Salons and Spas

Along with a delightful climate and plenty of opportunities for recreation, southeastern North Carolina is a great place to enjoy a healthful lifestyle. Whether you’re an outdoor enthusiast or indoor sportsman, you can find more than enough activities to get and keep you fit and fantastic. Then, after a good workout, you’ll most certainly want a massage, sauna or spa treatment. Give your body, mind and spirit the care they deserve – right here, right now.

Explore Fitness Centers    back to top

Check out some or our excellent fitness centers by stopping in for tours and to meet the personnel who work in them. Get the feel for a place before committing to membership. We recommend taking advantage of free trial periods when they’re available. Around here you can find a wide variety of facilities, everything from cozy small fitness centers for women only to large, sophisticated, state-of-the-art, freestanding health clubs, with lots of places in between.

If you’re not into serious strengthening or heavy-duty workouts, you can find less arduous activities on the menus of most fitness centers, but particularly at the area’s senior centers, YMCA, YWCA or local recreation centers. With a little effort, you’ll find just what you’re looking for; after that, it’s only a matter of time before you’re looking and feeling terrific.

Something For Everyone    back to top

Among the tremendous array of fitness activities to choose from are the usual and the not-so-usual selections. Depending on your interests and skills, you can exercise in the water, in the gym or in the great outdoors. Want classes in yoga or Pilates? We’ve got ‘em. Looking for total body conditioning systems or a personal trainer? We’ve got ‘em. Need help with prescription exercise or cardiovascular programs. We’ve got that, too. We’ve even got a highly-touted boxing center in Wilmington and a club with a climbing tread wall.

Safe Tanning Salons    back to top

Of course, no southern coastal community worth its grits would be without a fair share of tanning salons. Heaven forbid that a Snowbird should appear on the beach with pasty white northern skin or worse yet, return home in such an unpardonable way! For that matter, many of us who live here like to get a head start on beach season by visiting our favorite body bronzing palace. Fortunately, we’ve got health-conscious entrepreneurs who offer safe tanning options, and those businesses using tanning beds have strict regulations.

Pampering Options    back to top

Both men and women enjoy being pampered occasionally, which is why we have a large number of pampering places. From head to toe, you can get beautified, baked, trimmed, tweezed, waxed, wrapped, rubbed, scented, coiffed or manicured – all in one delicious salon visit, if you so choose. You’ll be amazed at the shops, salons and spas available here.

Ever-popular are the intimate neighborhood styling parlors where everyone knows everyone else and gossip abounds, but you can also find hair and nail salons in many department stores, strip plazas, malls and shopping centers. The big business, though, is day spas. We love them and we have dozens.

Weddings, pageants, proms, parades, festivals, balls and graduation parties provide ladies with excellent excuses for a spa experience. We have numerous small, pleasant salons that are less expensive and we have larger, more sophisticated ones with top-of-the-line services carrying an appropriate price tag. A few local physicians offer limited in-office facial or spa treatments, too.

Consider spending a few hours to an entire day being fussed over and nurtured. Maybe you’d like to have a relaxation massage, body polish, microdermabrasion, or steam heat therapy. Why not throw in aromatherapy for good measure? Enjoy!

We Can Recommend    back to top

From personal experience, we can highly recommend these facilities:
Ocean of Youth is a full service spa specializing in anti-aging therapies of all type. Whether you prefer a restorative facial or laser skin rejuvenation, those treatments plus body treatments and wraps, botox, restylane are offered. Massages, both relaxation and therapeutic, are available, as are manicures and pedicures. Ocean of Youth is conveniently located in Landfall Park, just across the bridge from Wrightsville Beach and minutes from Figure Eight Island and the Porters Neck area.

If you’re wonderful how to cope with your sun, salt and chlorine damaged hair, look no further than Salon O2. This full service salon carries products sure to improve your hair’s health. They also have talented hair cutters and colorists who are dedicated to serving their clients wants and needs. Whether you’re looking for very natural coverage for graying hair or for an eye-popping fuchsia do, Salon O2 can do it. They also offer facials, manicures, pedicures and the only oxygen therapy in the Wilmington area. Salon O2 is located on Oleander Drive in the geographic center of Wilmington. They are just five minutes from Wrightsville Beach as well as from the campus of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.