Salons and spas used to be one of the last bastions of peace and quiet for stressed-out adults, but now these doors are opening up to allow, gasp, kids. Don’t worry, you can still get your spa on sans kids, not everywhere admits them, but if you want to take your mini-me along to get her tootsies sloughed and buffed you can. We found two spots in the city, and one that’s totally worth the drive, that have specific treatments for kids, or allow them to tag along with you and get treatments from the regular menu.
Not Your Mom’s Salon
Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids
Bond with your daughter over manicures and hair-dos at this Upper East Side salon. They offer a mother-daughter package, starting at $74.50, that includes a shampoo and blowout for you and shampoo, blowdry and a simple hairstyle for her, along with manicures for both. All of Sharkey’s haircare products are either certified natural and organic or chemical free, and in the end, not only will your hair look good but also, it will smell like a piece of fruit or a yummy slice of cake. To paint those pint-sized tootsies, Sharkey’s uses non-toxic Piggy Paint. And if she asks, “Please Mom, may I have day-glo nails with sparkly flowers?” It’s no problem! Whatever design your daughter wants, she gets, unless it’s something super challenging like the face of a One Direction member on each nail.
Feel Free to Bring the Kids
Dashing Diva
Are you a dashing diva? If so, then take yourself and your mini-diva to the nail salon of the same name. Try their Spoiled Diva Manicure and Pedicure and get “white-glove” treatment; after all, you deserve it. Your little diva can get a full manicure and pedicure, lotion, massage and all, not just a polish change, though they offer that as well. Worried about those nasty nail polish toxins touching your precious little snowflake’s skin? Not to worry – for a bargain price of only $3 more you can choose to use Deborah Lippman polishes, which are toluene, formaldehyde and DBP free. Little Diva manicure prices start at $12 and pedicures start at $15; the prices increase as your kids get older. Don’t want to have to travel too far with all of your infant/toddler paraphernalia and kids in tow? Dashing Diva has six salons in Manhattan and three in Brooklyn, so chances are, you have one nearby.
Worth the Trip
Spa Castle
Servants waiting on you hand and foot, closets full of gorgeous clothes and drawers full of royal jewels – wait that’s not your life; you aren’t the queen and your kids are not heirs to the throne. But you can feel like a queen for a day and your kids can feel like mini-royals at Spa Castle in College Point, Ny. At five stories high and with 100,000 square feet of soothing space, this has to be bigger than any spa you’d find in the city. Inside, you will find lots of pools, including a kiddie pool and a hydrotherapy pool, hot tubs, hot and cold sauna rooms, a salt sauna and a fitness center. Whew! Can you say that list three times fast? There are also treatment rooms where you can get regular spa services. Kids under age 16 can get regular mani-pedis and they’re allowed full use of all the aforementioned services. It’s a flat fee of $45 per person to enter the building, and specialty treatments are additional. You might have to do some fast-talking to get your kids to go, but we are positive once you get them there, they won’t want to leave.
Where do you go when you need a spa day? Know any other great place to relax with your kiddo?
— Mikaela Walker
Photos 1-3 Courtesy of Sharkey’s Cuts for Kids NYC, Photo 4 Courtesy of Spa Castle
