No longer the arena of the dippy, the athletic of the wealthy, massage - along with other new age-old beauty treatments - is growing more popular in Hudson County.

This year, Hoboken?s Washington Street alone has seen the opening of Marma, an Aveda Concept Spa (we?ll get into the specifics later); holistic healer Indrani Maity go full time and take a room at the Frio Chiropractic Holistic Center, and Bonnie Strain double the space at her eponymous massage business. Elsewhere, any hair salon worth its salt has added at least one treatment room in the back.

Facials, which some industry insiders are calling the new manicure because they?re becoming a regular treatment rather than a luxury, are all the rage. Facialists, cosmetologists and masseuses are popping up everywhere, with varying theories about why what they do is so good for you and where it all comes from.

?It?s much more than beauty care, it goes way deeper,? said Maity, espousing a theory that has all but taken over beauty care.

Maity brings her science background - she left med school and teaching chemistry to pursue alternative medicine - to her practice, a room within the doctor?s office gone new-age that is the Frio Chiropractic Holistic center. She?s an Ayurvedic practitioner, which means she uses a healing system practiced in India and integrated into the medicine of most cultures today. Whatever treatment you come for, Maity diagnoses problems externally and internally, using pressure points during her massage: stroking your sides to clear your lymph nodes, for example.

?While I do a massage I supplement it with whatever they need, so they leave thinking, ?I got what I needed,?? said Maity.

Facing the Facial

When Indrani Maity, who I understood would be giving me a facial and some sort of massage, asked me to take my socks and shoes off, I panicked. Would they smell? Had I clipped my toenails recently?

?It?s okay,? Maity reassured. ?I have aromatherapy.?

Maity, who had whirled into her Washington Street office just moments before, out of breath and speaking excitedly about my impending treatment, soothed me out of my socks and shoes. I don?t think my feet smelled, and soon I didn?t care.

A one-time medical student who turned to alternative medicine and holistic care, Maity commenced an Instant Stress-Free Package (the whole thing takes 80 minutes, but the stress leaves considerably sooner). I was face down on a treatment table, the kind with a face notch and forehead rest, and a little shelf below the nose. She placed scented wax there, which she later told me was lavender and grapefruit to soothe but not sedate. Ever concerned about my welfare, she massaged my feet, neck, scalp and back.

Then came the facial. A lot of people know that a facial is good for your skin, but it is, to me, the most relaxing treatment out there. Maity worked her magic, first massaging and then steaming my skin to bring the im0urities to the surface, did some extractions (just a few minor ones, no pain) and exfoliation.

Then came the photo op: the mask. Maity gave me an eye treatment, and commenced with the mummification. She wrapped my whole face with white gauze-like cloths and slipped heated gloves on my hands and footies on my feet.

I had then followed my bliss to a beautiful, peaceful grotto, and I didn?t care any more that people were probably leaving endless complaints on my voicemail right at that moment. But before I could really get very far from my body, my trusty sidekick and photographer showed up, burst into the room and turned on the overhead fluorescent light.

?Lift your head up,? the sidekick said. Maity insisted on propping it up with a towel, bless her. Photos taken, the mask was removed to reveal the new me. On the way to the grotto, I was thinking that I?d feel like a newborn at the end, and the similarities are striking: the bright lights, the cooing (Sidekick was previewing her work in her digital camera) and most of all, my pink, smooth, glowing skin.

Maity gave me - as she does all of her clients - samples from her own line of skincare products: blue and yellow potions in tiny white jars with hand-written labels. Even during the short walk across the street to the office, I could feel my inner peace leaving a bit. Back at my desk, I looked again at the jars, just to make sure it all really happened.