Beauty therapy is not just for women as one salon in Nicosia intends to prove
WHEN I was asked to review a male beauty salon, I was a little bit sceptical. Like the majority of Greek men, I was brought up to believe that beauty salons were the sole preserve of women, with a man likely to be called a variety of unpleasant names if he admitted to visiting such an establishment. With these names ringing in my ears, I headed off to the Handsome Men Beauty Salon in Nicosia.
Although the salon has only been open for three months, owner Stelios Stylianou said he had the initial idea twelve years ago. He said he wanted to open a place in which men would feel comfortable, but had experienced difficulties in recruiting the right personnel for a men’s salon.
With these staff in place Stelios is now able to offer, what seemed to me, a dizzying array of treatments: face and body cleansing, face and body masks, thermotherapy, aromatherapy, electrotherapy, hair removal, massage and nail care. “Women like their partner’s fingers to look good,” one of the beauticians, Shelly. “Men feel like they’re flying when they have a pedicure,” she added. Aromatherapy massage is the most popular treatment while prices range from £15 to £400. Shelly went on to say that many men are so impressed by their experiences at the salon that they bring along their wives and girlfriends for a so-called ‘couples day’.
The salon “targets men and their women and does this to show the ladies that their men are coming to a reputable establishment and not to a dodgy massage parlour,” Stelios said. Men of all professions and nationalities visit Handsome Men, with the majority of customers aged between 30 and 50. Youngsters also come for acne treatment, which Stelios said “produces guaranteed results using the Ayurveda method”. I later learned this is a system of health care developed in India over 5,000 years ago, which takes into account the patient’s entire personality – body, mind and spirit. Ayurveda was “used by Indian military officers to heal superficial wounds sustained in battle,” according to Stelios.
So, with words like exfoliation, rejuvenation and photolysis swirling around in my head, it was time to become the office guinea pig and actually put some of these treatments to the test.
I slipped into a robe and slippers and lay on my back for a beauty facial. Shelly began by cleansing my face, then applied a mask of orange, cocoa butter and aloe vera, which set like a clay. She stressed that all treatments at Handsome Men use only natural ingredients, with chemicals avoided whenever possible. Twenty minutes later, the mask was removed and moisturiser added to “soothe, heal and detoxify.” Lastly, eye gel was applied to “smooth the skin and reduce wrinkles (although that obviously wasn’t going to work after just one treatment.”
Shelley then began to massage my head and neck with pine and almond oils, which gave off a wonderful aroma. The combination of the massage, smell and Shelly’s soothing Australian accent nearly put me to sleep. Stelios said that he has tried nearly every massage in Nicosia but has yet to find one as good as Shelly’s. “The massage must not be mechanical but must have feeling. It is not something that can be taught – you must have the gift.” Lying there, in a totally relaxed state, I couldn’t have agreed with him more – she did indeed have the gift.
Stelios then placed silicone pads onto various points on my abdomen in order to give me an electrotherapy demonstration. After he powered-up the one-and-a-half volt battery, I felt my stomach muscles contract pretty strongly – even though he told me that he was only using the machine at 26 per cent of its power capabilities! Electrotherapy is used to exercise and tone muscles around the body.
After three days of listening to my female colleagues urging me to be waxed, so I could “experience first-hand what women have to go through”, I finally succumbed, agreeing to give it a try in the name of journalism.
A pre-base cream was applied to my upper arm prior to waxing to “ease pain and reduce irritation.” Hot honey wax was then applied to the arm, before being ripped off in one quick motion, using what looked like a cloth strip. Pain was moderate, due to the area not containing much hair. Shelly warned me that any attempt to wax my leg or chest would have resulted in excruciating pain.
Yellow and blue lighting is combined throughout Handsome Men to create a magenta effect, which both Stelios and Shelly told me makes for a very relaxing environment. They weren’t wrong. After finishing my various treatments, Stelios ushered me into the ‘Relaxation Lounge’, where I slumped into an enormous black leather Laz-E-Boy type chair. I felt like I could have stayed there all day – the lighting, soft music and beautiful high-tech surroundings made me feel completely at ease. But alas, I had to return to the office.
As I departed, it dawned on me that the two hours I had spent in Handsome Men were enough to change my pre-conceptions of men in the beauty salon, having received “the personal touch from the moment I arrived to the time I left.”
I woke up the following morning noticing my skin feeling much softer and less oily than usual, with the massage also having worked wonders for my previously tense neck – thoroughly recommended.
l Handsome Men Beauty Saloon. 18 Athalassa Avenue, Strovolos, Nicosia. Tel: 22 315555
