{"id":320,"date":"2011-09-08T05:17:29","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T05:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=320"},"modified":"2012-09-08T05:26:18","modified_gmt":"2012-09-08T05:26:18","slug":"spa-strip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/spa-strip\/","title":{"rendered":"Spa strip"},"content":{"rendered":"

By DeeDee Fernandez<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not long ago, a close friend bugged me:<\/p>\n

I am to accompany my boyfriend to a spa, and it is causing me some stress. See, this future trip to this establishment will be the first for me (even if my boyfriend frequents them). And like many firsts, I daresay, it is a source of apprehension \u2013 especially for me, anyway. Do I have to take my clothes off? I am not the most exhibitionistic person on Earth, and this is giving me cold sweats (even the thought of it). Will I be sharing rooms with strangers? I am not in the habit of showing myself off to people I do not know. Will a man be giving me a massage? I don\u2019t want no one, except for my boyfriend, to touch me!\u00a0<\/em>
\nShould I just back out of the session?<\/em>
\nWhat do I do?<\/em>
\nHelp!<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I don\u2019t completely take my clothes off when I get a massage.<\/p>\n

Even for a full body massage.<\/p>\n

Let me state that first.<\/p>\n

I keep my underwear on \u2013 yes, I do.<\/p>\n

But having said that, it doesn\u2019t mean that: 1) You shouldn\u2019t strip when getting your massage; or 2) You should strip when getting your massage.<\/p>\n

It just means \u2013 plain and simple \u2013 that you do what is comfortable for you to do.<\/p>\n

No one should force you (goodbye maniacal masseur; except, of course, if he didn\u2019t mean offense, he was just really teasing \u2013 you could not be his type, come on).<\/p>\n

This, by the way, is the general rule when visiting spa facilities.<\/p>\n

Know your limits.<\/p>\n

Tell people (especially those to service you) of those limits.<\/p>\n

Stick to those limits.<\/p>\n

Spas and\/or health and wellness centers are venues for relaxation \u2013 and the only way for you to relax is to be comfortable where you are, doing what you do. Because if you are not, then this defeats the very purpose of you being in such a venue.<\/p>\n

So damn with the stripping.<\/p>\n

Damn with not stripping.<\/p>\n

Do what makes you comfy.<\/p>\n

DeeDee Fernandez is a self-described “no-nonsense opinionated health buff.” He believes that “to get what you want, you have to ask for it, else work for it.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who are not familiar with spa etiquette, do you remove your clothes or keep it on when availing of services?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[188,18],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinions","tag-spa-etiquette","tag-spa-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}