Massage in New Orleans

In 2011, Ellen DeGeneres surprised the audience on the final day of her 12 Days of Giveaways show with a trip to New Orleans. Their stay included pampering at Serenity Spa New Orleans, voted one of the best mani-pedis by Gambit’s Best of New Orleans. Away from the daily grind of life, experts swaddle clients in a body wrap of Baltic mud collected from a 30,000-year-old lake in Eastern Europe. Heated basalt stones or pet rocks enhance any massage, facial, or pedicure, and warm wax gently removes unwanted bros hairs and lip fuzz.

City Looks is a modish boutique salon with an accommodating staff that upkeeps coiffures and dignifies digits with a full menu of salon services. A haircut and single-process coloring cleanses follicles with shampoo before imbuing them with vibrant hues and trimming excess inches. Guests with innately extravagant hairstyles can opt for a manicure that smoothes cuticles and coats fingernails with colorful polish to match dinner outfits or beeping house-arrest anklets. While waiting for their hair or nail services, visitors can treat themselves to complimentary adult beverages, chocolate, and soothing scalp massages.

Named one of this year's top 100 salons in the country by Elle magazine, Kinetix Spa Salon submerges guests in a pool of pampering services. For 50 minutes, licensed massage therapist Michael Mikolajewski helps uproot body aches with the deep-tissue massage's firm kneading or the hot-stone massage's soothing game of spinal checkers. Surrounded by exposed-brick walls, spa technicians rub 98 percent naturally organic Comfort Zone products into skin surfaces to help bolster complexions during the Purify facial and quench parched pores during the Sacred nature facial. Afterward, relaxed guests can bask inside a steam shower, sip complimentary wine or champagne, or shout out ATM PINs in the private courtyard.

Balance Spa at the Loews is like a social mixer for spa services: East meets West, water meets air, modern science meets time-tested treatments. And all of these convergences happen under the skilled eyes of aestheticians. In four treatment rooms they apply self-heating mud-packs to the spine and feet while aromatherapy calms the senses. The sea's bounty also becomes apparent with Phytomer products made from underwater plants that combat aging and help reduce the depth of wrinkles to keep people from filling them in with cement. The East meets West massage, meanwhile, combines muscle-soothing techniques from both hemispheres, readying the mind for a rejuvenating facial that mixes glycolic acid and proteolytic enzymes. Afterward, clients can draw on age-old hubs of well-being: the hotel's pool, fitness and wellness center, sauna, and whirlpool.

The technicians at 1401 Massage Therapy knead muscle knots and ease tension with a variety of modalities. Inside the private rooms bathed in warm lighting, the therapists tailor their techniques to suit their clients, drawing on deep-tissue massage, neuromuscular therapy, sports massage, and orthopedic traditions.

Luxury sheets and a heated massage bed help visitors sink into relaxation after stepping inside The Peppermint Room, a studio located inside Swan River Yoga. Once they've settled in, licensed massage therapist Dee Pittman kneads away stress and tension from the muscles. Meanwhile, the organic jojoba and emu oils that she uses condition the skin and emit a pleasing natural peppermint scent.