CITYist

You know how you always read about those pseudo scientific treatments celebrities get? Well we decided to try one. Halo Air Salt Rooms is a spa in Chelsea where you sit in a cave filled with salt. You breathe in the salt air like you would at the beach, but it’s supposed to be like a year at the beach in one day. Somehow this reminded us of how doctors in old books and movies would recommend a temperate climate near the sea as treatment. The salt is supposed to improve your skin, detox your body from pollution and help with respiratory issues. Did it do any of those things? Sort of.

Let us say that we’d imagine you’d have to go somewhat regularly to experience real results. For $65, you get a 60 minute session in a room where the walls, ceiling and floor are made of salt. A pipe in the wall periodically lets out puffs of salty air, which you can taste on your lips. Otherwise, it’s akin to being in an ice cave—cool, quiet and refreshingly isolated. A flat screen TV behind a frosty pane plays nature videos, so you can stare at polar bears the whole time. We chose to use the free wifi. And that’s when we discovered the true benefit of the treatment: the eerie, salty nothingness of the room created a vortex of relaxation so powerful that, combined with the plush leather reclining chair (the only thing in the room not made of salt) we nearly fell asleep. Relaxation is the real plus here. Did our skin feel nice after? Sure, but the just-had-a-massage feeling was even better.