Good Health - not just Skin Deep

Properly caring for your body is important not only to your physical but also your mental well-being.  Unfortunately, in today's world, with its non-stop communication that hinders our being able to completely 'unplug', most of us work so hard that we find it nearly impossible to make the time to take care of ourselves. The harder we work, the more difficult this becomes.  

The hectic non-stop pace of our lives, coupled with the tremendous demands of work and home lead to most of us being just plain overworked, overstimulated, and overtired!  We find it hard, if not darn near impossible, to relax and rejuvenate on a regular basis. In fact, the only thing 'regular' in most of our lives is that we are 'regularly' stressed!

Routine exercise is an important component to any healthy lifestyle, as is getting adequate sleep, eating properly and taking good care of one of the most important parts of our bodies - our skin.

Your skin is the largest organ of your body, and thus needs to be properly taken care of in order to perform vital functions.  It receives a third of the blood that circulates throughout your body. It is strong, flexible and virtually waterproof. This amazing organ can regenerate and repair itself under most conditions. It provides protection, thermoregulation, sensation, and allows secretion. It is your body’s first line of defense, protecting you from harmful pollutants and providing you with immunity.  It helps to regulate your body temperature and lets you know when we are not getting proper nutrition and water intake.  If maintained properly, your skin can help to keep you looking young for years to come. Unfortunately, when your health is compromised or if you are not taking proper care of yourself, your skin is often the first place this is evidenced. Sometimes poor self-care makes itself known on the skin through breakouts, rashes, wrinkles, dryness etc.

Proper skin care goes beyond washing just your face.  It includes proper hydration internally and proper maintenance of the skin on your neck, chest and back, arms, hands, legs, and feet etc.  Good skin care includes regular cleansing, exfoliation, moisturizing, and also massage!  Massage not only relaxes the muscles in your body, it also stimulates the nerve endings in your skin.  The use of high quality massage oils, lotions, gels and butters further help to nourish your skin, providing it with the moisture and vitamins that help it to remain healthy.

At Wings Massage & Bodywork, we use only the highest quality organic, vegan, and all-natural massage oils, creams, lotions and other massage related products. Throughout the year, we are always thinking of ways to pamper and do something special for our regular clients. This month, we've concocted homemade body butters using only the best and purest ingredients to help counteract the drying effects of the season on our clients skin. These butters make an awesome and nourishing treatment for dry, cracked areas that are in need of a little tender loving care - the hands and feet!  This is just one of the many things we like to do to demonstrate to our clients how much we appreciate and care for them.  Our special body butters use 100% pure organic African Shea butter, along with a number of other high quality oils to produce a whipped butter cream which is awesome for dry skin! 

Shea butter is one of the best moisturizing, anti-aging regenerating and protecting natural products in the world! It helps protect skin from UV sunlight, harsh climate, dehydration and pollution damages. It is also considered one of the best anti-aging agents for skin. It strengthens skin by stimulating the production of collagen, which is the youthful scaffolding protein in skin. It makes skin more supple, more alive, nourished and radiant. If you have wrinkles, fine lines and crow feet or if your skin is dry, very dry, damaged or devitalized, Shea butter will make all of these problems vanish and bring your skin back into life and beauty. It is great for use during both the cold and sunny seasons.

If you don't remember when was the last time you took a moment to take care of yourself, or if you do remember and it's been a while - why not take the time right now, go to http://wings-massage.com/preview/book-appointment/ to book an appointment at Wings Massage & Bodywork studio.  Come on in, and let us take care of you! Getting regular massage and bodywork from a certified licensed Massage Therapist at Wings Massage & Bodywork Studio will not only relax your mind and body, it will also help your skin to maintain that natural, healthy glow!


Wings Soothing Body Butter Recipe
Makes about 2 1/2 to 3 cups whipped butter.

1 cup organic, raw African shea butter*
1/2 cup organic coconut oil
1/4 cup organic extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup organic almond* oil
1 tablespoon Jamaican Black castor oil
5 drops therapeutic grade rosemary essential oil
5 drops of therapeutic grade jasmine essential oil
4 drops of therapeutic grade peppermint essential oil

1. Melt shea butter and coconut oil in the top of a double boiler. Remove from heat and let cool for 30 minutes. 

2. Stir in olive oil, almond oil, castor oil and essential oils (feel free to substitute with oils of your choosing.*

3. Place oil mixture in freezer or (if winter) outside for at least 20 minutes to chill.

4. Wait until oils partially solidify then whip until a butter-like consistency is achieved. 

4. Place in clean, glass or plastic jar and enjoy! Use in moderation as a little stretches a ways!

*Essential oils are highly concentrated and should never be put directly onto skin. Some oils cause irritation and are not child-friendly so please do your own research before adding any.  If you have nut allergies, you should not use any of the above nut oils.


Tips:

1. You can use any oils you wish, just keep the mix ratio at 75% solid to 25% liquid.

2. Chilling the butter is crucial. If you don’t chill properly, it won’t whip or stay whipped.

3. Store in a cool, dry place 

4. Butter should keep for two months (not sure if shelf life beyond that since I usually use mine up within two months)

5. The body butter melts as it goes on and absorbs quickly and leaves skin very soft.

6. For extra help softening the feet or hands, take a scoop of butter, rub into feet or hands (may need someone else's help with hands), wrap foot or hand in plastic wrap, then with a moist, heated towel to help the butter penetrate the skin. Leave on until towel cools.

