Treatment: King Solomon Ritual
Expert: Therapist Jayne Adamson
Procedure: Even if your dad thinks Father’s Day is a commercial scam, he’ll be hard pushed to resist a gift of this treatment. The Dolphin Spa is modelled on a hammam, so the 90-minute King Solomon Ritual begins with a full-body “Arabian” scrub using ground coconut shell in an Aroma Soul Cream base to exfoliate the skin. There follows a 55-minute, toe-to-scalp Swedish massage with Shea Butter — it contains vitamins A, B, C, D and E to nourish the skin, and is good for eczema — and refreshing green tea and ginger-infused sunflower oil. It’s one of the firmest and somehow cossetting massages I’ve had. I’m offered use of the steam room but opt for tea and dates to wake me up again.
Results: The massage leaves me slack-jawed, with all the kinks in my back worked out and the tension in my limbs unstrung. My skin feels both smoothed and protected from the unsummer-like weather: altogether, the bleak bike ride back to work doesn’t feel that bad at all.
King Solomon Ritual, £89 for 90 mins (until June 30), The Spa, Dolphin Square, Chichester St, SW1, 020 7798 6767, dolphinsquare.co.uk/spa.
