Body Wrap Therapy

Body wraps may be regarded as the earliest known spa treatment.
Ancient Egyptians used body cover as they embalmed bodies with herbs, resins, and spices.
This practice has preserved body tissues and avoided deterioration and decay.
Emollient wraps in modern-day spas have the same aim; to improve the skin and avoid premature aging.
Some soft tissue conditions may benefit from wraps aimed at decreasing chronic holding habits,
promoting circulation and lymphatic flow, or simply calming the body and providing time for reflection.
Currently, a wide range of body wraps are used for aesthetic purposes or
to treat disorders such as rheumatism, lowered immunity, weakness, and muscle aches and pains. 

There are several ways to conduct body wrap, and as with any spa  the procedure, the practitioner, can mix and match approaches to achieve their procedure objectives better.
It is important to consider three separate wrapping procedures; the hot sheet wrap, the cocoon wrap, and the tension wrap. 

It is important to remember that the terms 'hot sheet wrap.' and 'cocoon' is used to differentiate between two distinct procedures. 

This is a system that offers consistency and is not intended to imply that the term 'mask' always means hot sheet wrap, whereas the term 'cocoon' often implies that the product is applied directly to the body.
The terms 'wrap,' 'cocoon,' 'swathe,' 'envelopment,'  may all be freely used, at the discretion of the therapist, to identify every form of a wrap. 

The types of products that can be used in hot sheet wraps or cocoons are limited only by the mindset.
Things are often the same.
The distinction is the way the product is handled and the process used to package the customer.
Therapists may need to review three specific dry-room equipment, spa draping, customer
positioning for product use, dry-room and wet-room removal techniques and exfoliation techniques.

Thermal therapy pads are applied to a portion of the patient's body.  The pad includes an inner surface and an outer surface, which establishes an arduous path across the pad for the fluid flow.  The pad absorbs a temperature-controlled fluid from a pumping unit via an inlet, and the fluid circulates across the pad before returning through an outlet to the refrigeration unit.
The pads are designed to match the form of the body part receiving the therapy.  

One such pad is a reversible vest with one configuration covering the upper body and another arrangement covering both the back and shoulders.
Another such pad wraps, after being attached to  the palm, folds around the wrist.   Another pad matches up to the patient's face.

Wet wrap therapy, delineated as a method of treatment with a double layer of tubular bandages or gauze, with a 

moist inner layer and a dry outer layer, is generally used in patients with serious or refractory atopic dermatitis (AD). 

The 'moist atmosphere' provided by oil and honey wound dressings has been used to treat skin lesions in Ancient Babylon and Egypt.

For centuries beauty treatments have been used in forms such as face masks & body wraps.
There is evidence from detailed reference to the use of herbal & moss poultices (i.e., mud & clay body wraps), also in pre-historic times.
From hieroglyphs, we learn that Cleopatra even used Nile clay poultices & milk baths as treatments for the skin.
In medieval times a universal remedy for skin infections was the mustard poultice.
The introduction of chemistry medicine at the turn of the 20th century witnessed many conventional treatments decrease in favor of more modern pills & potions.
Conventional medicine rejected for a while that the epidermis (skin) was porous in any way and dismissed nearly all skin treatments as superficial.
However, in recent years this has been debunked as nonsense and the use of medical patches for all sorts
of tr elements, from nicotine addiction to pain relief, is widespread and proved successful by the application of skin patches.