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Ionithermie Treatments

Ionithermie's a no-nonsense salon therapy that involves sending rhythmic electrical pulses through your bottom. Some swear by it.

How do you like your massage? Administered by a dainty mute nimble-fingered therapist? Or strong and firm and a bit on the rough side, with a muscley masseur to match?

Or how about the somewhat bizarre sounding four- or even six-handed massages that are all the rage these days - administered by a busload of masseurs at the same time?

Then there's the machine approach favoured by those who need a firmer grip - some pull and pummel your body bits and do the job of about 30 therapists or more (without once asking where you're going on your holidays!)

Massage figures heavily in most anti cellulite programmes because it's though to help boost a sluggish circulation and lymphatic drainage, which may help skin texture and reduce water retention. The kind of unguents and oils actually massaged into the skin make a difference too; aromatherapy oils, marine extracts and clays all have active ingredients thought to go to work on circulation and skin cells, even burn fat or help boost collagen production.

One salon beauty treatment that comes, not surprisingly from France, combines both of these elements - massage and active products - and involves a machine to help enable the ingredients to penetrate more deeply into the skin.

More specifically, Ionithermie is a toning, firming body treatment which uses electrical charges - galvanic and isotonic currents, which are said to give the muscle a kind of friction-based 'workout', and thereby help firm up your buttocks/thighs too. Some say it's the ideal treatment for those people who have successfully shed the pounds yet still need help to tone and firm. Devotees say it helps with inch loss, and leaves your skin as smooth and silky as the proverbial baby's bottom (without the dimply bits).

What happens at a session?

You'll undress and the therapist may take measurements from your hips, thighs and bottom before she starts. You'll get a lovely body scrub, to exfoliate the dead skin cells on the surface, and then you'll be treated to a pressure point massage so you're relaxed and feeling better about life before the hard work on your bum really starts.

Then your cellulitey bits are covered with a thermal clay, essential oils between layers of gauze. It's cooling and smells delicious.

Then pads which emit rhythmic electrical pulses are placed on your skin. There's no need to brace yourself. You won't be bouncing off the bed nor gritting your teeth to cope with the pain. The action is gentle; a combination of faradic and galvanic stimuli, get to work on the wobbly stuff, sending them a hefty dose of thermal clay and biologically active natural ingredients.

When the pads are activated, the current pulses through your behind, you'll feel the strange sensation of your muscles contracting, while you lie there doing absolutely nothing. It's a strange, but not painful experience, and you can somehow feel it working.

They say that just one session of Ionithermie is the equivalent of doing about 800 sit-ups! To relax you further, the therapist often gives you a lovely back massage, before taking all the pads and gauze and paste off your behind and removes the debris.

Expect to emerge with softer smoother skin, and possibly looking a few inches smaller from behind, although don't bring your old jeans with you expect to be able to slip into them. It's not that dramatic.

At the least it's a pleasurable experience, at best you'll lose inches, and you'll pay about £40 or £50 for the privilege. Experts usually recommend a course of five or six treatments, or more, depending, although results do tend to be short lived.


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