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Body Wraps: What to Expect

Now a spa staple, what will body wraps do for you, and what claims may be overblown?

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By Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Some of the ingredients used sound like they belong more in a kitchen or a garden rather than a spa -- rosemary, honey, butter, clay, chocolate, and eucalyptus.

But these are used in various types of body wraps -- a service that spa owners say is growing in popularity.

woman in spa

Move over, massages. Or buddy up. The body wraps can be done separately or as part of a package that includes a massage.

Some spas promote body wraps as nothing more than a relaxing, moisturizing way to spend a little time and money. But others tout specific body wraps as a way to detoxify, slim down, or deal with cellulite -- claims that physicians warn are not accurate.

Here's what you need to know before you get wrapped -- and invest the $85 or so typically charged for a body wrap.

What Is a Body Wrap?

If you're thinking that a body wrap is a mummy-like wrap, you've got the idea but not the context.

When body wraps were first offered decades ago, linen sheets were used, says Susie Ellis, president of SpaFinder, Inc., an industry group based in New York. The wraps were then mostly called herbal wraps. "'Body wraps' is a term that came to mean more than herbal wraps"' and became popular in the 1980s and 90s, Ellis says.

Soon, the linen sheets were replaced by plastic and by thermal blankets, Ellis tells WebMD.

Although the service varies from spa to spa, typically you are led to a darkened room with flickering candles, soft music, and a massage table, says Stephanie Carney, a massage therapist at rA Organic Spa in Burbank, Calif., who provides body wraps, with or without a massage.

On a recent day, Carney layered her massage table to prepare it for a body wrap. At the bottom was the thermal blanket. On top of that was plastic that would be used to wrap the client, then towels, and on the very top, sheets to keep the client warm.

"We start out with a scrub," Carney says. At her spa, that could be the mud scrub, pear and green apple scrub, or other options. You're then taken to the shower and rinsed before the wrap products -- in the same varieties as the scrub -- are applied.

Carney smoothes on the wrap products in a thin layer, wrapping body parts as she goes.

When you're entirely wrapped -- with your arms at your sides, unless you're claustrophobic -- the electric thermal blanket is pulled up and over you.

There you stay for about 30 minutes, and the blanket heat is typically hot enough to make you sweat.

After that, "we cool down slowly,'' Carney says.

The final step is to rinse again and apply lotion. "Your skin is going to feel really smooth," Carney tells her clients. Most clients tell her the treatment is also relaxing.