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In the past, going to a salon or spa was a huge splurge, with a simple massage at times costing more than a fancy seven course meal at a four star restaurant.  Today, it’s a little easier with deals sites such as Groupon, LivingSocial, GiltCity, Lifebooker, and Spaphile.  Even our favorite beauty sites such as PopSugar and TotalBeauty are offering their own daily to weekly deals!

With tons of deals sites offering amazing discounts of your favorite spa and salon services as well as beauty products, the skeptic in me can’t help but wonder, are the places and products featured on these sites any good?  Is it worth my time at all to try them out?  Would the services be on par to their normal standards?  Lastly, is this offer good enough to make me stray from my esthetician that I have on speed dial?

Fortunately, I actually witnessed the guys behind one of the deal sites, Spaphile, scouring new brands and salons a few weeks ago at the LA Confidential Pre-Emmy “Pretty for the Party” Beauty Suite.  Both president, Michael Meschures, and managing partner, Omid Shokoufandeh were on site to check out offerings by Style Bar Beverly Hills, Bellacures, as well as Per-fekt!  Both men were not only decently versed on various spa and salon services, knowing the differences between a Brazilian Blowout and a Brazilian Wax, they were also game to try anything.  Shokoufandeh tried out Per-fekt’s Eye Perfection Gel and Meschures got a first hand experience with a Bellacure manicurist!

Upon further conversation, Meschures revealed that his team uses the likes of Yelp and Citysearch to first locate hot and popular spas and salon, followed up by in person visits.  To avoid over saturating the salon, Meschures also works with each company to assure the quality of service remains the same, whether by limiting the number of deals sold or by extending the time available to use the deals.

As for whether or not such deals can make any one of us stray from our favorites, that’s entirely up to you.  I personally am partial deals that won’t change my appearance too much such as manicures, pedicures, blowouts, and massages.  Also do realize that many companies repeat their deals again, so after I’ve experienced a blowout or something similar from one salon, if I enjoyed it, I would be more likely to purchase a cut, color, and highlight deal from them in the future.  As for my brows, unfortunately, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever stray from the skillful hands of Sara Redmonds at Radiance Home Spa.

So Pursebuzzers, have you completely fell in love with a new salon from trying a deal before?  What are your go-to sites to get the best deals?  I’d love to check them out as well!