People will pay big bucks to be pampered.

Professionals are taking notice and several salon owners are opening spas to cash in.

"It's a smart business move because you can keep it all together," said Janis Roades, a master stylist at A Touch of Heaven Salon and Spa. The business opened recently in St. Joseph

Spas typically offer facials, massages, mud scrubs and body wraps to add to the resume of hair and nails.

In the movies, spas are portrayed as playgrounds for socialites where the rich and famous walk around in robes, sipping champagne and munching on strawberries with cucumbers over their eyes.

Yet more and more businesses catering to everyday people are popping up in St. Joseph.

Sandy Wilson said about 10 percent of students come through the doors looking to work in a spa after graduation from Vatterott's Cosmetology program.

"They see it as the higher dollar ticket," she said. "Most already have a vision."

There's several variations of an explanation for the trend. But they all have a common theme.

"Women are wanting to spend more and more time together and on themselves," Ms. Roades said. "Me time."

The St. Joseph spa experience is slightly different than what you might see elsewhere. The environment brings together the smells of perms, acrylic nail solution and eucalyptus oil. Customers would enter a hair and nail salon but be escorted back to secluded, private rooms to be pampered via massage. Once inside the sounds of hair dryers and gossip soon fade.

Nina Grossman said she wonders if it isn't the increase in the baby boomer generation hitting that transitional point in the battle with age. Ms. Grossman, St. Joseph, doesn't think women are more vain than before, just that society has become more obsessed with external beauty.

"We're not our grandmother," Ms. Roades said. "Baby boomers have never followed suit. We look 10 years younger and we're gonna keep it that way."

And the competition is fierce. At least four new spas have opened this year alone, according to business license records from the city of St. Joseph.

"You've got to offer everything," Ms. Roades said. "If you don't, somebody else is going to."

There are differences in the world of massage, though.

Until Terry Landess came to Vatterott as the director of education, the massage therapy program was geared mostly toward spas. He has pushed to make the profession more health related by changing the curriculum.

"Yet someone coming out of (Vatterott) can work in both places," Mr. Landess said of spas and doctor's offices.

"It's a very lucrative profession," said Bob Taylor, an instructor of massage therapy at Vatterott. "But it takes years to build it up."

Mr. Taylor has seen a lot of changes and trends in the industry since he first started 38 years ago.

"This is Missouri," he said. "We'll always be 40 years behind."

Mr. Taylor said that spas in the area are different from those in Los Angeles or New York City.

Ms. Grossman lived in Santa Rosa, Calif., for nearly 25 years before moving to St. Joseph to live with her cousin. She said that while the local salon and spas may not be as exquisite as the ones she's been to on the West Coast, they still offer a good experience.

"It's more affordable and there's the convenience of being able to get more than one service at a time," said Maxine Sousley, a master stylist at Serenity Salon and Spa.

Ms. Sousley's salon features massage sweats, pilates, yoga and a gym on top of the traditional salon set up.

"People are getting really excited," she said. "We're attracting (clients) in their 30s, 40s and older."

Serenity also offers a lunch-hour pedicure. "It's a little escape for an hour."

"It's such a busy life and we want 'me' time," Ms. Wilson said.

Business reporter Jennifer Hall can be reached at jennhall@npgco.com.