Laser Clinic MD

Spas and salons in New Jersey are hurting, along with the rest of the economy, but the relatively pricier medical spas among them seem to be better off, so says Hannelore Leavy, executive director of the International Medical Spa Association, in Union Township, which has 350 members worldwide, including about 30 in New Jersey.

The medical spa industry is faring better because its patrons are more affluent than those that patronize conventional day spas, Leavy said.

“In every recession, people buy more cosmetics because they want to look and feel good,” she said. Medical spas provide that “instant gratification,” she said.

Medical spas typically provide Botox wrinkle treatments, laser hair removal, and body contouring procedures like liposuction and facial toning, many of which have to be done under medical supervision, Leavy said.

Salons providing basic services like haircuts and nail jobs are also handling the recession better than expected because those are necessities, said Leavy, who also heads the 800-member Day Spa Association from her Union office. The day-spa industry has been badly hit because massages, facials and herbal wraps are considered luxuries, not necessities, she said.

Leavy said she is seeing the impact of the recession on the membership rolls of both her associations. The Day Spa Association, for example, has lost some 10 percent of its members over the past year.

But there is opportunity even within the day-spa industry, said Rosemary Weiner, chairwoman of the Association of Salon and Spa Professionals, also in Union Township. She said she found a ready buyer last December for her 3,500-square-foot Brass Rose Spa and Salon, in Blairstown, and secured a price just a couple of hundred dollars apart from what she sought.

Weiner said her association helps its roughly 100 members with counseling on retaining customers, better packaging of services and cost-control strategies. Leavy’s Day Spa Association has also put out a recession survival guide for its members, and has designated members in each state on the lookout for legislative changes.

One recently proposed legislative change fought by Weiner’s association was the state’s effort to ban Brazilian waxing, or waxing of the genital area, citing injuries. The association persuaded the state to drop the ban proposal, instead rewriting the legislation to address concerns.

“New Jersey would have been the only state in the country to ban it,” Weiner said. “It would have impacted salon and spa owners, and caused them a huge loss of revenue.”

The state remains one of the most stringent in terms of regulating medical spas, Leavy said, requiring doctors to serve as their promoters or investment allies — but she said her association welcomes such regulation.

“It’s not easy to hang out a shingle and start a [medical spa] business,” she said.