A wonderful massage which was in a lively salon in the heart of the West End London. Good value for money, pleasant masseur gave a professional 50 minute massage.
I had a full pedicure at Splash Soho a few days ago. The salon was nice but very busy, the staff was very helpful and kind, also I was happy with the treatment I got, found it a good value for money and I might be back. Recommended.
My experience was truly awful. Splash Soho is a hair salon upstairs and downstairs, playing super-loud heavy club music. The ‘treatment’ rooms are basically the broom cupboards at the back downstairs. The waiting area is a couple of large footstools right in the middle of hectic hairdressers and their tightly packed in clients with no offer of a drink, not even water. I was ‘greeted’ by my therapist who literally 'collected' me from the waiting area and showed me into the room for the massage. She closed the door without saying anything, so I guessed I should change.
Then the horror story really began. She’d clearly had a little training, but nowhere near enough. She was stroking me, not massaging me. She used her knuckles on my neck but the palms of her hands on my back, she focussed some pressure on my sides and spine bone but not the muscles of my back. At one point she was only using one hand and I thought she was looking at something on her phone. It was a full body massage, but again she stroked my legs and left me cold and with little dignity by uncovering both of my legs at the same time. To top it off there was definite ‘touching’ of my intimate area which I wasn’t very pleased about. She went from my legs to stroking my back again and then did the front of my shoulders and chest. She didn’t touch the soles of my feet, oddly.
The environment was horrible. The room was cramped, cold and noisy – when the spa music cut out half way through I was left listening to the club-land next door. She didn’t warm the massage oil in her hands, just poured it on me cold, and used it to move my hair out of her way (towel, anyone?!). The poor girl was coughing all over the place, she clearly had a cold and she should have been told to go home and get well.
At the end, I was getting changed and in less than a minute there was a knock on the door and I was told the next client was waiting. When I left, not one person asked me how it was, or even said goodbye. It gives the impression they do not care very much what their ‘health spa’ clientele think, and nor do they care much about the training and wellbeing of their staff. The therapist herself was not relaxed, she seemed stressed and overworked, and this showed in my experience.