Koreatown’s Wi Spa ups its sport with a head spa, AI robotic masseuse and extra

Wi Spa, with its cold and warm tubs, specialty saunas and napping nooks, has lengthy been a beloved L.A. vacation spot for relaxation and rejuvenation. Now Koreatown’s hottest spa is kicking up its wellness choices, getting forward of the self-care pattern. Or a head of it.

Wi Spa is opening a head spa. It’s greater than midway by way of building of Root Head Spa, slated to debut throughout the subsequent two months. It will likely be positioned on the foyer stage, within the house that previously housed a health club, with seven particular person therapy rooms.

The concept for this re-creation started earlier than the top spa pattern grew to become so fashionable in Los Angeles, says Min Jung, a Wi Spa supervisor. After researching the varied sorts of head spas, Wi Spa determined to create theirs “in the Japanese Yume Head Spa-style,” she says. Treatments will clear, exfoliate and moisturize the scalp, and they’ll embrace a mild head therapeutic massage. (“Yume” means “dream” in Japanese, a nod to the sleepy state the therapy leaves visitors in.)

“But this is not a massage, this is not a head wash, it is actually a scalp treatment,” Jung says.

Videos of Chinese and Japanese-inspired head spa therapies began popping up on social media in 2022 — the arc-shaped “waterfall bath” is very visually intriguing. We chronicled the rise of the pattern, which first started proliferating in Asian communities equivalent to Arcadia, San Gabriel, Temple City and Rosemead, in 2024 and 2025 — now there are head spas throughout town.

Scrubbing the scalp aids circulation, strengthens hair follicles and helps to forestall dandruff, itchiness and irritation, amongst different advantages, practitioners and dermatologists say. In our protection, we stated it “might be the most relaxing spa service in L.A.”

Wi Spa’s Himalayan Salt Sauna, a customer favourite.

(Wi Spa)

An hourlong Wi Spa head spa therapy will price about $150 to $200, Jung says, including that costs are usually not but set. That’s the higher finish of common in L.A. for the therapy. Wi Spa’s $40 entry charge (which incorporates entry to spa facilities) is not going to be waived with buy of the top spa therapy, as it’s with different Wi Spa providers, equivalent to a physique scrub or therapeutic massage, which generally exceeds $160.

Also within the works: Wi Spa is planning to construct a wellness middle on its third ground, in what’s now a skincare space. The new providing will seemingly embrace an infrared sauna and a purple mild remedy mattress, amongst different issues. This previous summer time Wi Spa additionally opened a salon for blowouts, referred to as Root Style Bar, adjoining to its girls’s dressing room. So (cue the violins) visitors now not need to trek out to their automobile with moist hair or attend post-spa occasions with a DIY blowout.

Next up: a spa-wide renovation to clean up present areas.

In the meantime, guests might not know: Wi Spa has an “Aescape” AI-powered therapeutic massage robotic on its premises.

Reporter Deborah Vankin tries out the Aescape therapeutic massage robotic at Pause Wellness Studio in 2024.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

We wrote about Aescape when it debuted at Pause, a wellness middle in Studio City — it performs a 3D scan of your physique to ship customized robotic massages. (Cyborg butt massages are to not be underestimated.) There at the moment are a number of Aescapes round L.A., together with at Equinox gyms. Wi Spa leased theirs this previous summer time. Guests can e-book robotic massages for quarter-hour, half-hour, 45 minutes or an hour for $1 a minute, making it extra reasonably priced than Wi Spa’s guide therapeutic massage choices.

We’re a fan of probably the most reasonably priced therapeutic massage choice at Wi Spa, nonetheless: the plush, blue-lighted therapeutic massage chairs scattered all through the spa. Bring money. It’s simply $10 for a 30-minute “luxury” full physique therapeutic massage — and it’s surprisingly efficient.