coronavirus

‘Frustrating': Med Spas in Mass. Upset They Still Can't Reopen

NBC Universal, Inc.

Matt Azulay-LaFever, a medspalogist at H2T Skin and Laser center in Foxboro, is disappointed that his center has been pushed off to step 2 of phase 2 of Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker's reopening plan.

"We don't have a date. It's frustrating to us, frustrating to our clients," Azulay-LaFever said. "It's been a killer. The rent payment is still due, a lot of this industry requires you to purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars of equipment."

Med spas are grouped in with personal services, but Azulay-LaFever says they are trained registered nurses.

Right now, you can get Botox in a dermatologist's office, but not in a med spa.

"The frustration lies in the process. We feel as though it doesn't make a lot of sense, when you figure a dental hygienist can be in someone's mouth, yet a registered nurse or a nurse practitioner can't inject Botox around someone's mask, it just doesn't make a lot of sense," he said.

Also frustrated are the owners RN Esthetics, who are also registered nurses, one previously of of a critical care unit.

They have three locations in the North Shore.

"Nobody is better at providing sanitation and PPE than we are, it's what we're trained in," Michelle Doran said. "We came from the hospital setting."

RN Esthetics says that it shut down its centers during the pandemic before it was even mandated, and that it does injectables for plenty of necessary treatments like migraine management.

The company says its patients feel abandoned.

"The fact that we're not be recognized as the medical specialty that we are is very frustrating," Doran said.

Linda Vecchione, another co-owner of RN Esthetics, said she finds it offensive that they're "not allowed to do what we do best."

Contact Us