Potomac Day Spa

I have never given a negative review on Unilocal before. As a daughter of a small business owner, I believe the worst thing you can do is to not tell a business of your poor experience and give them a chance to correct it. I was disappointed with the lack of service I experienced at Potomac Day spa, but now after receiving a phone call and no apology but blame for the situation, I am furious. I had an appointment this Sunday for a massage at 3pm. My husband dropped me off for my service, and when I arrived, the spa was closed. I called immediately, and stood waiting outside for 10 minutes. Was there an emergency? I hoped everything was OK as I had made many appointments on Sunday before, and I knew they were open.
I received a phone call from Cathy at the spa this morning (Tuesday-​2 days later!) She did not apologize but told me I had the wrong day for the appointment. I explained that it couldn’t have been the case, as the receptionist told me the day before, «We’ll see you TOMORROW for your massage.» No apology, just blame for my mistake. It was not my mistake. I would have given the spa another chance, as mistakes happen, but after the non– apologetic tone and nastiness of Cathy, I will never be back again. This spa needs lessons in customer service. Had Cathy started the conversation with an apology for the inconvenience, I would have moved on and made a new appointment. Errors are made, and I believe in giving businesses the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes.
My time on the porch waiting saw dead plants and a messy and unkempt appearance. The lack of attention to detail and service at this spa is horrible.
In an area where there are so many choices for spa treatments, you would think the spa would strive for great service. What a disappointment. Had I read reviews on Unilocal a few years ago when I started going for massage, I never would have gone in the first place. Stay away. Book at Red Door or one of the many options I the area.

I go here for waxing, facials and pedicure, manicures and everyone who works here are always very pleasant. Relaxing atmosphere and great people. Kristina gives the best facials. Highly recommend.

The woman who answered the phone was so unpleasant and unhelpful that I actually decided to go elsewhere to purchase my mom’s christmas present. Even though my mom’s favorite masseuse is here… too bad. I do not want her to have a terrible experience from my gift because the staff at Potomac Day Spa doesn’t understand customer service. YIKES.

Years ago I received a bikini wax that was terrible. The lady (forget her name) did not know what she was doing and looked confused. She took an extremely long time, which is not pleasant when being waxed. I was lying there for over 20 minutes; bikini waxes should not take longer than 10 minutes, if that. She also severely bruised me in multiple places because, again, she did not know what she was doing. She left spots of wax on me, too. I walked out teary eyed and in pain. On top of that, the people at the front desk of the Potomac Day Spa still made me pay for the awful and painful service, which was overpriced. I would not recommend this place for waxing. I have heard it is under new management, so I am not sure if they improved the quality and professionalism of their staff. However, if it is in Potomac I think that it will always be expensive and subpar due to the location.

I go here for the wonderful Thai pedicures by Aurapan (I might be spelling her name wrong)…
She is totally professional, and has a wonderful touch and is so friendly. She gives the best pedicure that I have ever had.
I have also had a massage here and while fine, I have had better massages elsewhere. I have also had worse.
As mentioned in the previous reviews, it’s not a fancy spa — but I do return here for the pedicures.

I really enjoyed my visit to Potomac Day Spa. I went for a simple underarm wax, and it was clean, quick, and (moderately) painless. I called in the morning and was there by 3:30pm that afternoon. The waxer even charged me less than the list price on the website. She was professional, super efficient, and made it as easy as possible. Will book again!

I typically come here for three things: Waxing, Facials & Massage.
For waxing Kystina is the best in town hands down. She is very thorough, gentle, and most important professional. I’ve been coming here for about a year now and every times it’s great. She’s also done my facials which are always pristine.
For massages Leslie for sure has the best hands ever. She certainly knows her stuff and will get any knot out… Since she has gotten all of mines out. I’m an avid Crossfitter and my shoulder tends to bother me from time to time so she’ll fix me right up. I will never go to anyone else.
Every time I come here the receptionist is welcoming and always asks if I need anything. Her customer service sets the expectations high for the spa and I expect nothing but the best. Awesome place.

Rude, rude, rude, rude! The front desk was unprofessional, arrogant, and inattentive. You’d think if you pay premium for your services they’d treat you premium… WRONG. The place was filthy, the nail techs seemed annoyed with each other arguing, it was extremely loud and crammed. They seemed to have run out of these filthy towels. The «salon» was next to the nail station and everyone was talking over each other, if you want a spa experience don’t come here!

