The promise
Stimulate the circulation of your arms and legs with a minty hydrotherapy treatment. Hot soaks, cold wraps and hot stones will help reduce water retention and bring limbs back to life.
The experience
Well settled into one of the comfy mani-pedi chairs at The Nail Spa in Al Wahda Mall, we were curious as to how they were going to fit even a small hydrotherapy tank into this outlet’s little nook.
But it turns out this is not quite that kind of hydrotherapy: no dunking legs in hot water, then cold, then hot again, and definitely no jets. This is more in the spirit of hydrotherapy, without extreme wetness and definitely with no discomfort.
The treatment began with a quick pedicure. Old polish was removed and our feet and toes were treated to a thorough scrubbing, trimming and buffing. We had neglected to bring our flip-flops, so we decided to forgo a polish and just went for shiny clean nails.
During the pedicure, our feet and ankles were treated to a particularly long soak in warm water. After our toes had been perfected, a supremely tingly and minty cooling mask was applied to our feet and lower legs, which were then wrapped in cling film and placed into huge, soft booties. The masque got to work very quickly, and soon we could feel the skin of our legs tightening up, and they felt super fresh.
After 10 minutes or so, we were unwrapped and the cooling mask washed off with warm water. A moisturising oil was rubbed into our legs before they were slipped back into the huge, soft booties – this time each had a hot stone squirrelled away in a pouch in the sole of each boot.
We were left to rest with our feet balanced on the stones in the booties for another 10 minutes or so, before we had to give them up in return for a soothing and invigorating leg and foot massage with more moisturising oil, before we went on our merry way with a little extra spring in our step.
The results
Our legs and feet feel tighter and refreshed after a day at work. We don’t normally suffer from water retention, however this would definitely be an effective treatment for anyone who does.
Pros
This is something a little different among the myriad arm and leg treatments out there – it is at the same time soothing and enlivening, thanks to the mixture of hot and cold. Our legs haven’t felt quite so spritely in a while.
Cons
If you suffer from cold feet or legs, you might find the extra cold a little unpleasant – but you’d be unlikely to opt for this treatment anyway! The stones can be a little uncomfortable under the feet and you might feel the need to keep shifting them around to warm up different spots.
3/3
Hot ’N’ Cold Hydrotherapy treatment is Dhs80 for 30 minutes and Dhs90 for 40 minutes. The Nail Spa, Al Wahda Mall, Hazza Bin Zayed Street (02 642 3444).
