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Charleston Mercury
Spring 2010, p.37
"Our passion for skin care comes with a lifetime guarantee, and it is something that sets us apart. Everyone who's here loves what they do, and we enjoy talking to patients about it. You transmit that energy; it's a great way for people to look and feel better with little downtime," says Dr. Christy Cone, founder of Mount Pleasant's Aesthetispa. She, in short, is a genius.
How, you may ask? She designed AesthetiSpa, a cosmetic skin and laser center, with the individual in mind. Opening their doors in November 2004, the medical spa has become one of the most trusted centers for skin and laser treatments in Charleston. The environment looks and feels warm like a spa should, while offering treatments that will last long after the appointment is over. Of course, that facial, manicure, massage or special deluxe blend treatment is designed for the few spare hours in your Saturday. When those hours come to a close, though, you are left with the same lines, wrinkles, sun damage and other impurities that you had in your skin when you stepped through spa doors. For many, this doesn't matter; however, lasting changes, from Botox to acne treatment, should that be what you are after, are obtained through medical intervention from certified physicians. While this holds true, and is important to understand, the clinical nature should not dictate your experience. Thus, the idea for a medical spa was born, offering the similar relaxations, like a hot beverage and peaceful surroundings, combined with the substantial effects to rejuvenating your appearance.
At AesthetiSpa patients are offered a myriad of choices. Such options range from laser hair removal, microdermabrasion and tissue fillers to lash extensions, permanent makeup and spray tanning.
Dr. Cone understands skin, being a family care physician for several years. During this time, she ran into a wide range of skin abnormalities and issues, finding herself interested in the cosmetic field. She found herself migrating back to South Carolina from Virginia to be closer to family, and upon doing so she really found that the sun-kissed (or marred) residents of Charleston needed someone like her to help repair Mother Nature's damage. Dr. Cone is an expert physician in the world of cosmetic skin enhancements, knowing what it takes to make a man or woman look his or her freshest.
"For example, the clients could do all the facials in the world and the facial is not going to make a long-term difference (in frown lines), whereas Botox is going to make a difference. It's going to be preventative. So you are (she is) making a measurable difference in someone's skin."
With nearly 20 years of familiarity with skin care and laser work between the nurses and a six-year licensed esthetician on hand, everyone has expertise; in other words, you're in good hands. As the medical director, Dr. Cone oversees appointments as well as seeing patients.
"Our goal is to give individualized service to everyone — to provide excellent service and help someone look and feel their best. We really take the time to provide that, and this is all we do. The more you do of something that better you become at it."
Spas come in all shapes and sizes. Medical or recreational, skin care and body treatments are a primary concern. For Dr. Cone, she wants to get to the root of the problem in individuals' skin, and she wants to fix it. The facts are plain and simple, but it doesn't stop her from offering a comfortable and tailored experience. Pampering is part of the process.
What makes Dr. Cone such an in-tune physician and businesswoman is that she understands not only the needs of her patients, but their desires as well. She understands them fully, she provides for them entirely and she does so with joy and peace of mind that her spa is making a visible difference — from the outside in.
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Even though their AARP memberships remind them of the passage of time, baby boomers are not surrendering to old age; they're fighting it.
Baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, are waging war on wrinkles, sunspots, unsightly veins, unwanted hair and other signs of aging.
In doing so, boomers are fueling a national medical-aesthetic economy that experts say could surpass $20 billion by the end of 2006.
Many of them are preserving their youth and improving their looks through non-surgical cosmetic treatments offered at medical spas, or "med spas," like AesthetiSpa LLC in Mount Pleasant.
Baby boomers are not ready to consign themselves to the retirement home.
"They're still out in the work force and still want to look their best," said Dr. Christy Cone, who owns AesthetiSpa.
"How you look shows how you feel about yourself,".
Thanks largely to an influx of baby boomers to the Lowcountry, Cone have seen their number of patients soar to 1,500 in 21 months since she opened AesthetiSpa in November 2004. Business has doubled in the past eight months, she noted.
AesthetiSpa treatments usually take between 30 and 40 minutes and range from laser hair and vein removal techniques to wrinkle-reducing Botox injections to chemical skin peels that restore sun-damaged skin. Prices for services generally range from $50 to $500.
Med spas are the fastest-growing segment of the spa industry. In 2004, there were about 750 med spas in the United States, but by the end of 2006 there could be as many as 2,500, according to the Web site CNN Money.
"Baby boomers make up about 90% of my business," said Dr. Claudia Welber of Natural Hideaway, a med spa on Calhoun Street. "They want youthful, translucent skin. They want to look as good as they did when they were 20."
Since Natural Hideaway opened about six years ago, business has grown steadily, Welber said.
"The culture is changing," Welber observed, adding that there is a "greater acceptance of having things done" to improve the way we look.
Boomer power
There are more than 78 million baby boomers in the United States. Collectively, they wield an annual spending power of more than $2 trillion, according to the MetLife Mature Market Institute's 2005 "Demographic Profile of American Baby Boomers."
Boomers have the disposable income to purchase anti-aging products, the sales of which jumped 13% in 2003, more than double the growth rate for the previous two years, according to the NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based provider of consumer and retail information.
That sound of the cosmetic cash register is music to the ears of Marcy Priester, the Mount Pleasant district manager for Arbonne International, an Irvine, Calif.-based manufacturer of Swiss-formulated, botanically based skin care products.
Arbonne products cover the gamut from body lotions to hand creams, from sunscreens to shave gels. In addition to skin products, Arbonne offers nutritional supplements and weight-loss shakes to help boomers and others get fit.
Arbonne, which sells its products through direct marketing to consumers rather than in retail stores, saw its national sales jump 164% in 2005, according to Priester.
Boomers were responsible for much of that increase.
"Anti-aging skin care products are among the preparations baby boomers reach for," said Priester. "For both men and women, looking good stems from being healthy and fit 'within,' not simply from the surface application of cosmetics."
Being "old" is not what it used to be, Priester noted.
"Our philosophy of life has changed," she said. "People are living longer and more healthfully. It's a lifestyle revolution."
Dennis Quick covers health and wellness for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com |
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