When I came to this place, it was for a wedding. I and a few others came here to get pampered and to get ready before the ceremony. We had bought our coupons through livingsocial and had followed all requirements (making appts and such). We even called a week in advance to confirm and unfortunately they day of they lost our appointments! To make it worse the store manager got annoyed at our group for making her fit us in and even rolled her eyes at us! Customer service at this place is horrible in the management department. The nail department was good, my manicurist was extremely nice and gentle. The woman that helped with my eyelashes was also kind and offering as well. Finally, my hair stylist was a bit rushed but she was patient and kind enough to make conversations give tips on how to keep it alive throughout the ceremony. I can’t blame her for that only because the store made the mistake. Sorry, I wouldn’t recommend this place.

If you want to feel like a complete idiot for wasting $ 120, definitely go here.
I feel slightly bad about giving such a poor rating because the ladies that did our mani/​pedi services were very nice. However, while niceness counts, I do not go to salons to chit chat and be asked about my day. I go to be pampered and have a service done well. That, this salon did not deliver. The pedicure was by far the biggest waste of money. It consisted of a 3 minute soak, a half-​assed rub with oil and nail polish. There was no cuticle work. There was barely 1 minute of sanding of calluses. This, combined with a mani costs upwards $ 60. My sloppy manicure chipped 2 days later, which I didn’t mind because I wanted to redo it the minute I walked out. Perhaps it’s because this place is located in Potomac Village that gives the salon operators the idea that it is okay to charge a premium price for a crappy service, but if you respect yourself and your money, go elsewhere. Trust me, whatever you do at home is likely MUCH, much better than what I got here.

Sigh. Operation find-​a-​new-​stylist seems destined to be a doomed mission. Today was yet another in a line of failures. Probably the worst so far! At least I was more or less happy with the cuts at the other places, even if there were other issues. Here I hated the blowout so much I made an unplanned trip home — from Potomac to Germantown before going back out in Bethesda! — just to shower and wash it out. Do I look like I want to look like a 50 year old soccer mom that has had work done and wears an inch thick layer of makeup?! I’m pretty sure I don’t. Yet, that is what she accomplished. So horrendous. The cut itself isn’t terrible but isn’t great, but I guess that’s not surprising given what she seemed to think looked good!
To top it off, this was my *2^nd* trip here attempting to get this terrible cut, because the first time I was told that she was running «15 minutes» late, which turned into half an hour, and I didn’t wait to see how much longer it was going to be. I was promised a free conditioning treatment when I came back to make up for it — want to guess if that happened?
The weird thing is, I knew from the second I walked in that I didn’t like them. The receptionist was unfriendly and kinda condescending, though she changed her attitude and became a lot nicer once she realized how mad I was that they were keeping me waiting for so long (I had to be back at work). I was hoping that was it, but the receptionist the 2^nd time around was just as bad.
Such a strange place.
Don’t recommend.

I could have saved myself the money and cut my hair with my eyes closed and it would have come out better.
Like some of the other reviewers, I too bought the living social deal.
From the moment I walked in the experience was subpar. The women who washed my hair did not speak English which of course is fine, but when she drenched me over the sink and couldn’t utter a sorry, I was peeved.
For my haircut, I asked for some layers. She blowdried my hair, but did not have the attention to detail. She used a round brush and blowdried up and out, so it didn’t show how uneven the cut was at that time. She cut one layer and literally looked like a stairstep by the time I got home and the curl fell out.
The only good part of the visit was the very nice receptionist in the front.
Please don’t cut your hair here unless choppiness and stairstepping is your thing.

I bought the Living Social deal of $ 30 for $ 70 worth of hair services, which in my case included a trim, blowout and finish. Rosa did my hair and it was fine, although she could have payed more attention to my preferences (curled under vs. out, length of trim). My appointment was for 9 am but Rosa wasn’t there when I got to the salon. Apparently she was sick and had forgotten that she had the appointment. The receptionist (maybe a co-​owner, I’m not sure) was very accomodating and called her to come in right away. She told me I would get a discount the next time I came in since I had to wait. Even with the discount I don’t think I’ll be back, and not because my appointment was forgotten but because of the fact that I’ve had better blowouts. Even though Rosa did a decent job, they did a much better job at K&I Beauty. K&I’s blowout looked better, lasted longer and their prices are lower.

