My goal is to make everyone feel safe and welcome, no matter their risk tolerance or situation. Here’s what is happening in the massage studio right now, as we are move from pandemic to endemic.
Your Massage Therapist
I am fully vaccinated, and boostered. I will be wearing a face mask, a well-fitted N95, for all client work, for the foreseeable future.
Been Sick in the Past TEN DAYs?
As I write this, we are deep into cold and flu season. I ask that you please adhere to this policy carefully.
If you've been sick in the past 10 days (cold, flu, or covid), please contact me BEFORE YOU ARRIVE to let me know when your symptoms started and ended. If you currently have symptoms, such as a fever, please reschedule, free of charge. My own immune system is sluggish, so other’s small colds can mean weeks out of work for me. Email or text 510-604-2005.
Client Face MAsks
Your Choice. Client face masks are no longer required in the massage studio. If you’d like to wear one, you are welcome to. If you don’t want to wear one, that’s also ok.
Healthy Airflow
Outdoor Air. Opening the two windows and the door creates a medium to strong cross breeze in the massage studio, depending upon the weather outside. Before opening the massage studio in the new location, I replaced the standard windows with side opening windows, dramatically increasing potential airflow. Instead of just the bottom third of the window opening, nearly the entire window surface area opens. The window openings are oriented to take advantage of the most frequent wind direction (north west) of the Bay area. (Who knew all that geeky weather knowledge from kayaking would come in handy?)
Air Filters. There are also air filters in the massage studio, capable of filtering the air in the space 12 times an hour, the same safety standard that new hospital construction must meet. The filters are specifically selected to remove particles as small as viruses, as well as wildfire smoke. The air filters are turned on about 30 minutes prior to the first client of the day, and stay on, until about 30 minutes after the last client has left.
During Your Session. It’s currently winter, and clients overwhelmingly are choosing to be warm over having windows open. So the default right now is closed windows during your session. This may change with the seasons.
If you prefer outdoor air, you can choose to leave the windows (and door) open- just ask.
Between clients. There’s 30 minutes between clients. The windows and door are open for about 15 of those minutes, and due to that strong cross breeze. most of the air in the massage studio is replaced by outdoor air. (Yes, I do this even on cold days.) Once the workday has started, I do not remove my face mask while inside the massage studio. The idea is that an immunocompromised client could come in after any other client, and be reasonably certain of breathing mostly fresh outdoor air.
Touchless Access
Touchless client access to things like soap, hand sanitizer, and paper towels
Surfaces
Based on the current best practice for massage studios, I am disinfecting surfaces once a day. Obviously, any items that may touch a client’s face, like the headrest or pillows, are fully covered by linens. Linens are washed in a commercial laundry, which are capable of reaching the high dryer temps needed for sanitization.
Thanks!
-Andrea
