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When April Brewington encountered a friend of hers a few weeks ago, she noticed immediately the woman looked, well, great. She was a slim, toned and smaller version of the Julie Tracey whom Brewington had seen at their children's day care center.
"I asked her what she was doing, and she told me," said Brewington who, like Tracey, lives in Peachtree Corners. "She just looked terrific."
What Tracey had done was to forgo an appointment for liposuction and opt for a body wrap in an Alpharetta salon. After the first visit, she had lost a total of 11 inches. The results so delighted her that she had additional treatments, noticing each time that her clothes fit better and she felt better.
Tracey underwent repeated wraps until her clothes size dropped from a 12 to an 8. By then, the mother of three was so convinced others would embrace body wrapping that she and her husband, Michael Tracey, opened their own salon on Peachtree Parkway in June.
Since then, Suddenly Slimmer has attracted more than 350 clients and has employed five more people. Julie Tracey estimates the business has done more than 500 wraps. Among her clients are television and radio personalities.
The price of the wraps varies, but the treatment is not something the cheap would enjoy. One slendertone wrap costs $125, while the power wrap and an anti-aging wrap are both $150. The more expensive procedures use combinations of herbs designed to rejuvenate the body. Returning for multiple wraps can reduce the cost of individual sessions by 10 percent to 20 percent.
Getting wrapped means coming to the salon with no lotions, makeup or moisturizer on your body or face. You strip down to your underwear, don a robe and get weighed.
Back in a private dressing room, Tracey then takes more than 30 measurements, from radius to clavicle, fibula to sternum to skull. And everywhere in between.
There are fat molecules apparently all over your body. The treatment is designed to compress and smash these molecules closer together. Tracey says it takes five to 10 wraps for you to drop one pants size. After you reach your desired size, a maintenance wrap every two or three months will keep things in good shape.
After measuring your body, Tracey stirs rolls of bandages that have been soaking in a warm solution of triple-filtered water and mineral powders. The solution, Tracey says, will draw metabolic wastes and impurities from your body.
She begins wrapping bandages around your right foot, working her way up your leg. She then does the other foot and leg, your trunk, back, arms and head.
When she's finished, you resemble a cross between the Bride of Frankenstein and the Mummy. The wet bandages are so snug that it's difficult at first to move your limbs.
Tracey quickly covers you with a plastic poncho and puts plastic bags on your hands and feet. These will capture the wastes drawn out of your body, she says.
You then hobble into the front room, where a television plays and other wrapped bodies move their legs back and forth on elliptical trainers. You take your place on a trainer and begin walking in air, trying not to slip.
Electric heaters keep the room toasty. Every so often, an employee stops your walking, helps you from the machine and then bastes you with warm mineral-laden water. She removes the plastic bags, studies the water coming from your feet and hands for a second, empties the bags and replaces them.
An hour after the process begins, you're led back to a dressing room. Tracey unwraps your upper body, hands you a robe and continues to remove the bandages from your lower trunk.
Now it's back to the scales --- a half a pound lighter! --- and then to the dressing room for a second round of measurements. The moment of truth: I've lost a total of 11.75 inches from my body.
Many people have told Tracey they feel wonderful, cleansed and invigorated. Me, I just felt hungry. My clothes are always a little loose --- thanks to a larger sister-in-law who passes along her hand-me-downs --- so I don't notice a difference.
But I'm the exception.
April Brewington thought her pants fit better after one wrap, and she said she felt better as well. She plans to come back for another session.
Copyright 2006 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
