Body Wraps: Way To Look, Feel Slimmer?

Allure Magazine's Amy Keller Gives Lowdown, And Volunteers Put Wraps To Test

(CBS)  Body wraps, a staple at spas, are considered an effective, all-natural way to enhance and moisten your skin, making it look softer.

Now, they're being touted by many beauty experts as a way to help women look and feel slimmer.

Amy Keller, beauty editor of Allure magazine (http://www.allure.com), had the scoop on the beauty treatment Thursday, as The Early Show continued its series, "Weapons of Mass Reduction."

Wraps are designed to improve the texture and appearance of the skin by helping to rid the body of excess fluids and toxins. Benefits of body wraps may include detoxification, boosting of the lymphatic system and metabolism, body contouring, temporary inch-loss, skin tightening, and skin softening.

The Early Show had four different wraps done on four women during the program. They were measured before and after, off-camera, to see if the wraps made a difference. All four volunteers lost from two-to-four INCHES within an HOUR.

Three spas did the wraps: Cornelia Day Spa, Great Jones Spa, and Paul LaBrecque. So did a medi-spa, the Natural Alternative Center, which promises you can lose six-to-twelve inches in one two- hour procedure.

How Are Body Wraps Performed?

People undergoing body wrap treatments typically have their torso, legs, arms, and neck wrapped with elastic cloths (either dry when wrapped or pre-soaked with a body wrap mixture). The elastic cloths absorb and help remove excess body fluids and toxins. The cloths are wrapped snugly (though not too tightly), creating a thermal blanket that promotes sweating and aids in the shedding of unnecessary interstitial fluid (fluid located between the small spaces of body tissues).

Possible Benefits of Body Wraps

Body wraps are all-natural, most often containing a mixture of herbs and minerals designed to beautify the skin. Essential oils and sea salts may also be used in daily spa body wrap treatments, seeking to help tone and soften the skin, and help rid you of those unwanted inches. Results may be realized immediately. But toxins and interstitial fluids eventually re-accumulate, so regular body wraps may provide better long-term benefits.

More on Body Wraps:

Body scrubs may use salts and other natural ingredients to exfoliate and detoxify the skin.

Body wraps use detoxifying organic materials, such as mud or aloe vera, to draw toxins from the body and soften skin. Most body scrubs use a blend of oils with fine and coarse grains, and are followed with the application of emollient lotions to further soften skin. Skin will feel soft, and fine lines will lessen after just one treatment. Such deeply relaxing treatments are shown to decrease stress, thereby lowering blood pressure. Since the skin is our largest organ, detoxification can have profound effects on our health and sense of well-being.

Body Wrap Costs

Body wraps typically cost between $100 and $300, depending on your location, at most day spas. Body wraps are often performed as part of a larger body treatment that may include aromatherapy, mud baths, hot tubs, and saunas. Day spa body wraps can be less expensive when performed in conjunction with other body treatments or day spa therapies that may include facials, massages, or waxing.

How does Alure rate body wraps?

Keller says editors first look for those that promise "detoxifying," "firming," "tightening," or "slimming" effects. Then, they check for ingredients dermatologists and aestheticians have said have some kind of tightening effect, however temporary. That includes things such as seaweed, caffeine, and muds. To pick the best, it comes down to trial and error: Editors try them, to see if they feel as if they've lost any water weight, and if they're actually tighter and firmer -- and how long the effects last.

The following information was provided by the spas represented on the show:

DR. ROSSI'S NATURAL ALTERNATIVE CENTER
As founder, and director of The Natural Alternative Center on West 72nd Street in Manhattan for more than 20 years, Dr. Trisha Rossi is a well-known lecturer and talk show personality. She has treated the likes of Britney Spears, Hillary Swank, Jennifer Gardner, Missy Elliot and an endless list of others who have, along with "The Discovery Health Channel," dubbed her "the naturopathic doctor to the stars." She compliments her practice with various licenses and certifications from nutrition, and food allergy-related alternative therapies to colon/digestive disorders and organ drainage detoxifications. She enhances her treatment programs with proven herbology and DNA/TMA detoxification protocols. Her specialty is in weight- and inch-loss, pain management, and problem skin issues. On the show Thursday, a demonstration was done of how one can lose inches on a natural, non-surgical, non-chemical level.

