— Minute by minute · Issaquah, WA
What happens during a head spa? Minute by minute.
Six stages in 60 minutes: a camera on your scalp before anything touches it, 2 shampoos, about 20 minutes of massage, warm water running through your hair while you lie back, a scalp treatment, and a blow-dry.
Quick answer
A head spa is a scalp treatment delivered in stages, 30 to 90 minutes long, and the Signature Head Spa at Aura Beauty & Head Spa in Issaquah, WA runs 60 minutes for $90. The hour usually divides six ways: about 5 minutes of consultation and digital scalp analysis, 10 minutes of double shampoo, 20 minutes of scalp, neck and shoulder massage, 10 minutes with warm water running through your hair while you stay lying down, 10 minutes of scalp treatment, then a blow-dry for the last 5. Come with your hair unwashed; you leave with it dry.
- Session length
- 60 minutes, $90
- Stages
- 6, camera to blow-dry
- Longest stage
- About 20 minutes of massage
- Hair when you leave
- Dry — blow-dry included
— 01
What happens during a head spa, minute by minute? The 60-minute session.
Six stages, and the massage takes up about a third of the hour. The 60-minute Signature Head Spa at $90 sits in the middle of the menu and carries every one of them. Book the 45-minute Classic at $78 instead and the order is identical — each stage simply gets less time.
The stage times are a typical hour, and they move. How long the cleanse and the scalp treatment take depends on what the camera turns up in the first five minutes.
- The first 5 minutes — consultation and the scalp camera. Your therapist asks what your scalp has been doing lately, then magnifies a patch of it onto a monitor you can see from where you are sitting.
- About 10 minutes — two shampoos. The first pass lifts product and grease off the hair. The second is worked into the skin.
- About 20 minutes — the massage. Scalp first, then the base of the skull, the neck and the tops of the shoulders. It is the longest of the six stages.
- About 10 minutes — the warm-water rinse. You stay reclined while water comes down through your hair from a ring fitted above the basin.
- About 10 minutes — the scalp treatment. A product chosen from what the camera showed, combed through, left to sit, then rinsed clear at the basin.
- The last 5 minutes — the blow-dry. A few minutes at the styling mirrors, and you walk out dry.
Two of those stages catch people out. The camera surprises almost everybody, because most guests have never seen their own scalp magnified on a screen. The rinse surprises them for a different reason: 10 minutes of moving warm water while you lie still is nothing like a shower at home. If the format is new to you, what a head spa is sets out the background.
— 02
What happens in the first five minutes? A camera on your scalp.
A conversation and a scalp analysis, before anything touches your hair. Your therapist asks what your scalp has been like — oily by the second day, tight and flaking in February, itchy since you switched shampoo — and then a handheld digital camera magnifies a patch of it onto a monitor. You watch it live.
Why the camera changes the next 55 minutes
Because the products and the pressure get chosen from what is on the screen. A scalp shining with sebum between the follicles wants a clarifying route; a tight one shedding fine flakes wants the opposite, and at magnification the two look nothing alike even when the hair above them looks identical. The scalp analysis guide goes through what the images show.
What you will be asked
Three things, mostly. When you last colored or bleached your hair, whether anything on your scalp is sore or broken, and whether you have a hard stop afterwards. That last one matters more than it sounds — the blow-dry is the stage that gets compressed when a session starts late.
— 03
Does a head spa include shampoo?
Yes, twice — on every head spa except the 30-minute TCM Head Aromatherapy at $50, which never wets your hair at all. The first shampoo is short and is about the hair: styling product, sunscreen, whatever the week left behind. The second is worked into the skin, and that is the one doing the cleanse.
Dry shampoo is the usual surprise. It leaves a layer that one wash at home lifts only partly, and the second pass is where the rest of it comes away. Guests who reach for the can most mornings are the ones who comment on that stage afterwards.
The 30-minute aromatherapy session is the single exception on the menu, and it is built for a particular slot — a lunch break, or an evening where you have somewhere to be and no time for wet hair. It is oil, pressure and aroma on a dry scalp, and your hair is in the same state leaving as arriving. Everything from 45 minutes up includes the wash. The full menu sits on the pricing page.
— 04
What does the scalp massage feel like? About 20 minutes of it.
Slow and repetitive, with more pressure than a salon uses and less than a deep tissue massage. It runs about 20 minutes of the hour, which makes it the longest single stage, starting at the hairline and working back over the crown, then down behind the ears into the neck and across the tops of the shoulders.
Where the tension usually turns out to be
The base of the skull and the top of the trapezius, on most people who work at a screen. Tension-type headache is the most common form of headache, and Mayo Clinic names stress as its most frequently reported trigger, with the ache often sitting across those same muscles. Say if the pressure is too much — it gets adjusted in a second.
Falling asleep is normal
A fair number of guests do, usually somewhere in the second half of the massage. Nobody wakes you for the rinse and the work carries on around it. If you would rather stay awake, say so at the start and the lights stay up. The scalp massage guide covers what those 20 minutes have been studied for.
— 05
What is the warm-water rinse like? You stay lying down.