When I think of the word «spa,» words like «relaxing» and «pampering» come to mind, but those are not adjectives that I associate with Potomac Day Spa. Getting there was stressful: a simple sign would have saved me about 10 minutes of time and energy in trying to figure out how to get into the appropriate parking area. After I made it into the building, the receptionist gave me water in a styrofoam cup – hardly a classy or welcoming presentation. I was then shown to my stylist’s cramped and awkwardly arranged station. The stylist proceeded to lecture me about the length of time it had been since my last haircut and barely even glanced at the photos that I had printed out that showed some cuts I liked. I was then shooed over to the shampoo room, where the shampooist gave me one of the weakest scalp massages I’ve ever had, and who also managed to get soap and water in areas she should’t have, like my eyes and ears. The haircut took far too long – I was in the building for a total of 2 hours – especially for the simplicity of what she did, which was fine, in and of itself, but not what I’d asked for; there were no sideswept bangs and I actually cut some shorter layers in the front when I got home because the stylist didn’t do as I’d asked. (And, yes, I know I should have spoken up, but I just wanted to get out of there by the time she had blow-​dried and styled my hair – I had an appointment that evening I had to get to, and if they stylist hadn’t taken as long as she’d done, I probably would have asked her to recut the front layers.) During the cut, I was still clutching my styrofoam cup of water because there was no side table or counterspace nearby, and yet I couldn’t drink it because lots of my hair clippings were flying in there throughout the process. Yuck. Also during my cut, my shampooist had no other clients and so she sat at the station next to the one in which I was having my hair cut and repeatedly and very loudly yanked sheets of aluminum foil out of a roll, and cut them into strips while a couple of young children, whom I am assuming belonged to someone who worked in the salon, played loudly and even threw a temper tantrum nearby. Yes, the sounds of foil and obnoxious children, just what I wanted to cap off my relaxing afternoon. I came here because I bought the LivingSocial deal ($ 30 for $ 70 worth of services), and I feel like I got what I paid for, not the value of what it was worth. The haircut itself wasn’t bad – boring and not what I’d really asked for, yes, but not bad, which is why I won’t give this place a 1-​star rating – but the rest of the experience turned me off to this place and I won’t be back nor would I recommend it to friends.

I bought the LivingSocial deal for this place ($ 30 for $ 70 worth of services), and I was referred to Fabiola when I called to make my appointment. I went in today and the place seemed deserted which freaked me out a little at first, but then I met Fabiola and felt right at home. She is great. She did a wonderful job shampooing as well as cutting my hair (a trim and some layering). I don’t get my hair cut very often so I would probably be willing to cough up the $ 70 full price amount next time. I like the atmosphere here too– it is not too haughty-​taughty. It’s comfortable, clean, and pretty, but not over the top like other salons.

I went here because I had a half price deal through Living social and am glad I didn’t pay full price. Blow-​dry was not salon quality — marginally better than I could do myself — very disappointing. Everyone was nice though.

The staff was friendly. Although I had a living social deal, I would never have paid the full price ($ 75) for a haircut and blow dry. The woman who cut my hair seemed to have no experience in styling. In fact, I had to TELL her to texture my ends. Then she proceeded to blowdry my hair, without putting any product in it whatsoever. The result: a sub-​par haircut with a mediocre blow dry. I don’t intend on going back.

This is a pretty nice place, although I think the heat had me confused when I was trying to figure out where I could park and be close to the entrance. I was offered water, and it looked like they had tea, as well. Victor cut my hair; he did a great job and was friendly and fun to talk to. I just had two issues: they had me wait next to the nail salon part while Victor finished with another client — I don’t have great lungs, so the fumes were kind of a downside. Plus, I think the hair washing sink was positioned a little high up. It might just be me, but it felt awkward, and I couldn’t tilt my head all the way back. At least the lady who washed my hair finished with a scalp massage. (And I just remembered that I forgot to tip her. Damn.) Anyway, I’m planning on coming back.

If you want to feel luxurious and all fancy smancy, this is not the place you want to go to. Potomac Day Spa is more your comfy, homey, relaxing place to go to. As a matter of fact, the spa is located in a house that has been converted into a spa. The people are very friendly and the services are good. If you just need a massage and are not looking for the whole spa «event» then this is the place to go. You are in and you are out, and you will feel great nonetheless.

In the middle of Potomac’s strip mall central — the corner of Falls Road and River Road — lies a little spa in a little house: the Potomac Day Spa. This is not your Red Door Spa kind of spa. You will not get a comfy robe and slippers, flavored waters, or serene lounges in which to pass the time. But neither will you face super high prices or people trying to hard sell you products. Instead, you will get fantastic massages (the best I’ve ever had, including from some fancy fancy spas), facials, manicures and pedicures. And you will get them at fantastic prices. Examples? A one hour prenatal massage cost me $ 85. Even better — a package including an hour long facial, and hour long Swedish massage, and a manicure costs only $ 150 altogether.
If you are looking for a day of sumptuous luxury, this is not the place for you. But if you are looking for an incredible bargain that you make you feel incredible, too, rush on over.