GREAT JONES SPA, of New York City
Green and White Algae Body Wrap
60 minutes, $160
90 minutes, $230
Includes massage
Marine algae are the base of the food chain and contain all the minerals, trace elements, and vitamins essential to life. Providing re-mineralization, restoring balance and inducing relaxation, this treatment nourishes and hydrates skin while stimulating natural detoxification. Performed as a wrap in a Vichy shower, marine algae grown in the pristine waters off the Brittany coast of France are applied to the skin to provide nutrients on a cellular level and draw out toxins. This treatment reduces the effects of bloating, fatigue, stress, and water retention while replenishing skin to its optimum level of nutritional balance. The 90-minute treatment includes a relaxing massage with a hydrating moisturizer. This wrap will leave you soft and rejuvenated. Those with iodine allergies should instead choose the Sedona Mud and Red Algae Body Wrap & Hydrotherapy Treatment.

PAUL LABRECQUE
Detoxifying Seaweed Body Wrap
60 minutes $125
Series of six, including tax $715 ($780 value)
This treatment starts with a wonderful body polish using 100 percent natural energizing herbal powder, followed by a detoxifying and re-mineralizing slimming and firming action of a algae wrap. Natural plant essences of lemongrass, geranium and tonka bean help to reduce water retention, and flush out excess fluids and toxins. Localized drainage massage is added to specifically target stubborn areas of cellulite. Also includes a luxurious scalp massage. Start your contouring cure!

CORNELIA
Algae Slimming Body Treatment
Bathe in mineral rich soaking teas, slimming algae and essential oils to alleviate water retention. The slimming body wrap promotes circulation, pulls out impurities and restores balance to the body.
90 Minutes $260

[jaguar0]

Look at how the wrapiee were first MEASURE. You will notice, that a finger was placed inside the tape. The second time if you go over the tape, you will notice the finger on the outside? The doctor, pushing this treatment What kind of doctor was she. A md,dds, dc, od, phd, or a mail order doctor? I just wondering if any of the early shows anchors go to the , the spas, you give free ADVERTISING in your story? I smell a munchkins type of story here!

[al4612]

I am the owner of Auburn Slender Solutions in Auburn, Al. We are one of over 2000 Suddenly Slender Salons. Suddenly Slender Body wraps have been on the market for over 30 years. We are the only mineral based body wraps that are NON-Dehydrating. Our electrolye based inorganic and organic mineral solutions tone/tighten the skin, reduce or eliminate cellulite, increase metabolism and improve the immune system. Our results will NOT go away in 2-3 days. We guarantee a loss of 6-30inches in the first wrap and you will maintain this inch loss unless you gain weight. Repeated wraps will help those with lots of lbs to loose get there. I am a RN by profession and found the wraps AFTER my daughter lost 105# and needed to tighten her skin. The wraps not only tighten the skin, but she also was able to define her body and has been able to maintain her weight for 5yrs now by using the wraps. These wraps work!! I have lost 75# myself. Many stars use our wraps. Ellen Degeneres wrapped before the grammy''s. John Travolta and his wife, Kelly regularily get the wraps. It is one of the best kept Hollywood secret!! If you want a wrap that REALLY WORKS (6-30 inches in one wrap), go to www.suddenlyslender.com and locate a wrap on the map. Or visit my websit at www.auburnslendersolutions.com.

[endoqueen]

Good morning. I hope you all enjoyed this piece on the body wraps this morning. There is another wrap on the market that guarantees a 6 - 20 inch loss. It has been on the market for 38 years and was recently promoted by Robyn McGraw on the Racheal Rae show. Check it out at www.wrap4you.com

[i-wrap]

Infared body wraps are one of the most effective ways to lose weight and inches. You can burn up to 900-1400 calories in a 50 min session. My business partner and I own a Infared body wrap system inside the SNAP Fitness in Verona, WI. The I-WRAP has multiple benefits besides weight loss, it provides reduced stress, increased blood flow, increased metabolic rate, skin rejuvenation, reduced acne, as well as inch/size/weight loss, without chemicals. All of this at an affordable price for treatments starting at $65 for a single session. Although multiple sessions provide the best results.

[amdwyer1]

I am all for beauty treatments, however when I turned on the television this morning and saw in bold letters the words "Weapons of Mass Reduction" across my screen, I was shocked at how offended I felt. Politics aside, those words, or rather what those words are mocking have led us into a situation where thousands of our young people have died and are continuing to put there lives in danger everyday. I am grateful we are a wealthy enough nation that we don''t have to live through war rations and we can still get beauty treatments and live our lives with no real interruption, unless of course you are unfortunate enough to know someone involved in "the war on terror". I think such a cheap play on words from what is otherwise a respected media source is incredibly disappointing and sad.