sámas, Jez takes clients through three hours of exercise that is relaxing and yet exacting. He also leads a morning serenity walk, all of which are part of the experience.
The emphasis on activities that are demanding yet also induce a sense of calm is, to me, what men seek, though Jez laments that more women than men still attend these classes. The activity justifies the indulgence.
The sauna, steam room and massage is also a ritual that I found more than acceptable, in part because I know soccer players get treated that way, and the rugby lads too. It is beginning to fit the model of the modern male, though the manicure, pedicure and wax, I evaded.
The only regret I came away from Sámas with is that I didn't spend more time there. Stepping out of the pool on the way to the treatment, I wanted to go back to the sauna and the steam room to experience again a particularly enlightening luxury: sitting in a warm place, not worrying.