If you really want to impress your treatment-crazed friends, drop a stat from the SSPI. Oh, what’s that? Go ahead, Wikipedia all you want; you won’t find the SSPI. Why? Because it’s brand spanking new.  The SSPI or for long, Salon/Spa Performance Index, is a quarterly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. salon and spa industry created by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA).

Here is how it works, the PBA makes a survey and salon and spa owners respond according to how they are doing in areas like customer traffic, retail sales, service sales, employee hours and capital expenditures. Then they, meaning some statistical analysis program, measure the responses, which consist of two components: the Current Situation and the Expectations Index. (i.e. How salons and spas are faring and how they are expecting to fare in the fiscal year.)

What does this mean for spa special suckers like us? It means that we have a means to predict what to expect from our favorite salons and spas. If they are expecting to struggle through, we can savor spa specials. When the numbers predict profitability, we know to hurry up and book that long overdue Swedish/mani/pedi/facial combo before spa bargains vanish.

The verdict? At the end of the first half of FY09 spa owners, like other industries, were reporting improvement from the first half of last year. They were decidedly upbeat about the economy and hovered just below 100 - the magic index number - on the Current Situation Index. Regarding expectation, they predict retail sales will rise. Only 6% of owner respondents had a sour outlook on the future. So, while you still have time for facials and heavenly massages at reduced prices, don’t relax too much. They’ll creep back to pre-recession prices before you know it. Let’s just hope by then you have a job.

For more information on the Professional Beauty Associations SSPI, visit www.probeauty.org.

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