Curious about those wellness trends flooding your social media feed? Karen dives headfirst into the world of middle-age wellness experiments, testing four popular treatments that promise everything from mental clarity to glowing skin. Ever wonder if that Instagram-famous head spa is worth the hype, or whether you could actually survive a cold plunge? Karen transforms from skeptical observer to brave guinea pig, documenting her real experiences with head spas, cold plunges, infrared saunas, and red light therapy. Her mission: separate the wellness wheat from the trendy chaff and give you the honest scoop on what's worth your time and money.

Ready to invest in yourself without breaking the bank? Karen shares vulnerable moments of panic in ice-cold water, blissful relaxation under flowing halos, and surprising discoveries about her own resilience. From the $10 red light session that left her skin surprisingly soft to the $100 head spa experience that felt "absolutely heavenly," she breaks down costs, benefits, and whether you should book your appointment today. The conversation takes an empowering turn when Karen realizes these experiments aren't just about wellness—they're about proving to yourself that you can do hard things. Her biggest takeaway? "If you can teach your brain that you can do hard things and you're not gonna give up, there's endless possibility in our life." Listeners will walk away with practical cost breakdowns, honest reviews, and the courage to try something new.

In this episode:

• (00:00 ) Introduction to the Middle Age Wellness Experiments
  





• (01:43 ) Head Spa Experience: The $100 Instagram-Famous Treatment
  





• (07:15 ) Cold Plunge Challenge: Conquering the $25 Mental Resilience Test
  





• (15:21 ) Infrared Sauna Session: 30 Minutes of $25 Relaxation
  





• (17:51 ) Red Light Therapy: The $10 Spaceship-Like Experience
  





• (20:30 ) Cost Breakdown and Final Verdicts on All Four Treatments
  





• (22:45 ) Tips for Finding Affordable Wellness Experiences
  





• (24:15 ) Encouragement to Invest in Yourself and Try New Things

Resources:

YouTube Video Footage - Visual documentation of all four wellness experiences
Groupon - Discounted wellness services and local business deals
ThirtyFiveSixtyFour Website - Links to featured wellness facilities

About:

ThirtyFiveSixtyFour is a podcast for listeners between the ages of 35 and 64. Available on all major podcast platforms, the show offers an engaging journey through the various challenges and experiences of midlife. ThirtyFiveSixtyFour presents a distinct departure from the traditional midlife crisis storyline. Instead, it champions the perspective that midlife should be viewed as a period marked by play, discovery, transformation and possibility.

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Episode Transcript:

The team here at 3564 decided to do what I am calling the Middle Ager experiments. We've taken all sorts of different things that we've seen in our newsfeed that we've chatted about with friends and strange health and wellness trends. That we just wanted to try, we wanted to report back.

Are they worth the money? How much did they even cost? What was it like, and would you do it again? So let's dive into some of these really cool things that we did. This is one of those episodes that might be best viewed on YouTube. We have a bunch of videos and pictures of all these experiences, so check out our social media or the link in the show notes if you wanna see a really brief version on YouTube of what all these really looked like.

I actually took all these pictures, or someone on my team was taking the pictures of me during these services. Okay. The first service that I want to talk about is the head spa. So a head spa experience is all about your neck, head, hair, and scalp.

Okay. I just got in the room and they asked me to put on this terrycloth rope. Here we go. Looks pretty amazing.

Okay, this is what it looks like. I haven't started yet, but I'm waiting for them to come in.

And you go through this really interesting series of relaxation pieces where they first massage and wash your face almost like a mini facial.

Then they start washing your hair. Then they start massaging your scalp. It's like one of those moments you don't wanna stop. You know what I'm talking about? The moment in the salon where they're washing your hair and it just feels like you could melt into that bowl behind you. This lasts for a good 15 to 20 minutes.

It's absolutely heavenly after that shampooing and massaging of the hair. They start brushing your hair. It's really, really soothing, especially if you have shoulder length hair or more to have your hair brushed by someone. It almost feels parental in a really kind and sweet loving way. But someone then starts brushing your hair and really starting to stimulate your scalp.

Once all of the shampoo is out and your hair is perfectly brushed, they place you under this water halo. Now, this is probably the picture you've seen all over. It's the one that you see on Instagram or people taking when they're getting the service done. It's like a little headband. If you want to call it that, that sits, you know, a couple of maybe a foot above your head.

And it has a continuous stream of water that flows down in the most calming and relaxing way. It is not high pressure, but it's not just a drip. It's this low. Calming continuous stimulation and sound of the water. That just is really quite unreal for a moment. You almost feel out of body if you are completely relaxed.

You could imagine yourself under a waterfall, really under rain. It is really a cool experience, especially if you're able to relax under someone else's hands. I do think that this is a really great opportunity for you to try something new if you haven't. After the water treatment, I got a little bit of a neck and a shoulder massage, and I sat up and simultaneously where all those other things were going on, I was laying in a full body massage.

A chair table and my entire legs, back sides were being massaged by this machine table. So lots of stimulation happening everywhere. Once that was completed, we exited the room with those tables and sinks, and we went on to have some. Really cool LED light treatment on our scalps. So these women went through and really parted our hair very carefully and did all this yellow light therapy all over our scalp, mostly to stimulate the hair follicles.

And also they mentioned it was moisturizing and. And just something that really helps. Your hair maintains a healthy state. That took some time to do. It's almost like this massaging brush, and it has this light on the end, and it's really interesting. I had never seen that before. I looked at the machine and the writing on it was, not in a language that I knew.

So I knew that this is a pretty unique machine. It was probably imported from somewhere after that. My hair was blow dried. I'm not gonna say it was a full blowout, but I did not walk outta the facility with dripping wet hair like I thought I would, and it was a 90 minute experience. It costs about a hundred dollars, and I gave the staff a $20 tip, and I definitely think that the experience is worth doing.

I'm gonna say. Do it with a friend. There's something really cool about having this experience with a friend because it's really unique and the particular facility that I went to had two tables and two sinks, and they were able to service two people at the same time. I probably wouldn't want to do that with someone else I didn't know.

But I was able to bring Megan, who's on staff here at 35/64. She loved it. In fact, I was talking during the entire thing and she was zening out over to the right of me. I know she really loved this experience and plans on doing it again. Okay, the next thing that I tried. Ooh, and I, I gotta tell you, I'm pretty brave.

I'm up for trying new things. You know, last year I went skydiving and I decided it was time to try the cold plunge. 

I am about to do a cold plunge. I've never ever done this. Let's see if I can do this. Oh my gosh, I'm a little nervous. 

There are so many different ways to do a cold plunge. A very traditional way is to gather a