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Keep your shirt on, and
your pants, and your
socks, and your shoes ...

NOT everybody flocks to spas for massages that involve disrobing, wrapping in a towel, getting wet or oiled -- and perhaps having your ears talked off while your muscles are pummeled into alleged relaxation.

Soothing Soles is a new downtown business offering hydrotherapy sessions that allow customers to keep their clothes on.

Soothing Soles' Ocean Wave massage beds provide "dry hydromassage therapy," said co-owner Yvette Dowd.

"It's dry because you don't get wet, but it's hydro because it uses water in the bed beneath you."

The water also is heated to increase the body's circulation and provide additional relaxation.

The jets are adjusted to customize the massage for each customer, but "about 95 percent of the people want it on their shoulders," after sitting all day on the computer or the phone, Dowd said.

Customers tell Dowd the 15-, 25- and 35-minute sessions make them feel as if they've received a much longer massage.

Prices start at $25 for a 15-minute session, but this month the shop also is offering a free 15-minute session with the purchase of a $15 credit-back card.

Massage therapists from a nearby day spa duck in for quick relief and rejuvenation before going back to their clients, she said.

Yvette and Glenn Dowd are inviting their downtown neighbors to a grand-opening party starting at 4:30 this afternoon for free 5-minute sample massages.

The 2,000-square-foot shop is at 223 S. King St., at the corner of King and Alakea Street, under four blue awnings on the Ewa side of Hawaiian Electric Co.

Yvette Dowd stumbled upon dry hydrotherapy while visiting Las Vegas a few years back. Intrigued, she did some research and went to an International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association trade show, where she became not just a customer of the Ocean Wave bed manufacturer, but Hawaii's exclusive distributor of the beds.

Since then the former office equipment sales representative has walked the path of many a new business owner, researching business plans, writing one, attending Small Business Administration seminars and knocking on doors for financing.

Next week, Dowd the distributor will be at the Hawaii Lodging, Hospitality & Foodservice Expo.