When I opened the house in 2012, I wanted a place where nobody looks at their watch. In many salons the treatment ends and you are already being walked to the till. Here, it ends in the tea lounge.
A quarter of an hour that counts
After a hammam or a massage, the body needs a few minutes to find its rhythm again. Getting up too fast, stepping out into the heat or the cold, getting straight into the car: all of it undoes some of the good you have just received. So every long appointment includes a quarter of an hour of rest.
That time is in the diary as a treatment in its own right. It does not fill slots; quite the opposite, it means we open fewer of them. But it is what our clients mention most often when they talk about the house.
We have seen it on the team’s side too. A therapist who sees one client after another without a breath ends up working faster and less well; ten minutes between treatments gives her time to prepare the room, read the next client’s card and greet her properly. The calm we offer you is also the calm we need to do our work well.
Tea, mint and the rest
Nadia makes the tea the Algiers way, with fresh mint and little sugar unless you ask otherwise. It comes with a few dates or biscuits. For anyone who does not drink tea, there is lemon verbena or water scented with orange blossom.
This rest is also a moment to talk, or to say nothing at all. Some clients read; others chat with their therapist about what to do at home. We never suggest a product during that time: it belongs to the client, not to the shop.
