Saturday afternoon at a salon can be busy, with the whirr of hair dryers, the din of conversation, and the occasional whiff of chemicals. So when I made an appointment for a pedicure at Tranquility Day Spa & Salon in Manassas, I expected my treatment to be amid the bustle.
The salon was indeed humming, so I was pleasantly surprised to be escorted not past the hair stations but through a separate door to the spa, a peaceful and dimly lit refuge. There I was greeted by Renee Hull, who would be doing my pedicure.
After offering me something to drink, Hull showed me how to adjust the massage controls on the pedicure chair and draped around my neck a warmed neck roll scented with lavender, clove, and cinnamon. I hadn’t been there five minutes, but with a warm compress on my tired neck, my feet soaking in warm water, and my back getting a pulsing massage, I was already relaxed.
The “spa pedicure” included exfoliation with a sand-based scrub—many of the treatments at Tranquility have a beach theme, and you’ll see seashells everywhere—as well as a softening cucumber mask that worked wonders on my callused heels. I was a bit disappointed that the leg and foot massage wasn’t that deep, but I’m a fan of intense foot reflexology. Still, it was a nice feathery application of lotion, and with a stack of good magazines beside my chair, I enjoyed every minute of the $60, 45-minute treatment.
While my red toenails dried—the salon uses Opi polish—I relaxed in a wicker rocker by an electric fireplace in the small but pretty lounge. Hull had made me a cup of hot tea, and I nibbled on such snacks as cookies and trail mix. After weeks of testing day spas that hadn’t always measured up, I had found a place I would go back to. Best of all, the soles of my feet stayed soft for days, and the polish held up too.
Sherri Dalphonse joined Washingtonian in 1986 as an editorial intern, and worked her way to the top of the masthead when she was named editor-in-chief in 2022. She oversees the magazine’s editorial staff, and guides the magazine’s stories and direction. She lives in DC.
