Belmont, MA Spa and Massage

At Salon David Escape Spa, visitors can pamper themselves with top-notch beautification services that spiff up their looks better than mime face paint. If you choose to perk up your mug, you'll get an organic herbal oregano facial ($65) that blends oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary with anti-aging extracts to deliver youthifying antioxidants and an ethereal radiance. A mane-taming haircut includes a hair consultation and expert styling from a level-III stylist ($62) to deliver a look that suits your face shape and passion for The X-Files. The 50-minute aromatherapy massage ($80) soothes tense fleshoskeletons with pure essential oils while masterfully ironing out back kinks like a moisturizer-lubed steamroller.

Armed with a toolbox of soothing techniques, the staff at TL Massage Therapy offers 10 different styles of massage and spa services. Inside private treatment rooms, therapists subdue stress by covering tense sinews with hot lava stones, aromatherapeutic essential oils, and kittens.

Communication is key at Massage Mantra, where a team of seven licensed massage therapists encourages clients to describe their pains and stresses and listens closely in order to structure treatments suitable to their needs. Once they have taken your input to heart, they stretch out their nimble hands and begin to soothe muscles with one of six available bodywork modalities, from reiki treatments that calibrate the body's energy levels to sports massages that methodically extract hockey pucks lodged between muscles. A roster of skin-specific facials complements the massages’ inner healing with infusions of nourishing vitamins that promote a healthy outer glow.

After clocking in 900 course hours at the Salter School, licensed massage therapist Kendra Retalic now spreads her knowledge of holistic massage therapies with clients in her practice and at charity events. Whether rehabilitating muscles with the compression and stretches of a sports massage or indulging in a soul-soothing reiki session, clients lie upon a padded massage table undressed to their comfort level as Kendra's healing hands serenade their musculoskeletal system for one commercial-free hour. She also taps into the skin-smoothing powers of Dead Sea mud, paraffin wax, and oiled hot stones to rejuvenate exteriors.

Lorrie Eyberg's first massage experience sparked something in her. She eventually enrolled in massage school, a move that led her to one day create Achelois Wellness Massage Therapy Studio. Eyberg named the studio after the Greek word achelois, which means "she who drives away pain." At her studio, Eyberg and her staff perform therapeutic massages in a candlelit treatment room to the accompaniment of soft music that never features a chorus of yowling alley cats. This relaxing atmosphere paves the way for a tension-melting massage, which they often supplement with clinical techniques that Eyberg says spur detoxification and strengthen the immune system.

At Copleys Rolf & Bodywork, owner Joel Gheiler rejuvenates stiff figures of any age with a series of connective-tissue manipulations coupled with a caring demeanor fine-tuned nationally and abroad in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Now settled into Boston, the muscle whisperer rejuvenates the physiques of his clientele using the Rolf Method of Structural Integration, facets of which combine to optimize healing over a 10-session recipe. The method's slow, deliberate strokes and cooperative movements soften the underlying tissue and realign bodies bent out of shape from time spent cramped in a car or locked in a suitcase. Deep-tissue myofascial massages condense the Rolf method’s techniques into one session for a treatment that immediately targets discomfort and pain while providing a relaxing retreat from the outside world. Clients can wear fitted or loose clothing and need not worry about walking away oily, since Joel eschews lotions and oils in order to target the soft tissue and keep bodies from sliding off the table and down the street.