The treatment room was the size of a shoebox (clearly the salon is devoted to cuts), but it was comfortable and my technician (the entire staff was female) was wonderful.
There were copies of Us Weekly, but that doesn’t suggest gay so much as it does eighth grade. The waiting area is like a guy’s fantasy rec room stocked with DVDs like Rocky and Entourage Season One, assorted snacks such as Slims Jims and Twix candy bars and überhetero rags like Maxim. That seemed gayish, but that vibe pretty much halted there. When I arrived for my foot treatment (don’t say pedicure at a dude spa), “You Spin Me Round” by Dead or Alive was blasting. My first stop was Halo (1655 N Damen Ave, 77) in Bucktown.
But how much of a gay vibe do these places have, and how much of that is just metrosexual? I went undercover (or should I say under the covers?) to find out. Men’s spas are popping up in Chicago like blackheads on a preexfoliated face.
