Penchant For Pampering Prompts Spa Expansions

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Two Cleveland-area spas are offering proof that, despite a sluggish economy, spending bundles on facials, manicures and massages has never been more popular.

Chardonnay’s, a Concord salon and spa, has grown in little more than a year from a husband-and-wife startup to a business on a hiring spree.

“Baby boomers are getting to that age where they are thinking about taking care of themselves,” said Chardonnay’s president and co-owner Heather Janesz, who opened the spa last April with her husband, Robert.

“And, yes, the men – the ‘metrosexuals’ – are more aware,” she said. “It’s becoming mainstream for men to pamper themselves, too.”

The 30-employee spa plans to add as many as 50 technicians and stylists between now and November.

Mrs. Janesz said the hires would allow Chardonnay’s to keep hours on Mondays and convert unused space into new work stations.

Growth has been admittedly slower but nonetheless has been rewarding for Shelly Mongello, whose CC Salon & Spa opened with just the salon 20 years ago at the corner of Clague and Lorain roads in North Olmsted.

In 1999, picking up on the pampering craze, Ms. Mongello added a day spa to the store. Last month, after searching for a better location, she moved the business to Westlake.

At 2,400 square feet, the new store isn’t much larger, but Ms. Mongello likes the neighborhood – it’s across the street from the soon-to-open Crocker Park lifestyle center – and she finds it homier than her previous digs.

“It’s not such a sterile environment here,” she said.