Club atmosphere turns visit to salon into a social outing

Spirits are lifted when hair is clipped during happy hour.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
So you're getting your hair cut after work at the James Joseph salon in Boston. You arrive at 6, and five hours later you're rolling to the music and mojitos. If you're at the Rik Rak salon in Miami, your highlights could be topped off with wine and empanadas.
Around the country, day spas and salons are adding happy hours, spirits and even club music to the mix of services. The complimentary glass of wine is not unusual, but in some areas it has ballooned into something bigger.
Picture a club atmosphere and fruit martinis, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some salons dim the lights past a certain hour and blink them just before closing time.
Extra services have become almost a must, thanks to the exploding numbers of competitors. The number of day spas has almost doubled in four years, the WSJ says, to 8,734 with revenues of about $5.4 billion. Even as spa visits have grown, they are still not enough to fill all the service chairs.
Has an upside
The amenities have another upside: The salon experience becomes a social outing. Owners say customers are more likely to relax and linger for special services. It becomes a night out.
The downside
But the practice has not expanded without some blips. Occasionally a client may have too many martinis. Some salons have had to get liquor licenses and hire bartenders. In Toledo last year, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confiscated 17 bottles of Champagne.
In Beverly Hills, one owner switched to white tea and cookies because clients lingered too long past closing time. But who cares if your hair looks like Peter Pan's?