Spa Week isn’t forever, but the wellness benefits and memories are everlasting! We asked for your Spa Week stories to share with our readers (see the contest HERE); we’re so thrilled to have been able to touch so many lives with a small dose of pampering! We’ve managed to narrow it down to 5 winners, each of whom will be receiving a $50 Spa Week gift card to use toward their next spa visit. You’ll see them published here throughout the week. Here’s #4–enjoy!

Take it off or leave it on? We’ve asked before. We chose Victoria’s spa story to showcase a very real concern she shares with many spa-goers. The answer? There is no right or wrong way! Just do what makes you feel comfortable. Here’s a great How-To on the subject, courtesy of Well and Good NYC: Nudity in the Spa: Your Right To Bare All

Submitted by: Victoria Lester

Last week we covered the good spagoer practices that will show your appreciation to the spa and your therapist – so you’re all set when it comes to tipping. But what about the more, um, sensitive parts of spagoing? We’re referring to the delicate question of exactly how much you should let hang out in the spa. While in most other business transactions, you keep all your clothes on to enhance the experience – after all, it’d be a terrible idea to head to a restaurant in the buff, because what if you spill soup on your lap? – most spas expect very few or no clothes to be worn during treatments.

Back in February, we asked you how much skin you usually bare at the spa and got a variety of responses. Well, just in time for Spa Week, Well+Good NYC came up with a great how-to guide for stripping down in the spa. Worry no more about what to wear when!

WHAT TO WEAR DURING… (courtesy Well+Good NYC)

Body treatments
You really don’t want anything between you and your body wrap or salt scrub, unless (truly horrid) disposable panties are proffered by the spa. That’s because clothes get in the way of the head-to-toe slathering of products—e.g., you can’t pull your g-string out of your butt when your arms are pinned in a wrap, and your tush needs the scrub or wrap ingredients more than any other body part. Plus your Malia Mills suit will be forever stained by mud or seaweed.

Swedish or Deep Tissue Massage
At a bargain place, keep your kit on. At a Four Seasons, drop trou. Therapists drape you in sheets or towels so you never feel exposed or cold. The good ones generally work low back, glutes, and the attachments around the hip joint, so not wearing skivvies makes it easier for them to reach these areas.

Thai Massage
Little known fact: This is a great massage for the spa shy. Spas often play wardrobe department, lending you loose-fitting clothes to wear during this treatment, which is based on loads of yoga-style stretching—it would be impossible to keep you covered with sheet during some of these moves. If the spa doesn’t have a traditional Thai fisherman’s-style outfit for you (some do!), they’ll recommend at booking that you bring your own comfy apparel.

Facials
You strip down to your underwear, don the provided facial half robe that looks like a towel but velcros in place under your armpits, or just take it all off. Why? Your bra gets in the way of the décolleté massage, plus if you’re cosseted in white Egyptian towels and duvets, it’s way more comfortable. This rule does apply at Mimi’s or the like, where your privacy is compromised and you should cling to your garments like holy vestments.

Sauna, hot tub, communal bathing area
In a co-ed setting, wear your swimsuit—with the notable exception of northern California’s hot springs where men and women soak naked together as if it were still 1968. In a single gender environment, like the lavish women’s area at the Mandarin Oriental Spa, wear whatever makes you most comfortable. Not sure what that is? Start with a two-piece, which you can easily remove after a dip in the vitality pool and before a spell in the amethyst crystal steam room.

Yesterday to celebrate Mardi Spas we asked you: How much do you TAKE IT OFF for a full body massage?

This is one of the most common questions asked about spa etiquette. The correct answer: There is no correct answer… it’s however you’re comfortable.

Between Twitter, Facebook and the official Mardi Spas blog post results, here’s how it all panned out:

For 3 of you, your comfort zone is leaving something to the imagination:

Briana I’m a leave the undies on kind of girl.

Sandiegoamyc: For my massage- I always leave my underwear on! I guess I am a little shy!

Casey Byrd I do to the undies; my massage girl can reach under to get at whatever she wants.

For 6 of you, it depends:

diego17 If the therapist says take off your clothes – then I take all my clothes off. If they say take off as much as you like, I keep my panties on.

Foodie If they hand me a towel – totally naked. No towel, I stick with the boxers.

dobr67 For me all clothes have to come off. When I go for a massage I want to be able to totally relax without feeling confined at all. I hate it when the therapist wraps me up so tight in the blanket to avoid seeing anything. I just want full relaxing strokes, and the clothes just get in the way. People are way too uptight about their bodies.

thattweetthing I’ve gotten full body massages. I usually keep on my underwear and then get under a heated blanket or whatever completely nude everywhere else :)

shweetandlow I’ll start with them one and see how things go….. ;)

Hope I take it all off except if its that time of the month.

No questions asked for these 9 spa-goers. They TAKE IT ALL OFF (baby)!

Kim I take it all off, baby!

Jennifer All of course

Ericka Pendley everything must go! I want my glutes and lower back worked on, and the best way to have it done is by letting the therapist get into those places to release triggers. Everything in the body is connected. Your shoulders may hurt because your lower back is out of whack. I don’t want to cheat myself when getting a massage. The therapist doesn’t think twice about seeing naked bodies, there really is no reason to be self conscious around them. (speaking from experience :)

Bill Commando

Deborah J. Glidden Everett All. If you embarrassed about your body get a better self image. If your therapist is then you need a new therapist.

Erica I take it all off!

Linda Wilson The only way to get a full body massage is being in your Birthday Suit!!!

Shannon (@fauxlashes) take it ALL off ba-by.

Leslee Lauser I’m naked as a Jailbird.

And the winner, chosen at random from our official blog entries, is:

Kim, please contact me at michelle @spaweekmedia.com with your address to claim your prize: a set of 4 spa-themed glass coasters and a Queen Helene Mint Julep Face Mask! Thanks to everyone who celebrated the world’s first Mardi Spas!

Image courtesy of indialist.com