7. This butter is also great for dry and naturally curly hair. Can be used as a deep conditioning treatment.

The Value of Time

The Value of time grows

I value my clients’ time. I know that it is valuable to them and therefore to me. Because of this, if there is ever a missed appointment snafu where I am at fault my client’s session is free. If I am ever more than 15 minutes late reaching my studio for an appointment, that client’s session is free. The instances where anything like this would happen are rare. For any business owner, your business is your livelihood, and if clients are constantly canceling and missing appointments, you lose money.

Unfortunately, some client’s do not respect the business owner’s time. Typically, this will be a new client, someone who has never experienced my services before. One such client late cancelled, no-showed and rebooked only to repeatedly cancel and no show multiple times for the same Groupon voucher. This happened until I put my foot down and informed her that her voucher had been good and redeemed multiple times over and that I would not accept it for any session at my business. This client, who had never even stepped foot in my business, decided to ‘get even’ with me by writing bad reviews of my business. This one case, which occurred years ago, prompted me to strengthen my policies to cover my business. I consider my time just as valuable as that of my client’s.

I inform clients of my cancellation/no-show policy in advance verbally, on my website, in my emails, on my forms etc. As such, I thought that the problem had been dealt with. Unfortunately for me, another new client just threatened me with the same ‘revenge’. This customer called a number of times over the past two weeks to schedule an appointment. His calls happened to coincide with the two-week period in which my studio was closed due to the death of a close relative, as well as a pre-scheduled vacation week. Immediately upon my return to the studio, and after checking voice-mail messages, I called this client (I’ll call him ED) and we booked a 30-minute Express De-Stress Deep Tissue Massage appointment for yesterday 4/24 at 5:30 pm.

ED had originally requested 5pm even though I had informed him that my studio hours during weekdays started at 6pm. I told him that I could make an exception and book him at 5:30 pm but that would be the earliest I could schedule his appointment since I would need to leave my day job early in order get to the studio by 5:30pm. ED agreed. I asked him for an email address to send his confirmation email and he said that he did not have one. Ok, this is a red flag for me. I then asked him to confirm verbally that he would make the appointment since I was going out of my way to leave work early in order to be at the studio on time. He verbally confirmed. When I informed him of the 24 hour cancellation policy, he assured me that he would not cancel since he had been “waiting to schedule this appointment for weeks”. He had purchased the 30 minute massage as a gift certificate for someone else, but since he had not given it to the person, he wanted to use it for himself. I informed him that this would be fine.

Yesterday, I arrived at my studio at 5:15pm to set up for the 30 minute session. I turned the ringer on for my business cell phone (I keep it off during the day at my other job) and proceeded to light candles, set out products, and ready the table. The appointment time came and went. At 5:40 pm, I picked up my phone and called ED. He did not answer so I left a voicemail asking him to let me know whether he planned to make his appointment or not. I noticed a missed call alert. I checked and there was a voicemail from ED saying that a colleague who was replacing him for the next shift had not arrived yet and he therefore felt he would not make it to my studio on time and wanted to reschedule for the next day. The time the message was left was 4:15 pm. My cancellation policy is 24 hours and this had already been communicated to him!

Since I could not send him an email, the next morning I text messaged his phone number informing him that his gift certificate had been marked redeemed because he late canceled/no-showed for his appointment. A couple of hours later, ED left a voicemail informing me that he did not consider my policy to be fair since he had called an hour in advance of it, and demanding that I call him back. I called him to explain why the gift certificate had been redeemed and it was an unpleasant call to say the least. He loudly talked over me as I tried to explain and direct him to the written policy page on my website. He informed me that it wasn’t his fault that his colleague showed up late. I agreed with him but let him know that it also was not my fault and that I was trying to run a business. If I allowed customers to no-show and late cancel then not only would my time not be respected, I would lose money as well. Because of the exception I had made for his appointment, I had needed to arrive a half hour earlier to my day job in order to leave a half hour earlier than normal. ED would not even allow me to explain and instead yelled over me. He proclaimed that he would not ever consider my business again and in fact would “write some choice words about [it]” on review sites. He pledged to let his friends know not to patronize my business.

I simply don’t understand how a client could not consider that my time is just as valuable as his or hers. My business has been a labor of love for 4 years because I simply love what I do. I love my business and this is obvious in the quality of my services and everything that I do for my business. It pains me that even though I did everything right, I still have had to deal with inconsiderate, irresponsible clients like ED.

So ED, in response to your threat to damage my business with bad reviews here is what I say: Was it not enough that I had already bent over backwards for you by opening my business up earlier than normal just to book a 30-minute session being paid for with a gift certificate? I have had to work outside of my business for the past two years just to keep the doors open. I have established, written policies to address no-show and late cancellation issues in order to minimize lost revenue to my business because clients like you don’t value my time. Still you and those like you could not care less about policies. You want me to bend over backwards plus twist myself into a pretzel, and for what? For the possibility of having a client like yourself (who quite frankly probably would be a once a year client at best and would expect special treatment simply because you are ‘blessing’ me with your infrequent patronage). Clients like you always want something for nothing. No thank you. It is because of clients like you that I have decided to close my doors. You are not worthy of my talents or of the superior services that I provide. So go ahead and write your reviews. What are you going to say? You never even experienced my services. Your only complaint is that I won’t bend or lower my policy around your needs.