A friend of a friend was singing and dancing the praises of Nickel Spa so much one day, that I decided I’d better pop in and check it out. Situated in the heart of Covent Garden and created by a man for men only, it’s a spa & skin care range exclusively designed for men’s skin & bodies.

When I arrived to have a look around their six treatment rooms, I found the staff to be friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The concept is based around creating a venue for men to feel comfortable in and treat themselves to massages andtreatments. There’s an extensive “menu” of professional grooming treatments to choose from such as a “REN – The Quickie facial”, a “Love Handles Wrap massage,” “overground” or “underground” waxing, to name just a few. Male and female therapists are on hand so you can request who you’d prefer to do your treatment.

The website echoes the friendly feel of the spa and has a reassuringly humorous do’s & don’ts section if you haven’t been to a spa before & feel unsure about the etiquette.

All the products they use are available to buy in the salon including their own Nickel range, or if you’re buying online you can search by concern ie: “I party hard”, “I have love handles” and it’ll bring up a range of products to choose from – neat eh?! They work on the premise that “Regular guys want efficient and no nonsense user friendly and yet serious cosmetics and treatments. Just the products, not the blurb and the nonsense around them”.

Even though the men’s grooming market has moved on in leaps and bounds since Nickel first started in 1996, there are still plenty of men who don’t feel entirely at ease with the thought of “masculine beauty”. So Nickel Spa, with it’s refreshingly down to earth treatments and products is just the sort of thing I like to hear about, and I for one, won’t hesitate to be recommending them on to my clients.

Sarah Gilfillan is founder of personal shopping and style consultancy for men –  Sartorialab.co.uk