About 10 minutes of it, and you never sit up. Water comes down through the hair from a ring fitted over the basin, at roughly bath temperature, and it keeps moving instead of pooling in one place. Your head rests in the basin the whole time, so your face stays dry and so does your collar.
Issaquah's tap water carries more mineral than its neighbors' does. The city blends four of its own wells with Cascade surface supply, which lands it at 69.5 ppm against Seattle's 22.9 — about three times as much, and moderate by national standards. Water at that hardness lathers and rinses differently from water in a Seattle shower, so products get picked with that in mind.
The reclined rinse came to American studios from Japan, and the order of operations on our menu follows the same sequence — see the Japanese head spa in Issaquah.
— 06
Do you leave a head spa with wet hair? No — there is a blow-dry.
No — every head spa from 45 minutes up finishes at the styling mirrors. You walk out dry and presentable, which counts for more at 6:30 PM on a Tuesday in January than it does at 11 AM on a Saturday, in a town that takes 62 inches of rain a year.
The scalp treatment, stage five
A product picked from what the camera showed at the start, combed through the hair and left on the scalp for a few minutes before it is rinsed clear. Oily, buildup-prone scalps and tight, flaky ones get different products, and this is the stage where the analysis turns into something you can feel.
The last five minutes
Rough-dried first, then finished at the mirror. Nobody is styling you for an event, and the aim is dry, smooth and out the door — though hair that has just been double-cleansed and conditioned tends to sit better than it did on the way in.
Bring a hair tie if you like using one; nothing else is needed. You stay dressed throughout and lie on a bed with a towel across your shoulders. For a first visit, the what to expect guide covers the rest.
— 07
How does the running order change at other lengths? 30 to 90 minutes.
The stages stay the same from 45 minutes up, and what changes is how long each one gets and what is added on top. Scalp exfoliation comes in at 60 minutes. A mini facial comes in at 75. Hot steam and the Milbon restorative treatment come in at 90.
| Booking | Price | Shampoo wash | Hair at the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| TCM Head Aromatherapy, 30 min | $50 | No | Dry throughout |
| Classic Head Spa, 45 min | $78 | Yes, double | Blow-dried |
| Signature Head Spa, 60 min | $90 | Yes, double | Blow-dried |
| Aura Scalp Treatment + Mini Facial, 75 min | $120 | Yes | Blow-dried |
| Luxury Milbon Restorative, 90 min | $150 | Yes | Blow-dried |
The 45-minute Classic at $78 is the shortest full sequence. The 75-minute Aura Scalp Treatment at $120 is the one guests book most, because it is the only format that works on the skin of your face as well as the skin under your hair. All eight formats are set out on the head spa menu, and the pairings live on the packages page — a 30-minute gua sha facial with a 60-minute head spa is $160 together.
— 08
What should I do before and after? Not much.
Turn up with unwashed hair and a little slack in your day. Two or three days since the last shampoo reads better under the camera than a scalp cleaned that morning, and the cleansing is our job. Eat something beforehand if lying flat for an hour tends to leave you light-headed.
Afterwards
Leave it alone for the rest of the day. Skip the heat tools that evening if you can, and there is no need to wash again — the second shampoo and the final rinse have already done more than a home wash manages. A 4 to 6 week rhythm suits most scalps.
When should you see a dermatologist first?
Hair coming out in patches, a scalp that is sore, bleeding or crusting, or flaking that has not settled with an over-the-counter shampoo — those are questions for a dermatologist, and your therapist will say so at the consultation. A head spa is a beauty and relaxation service; it does not diagnose, treat or cure anything.
See a dermatologist first, then book. The hour at the basin will still be there once you have an answer.
— Questions
Asked & answered.
Do you wash your hair before a head spa?
Does a head spa involve shampoo?
Will I leave with wet hair?
How long is the massage part?
Can I talk, or is it quiet?
What if the pressure is too firm or too light?
Is the 60 minutes treatment time, or time in the building?
How do I find the studio on E Sunset Way?
— Research & references
NCCIH — Things To Know About Massage Therapy for Health Purposes
Names low-back pain and neck and shoulder pain among the uses of massage therapy with the most research behind them.
Mayo Clinic — Tension headache: self-care measures for relief
Describes tension-type headache as the most common form of headache and names stress as its most frequently reported trigger, with the pain often felt across the neck and shoulder muscles.
AMTA — Massage Can Improve Health and Wellness
The association's standing position is that massage therapy can reduce stress and support general health and wellness.
Citations are summarized — please read the original sources. Aura is a beauty and relaxation studio: nothing here diagnoses, treats or cures anything, and hair loss, a sore scalp or flaking that will not settle is a question for a dermatologist. See one first, then book — the two go together well.
— Keep exploring
Guide
What is a head spa?
The format from scratch, $50 to $150, and who books which length.
Guide
Scalp analysis explained
What the camera shows in the first 5 minutes, and what it changes.
Service
Head spa at Aura
All eight formats, 30 to 90 minutes, with what each one includes.
Book
Book the 60-minute Signature
Open every day, 9 AM to 8 PM, on E Sunset Way in Olde Town.