Spa expands customers’ options

For the last two years Julea Penland has been trying to keep residents of the Kitsap Peninsula not only looking good but feeling good as well.

And with the resent expansion of Julea’s Progressive Salon & Day Spa, she is hoping to do an even better job of keeping the county looking and feeling fit.

“It’s surprising to me that after two years, how many people still don’t know that we are here,” Penland said. “Or that there is a full-service spa in Port Orchard. I’m just surprised by how many people drive by and just don’t realize that we are here.”

Julea’s, which celebrated its two-year anniversary in July, is the largest salon and day spa in Kitsap County and the only full-service one in Port Orchard. Julea’s offers a wide range of services including manicures, pedicures, artificial nails, full service hair, body wraps, facials and massages.

Penland, who has been a licensed hair stylist for 20 years, worked in the same Port Orchard salon for 11 years before venturing out on her own. She opened Julea’s two years ago where Bethel Avenue meets Bay Street.

“It was either go out on my own or quite the business altogether,” Penland said. “Originally, I was going to do something a little bit smaller but when I heard about the building and the opportunity came up to take it over, I did.”

With 3,400 square feet, Penland put her treatment rooms upstairs and left the bottom for salon activities. With the expansion, Penland has added another massage room, this one with two tables, a changing room, and is still deciding what to do with the third room. It may house yet another massage table or possibly a tanning bed.

All of this caters to a wide range of clients.

“I’m surprised it’s not more touristy,” Penland said. “It is mostly local clients. I have quite a few clients that I have been working with since I moved here.”

Many of those clients, especially during the summer months, are wedding parties where the bride and her bridesmaids spend the day before the wedding at the spa getting the full treatment.

“They come in and do a whole spa day instead of going out and partying or whatever they do,” Penland said. “This way, they are nice and relaxed. We try to offer a nice, little alternative to what they could be doing.”

Penland said she’s seen lots of clients come in for her all-day package, which includes all of the services plus a meal in the upstairs dining area.

Other packages are offered as well. The most popular being one that includes any three services plus a meal, which goes for $135.

“Really, you can customize your own package,” Penland said. “We do have set packages to choose from which makes it easy. We have packages that go from three hours to seven hours so you can literally be here all day.”

The body wrap has been the most popular item added to packages so far this year Penland said.

The spa also sells accessories for all of its service, including body oils and cleansers, shampoos and nail products, anything that goes along with any of the services.

The spa, which is open from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Mondays and Fridays, 9 to 5 the rest of the week and 8 to 4 on Saturday, is open to male clients for all of its service as well, and Penland said she gets plenty.

“Men have hands and feet and skin too,” Penland said. “It’s all the same. My husband gets a pedicure probably more often than I do. He’s here regularly along with a handful of other men.”

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