Spa Safari - Blue Giraffe Day Spa

No vacation would be complete without a visit to a spa. On the last day in Ashland I visited the Blue Giraffe. I had wanted a scrub and massage, but due to timing and scheduling issues I opted for just a the epicurian geranium grapeseed body polish.
The location of the spa is off Main Street in the downtown section of Ashland, behind the creek and so if you take the stairs down from Main and walk up along the creek, it is scenic and very relaxing. I was greeted promptly when I walked in and shown the waiting area and into the changing room.
The decor of the spa is unlike any other I've been in. Bright orange walls, greenery, sculptures of animals and wooden masks. Very African safari influenced. I liked it.
The changing room is very small. It seems to be meant for one person at a time, which does give it an air of exclusivity, but does make it hard to want to blowdry your hair and put makeup on afterwards without feeling like you are keeping someone else waiting. There are smallish lockers, spa shoes and robes. The robes are amazing. A very soft cotton (or maybe cotton rayon blend), they drape well, and most of all come in a variety of patterns all coordinating with the safari like decor of the spa. I opted for a dragonfly robe, that I did have a bit of a desire to take with me, because it was so pretty.
I filled out my information sheet in the waiting room (co-ed), and was greeted by my massuese (Amy) shortly there after (and possibly before my appointment time). She led me to the steam room to help open my pores and soften my skin. The steam room also doubles as the shower and is at the end of the hallway. There is a curtain around it where you disrobe, take a small towel to sit on and go in. Obviously meant for one person, and the closed curtains are a good indicator of someone being in there. I am not a fan of steam rooms and luckily she listened to me and only had me sit in there a few minutes.
There seem to be a good amount of treatment rooms, and so the one shower/steam room seems to possibly put a crimp in thier scheduling. But perhaps they aren't very busy, it being a relatively small town and all.
The room was large, and was thier couples room. I had initially asked for an appointment for my friend as well, but they couldn't accomodate us at the same time, I guess due to not enough massueses.
Amy was great, she was friendly and interesting to talk to, had a good touch (not to hard, not to soft). I enjoyed our conversation and her professionalism. I was led back down to the shower afterwards, someone was in there and I went back to the waiting room for about 15 min, until Amy came and got me. A shower to rinse the scrub off, and back to the changing room. The woman who was in the shower before me was in there, so it did make for a bit of awkwardness trying to change and primp at the same time.
One interesting program they have is if you are already at the spa and decide to add another service that day it is 20% off. It was very tempting to see if I could schedule the massage while still there, but since my friend was over at Waterstone Spa, I didn't want to keep her waiting. Definately a good way to get customers to add on services though!
Overall, it was a good spa experience, the only strange part was that I've always had a lotion application after the scrub. It seems that a moisturizer after a polish is a necessity. This is not to say my skin felt dry or parched afterwards, I suspect there was plenty of oil blended in with the polish, but the service did feel a bit incomplete.