Hampton Style - September 21, 2007

Each summer, we come out East for some sense of revival. We work on the art of relaxation. We make life lists. We bond with family, old friends, and our inner selves. And by the end of the season we feel emotionally healthy and look great. Unfortunately, that summer glow fades fast.

We've basked in too much sun and chlorine, and stuffed ourselves with fried calamari and bottomless margaritas. We've endured bug bites, barefoot bike-riding accidents, surfboard bashes, and late-night drunken stumbles. We've neglected to wash our face a few times before bed and might have had three-or 30-puffs of a clove cigarette. But who's counting?

As a result, our skin is tight, itchy, and cracked. Our hair is dry and coarse with highlights that have turned yellow, and ends that are not just split, but officially divorced. We look downright weathered.

With autumn approaching, this is our final chance to fix our bodies before the whirlwind pace picks up. I've sorted through the best services at my favorite spas, as well as some highly recommended at-home remedies, so we can leave the beach looking as beautiful as we were when we were hanging out in the Hamptons.

Face

The Whitening Facial at the White Spa (33 Hill Street, 631-283-9303), fitness guru Radu's secret new treasure spot above his gym in Southampton, was created this summer to even out sunspots, pigmentation, and dark marks.
As a former freckle-face who now gets random clusters of them in adulthood, I made an appointment with facialist Laura Anne Pelliccio to calm my bronzed but blotchy visage.
She tucked me into a plush, white bed inside Radu's cloud-like upstairs aerie. The whitening mask tingles and semi-stings in a good way. I could feel a summer's worth of Bloody Marys and bad karma oozing out of my pores.
My skin looked flawless afterwards. No breakouts or irritations whatsoever. Plus, to enhance my new angelic glow, I walked out alongside Renée Zellweger!

Body

I always say: Don't call me a flake unless you're talking about my skin. My legs are so dry I can scratch a guy's phone number in them. My feet are basically black. And my butt is peeling from falling asleep at my pool several times, sans bikini. As itchy as my post-summer skin is, however, I'm still not big on exfoliating body treatments. If I'm spending time and money in a spa, I want to be touched and tickled, not scrubbed and hosed down.
So after an impromptu polling of my fussiest friends, here are the answers to softening that summered-out skin without leaving the house:
1. June Jacobs After Sun Hydrator ($34, Style Bar, 1 Bay Street, Sag Harbor, 631-725-6730) is the secret answer to all problems from the neck down. It smells like a creamsicle and truly calms the skin. A little goes a long way too.
2. Darphin Aromatic Hydroactive Body Lotion ($50, www.darfin.com) is the unanimous moisturizing choice of beauty snobs out East. It's French and fancy-need I say more?
3. Cetaphil is the safest bet. Why? Winona Ryder swears by it. So does everyone with super-sensitive skin south of the Highway. Plus, the big jars are only $10 at CVS and local drugstores.

Hair

My poor, hapless hair. Since May, I've lightened it, darkened it, cut my bangs with kiddie scissors, spritzed in Sun-In, and obsessesivly straightened it night after night.
So it must have been out of guilt or extreme vanity, that I decided to treat myself to a Kerathermie treatment from Kérastase, which is basically a miracle hair-repair session offered in salons only.
I booked an appointment at the Butterfly Studio Salon in Manhattan (149 Fifth Ave, 212-253-2100) because it's the only place that has a room specifically devoted to damaged hair. A hair hospital, if you will.
Soon enough, my unloved locks and I were sitting in a big, retro chair allowing Elizabeth Santos to work her magic. She applied a few intense conditioners, sealed them with heat under a lamp, washed them off, threw on a hair mask, and finished me off with a hypnotic neck massage. A week later, my hair feels stronger and looks noticeably shinier.
At the end of my spa treatment odyssey, here's what I discovered: When it comes to beauty recovery after a long summer in the sun, there are some things we can't change overnight. Like those inevitable laugh lines, a few extra pounds gained thanks to a slew of holiday barbecue cheeseburgers and beer, and that wildflower tattoo I got on a whim. (Don't tell anyone about that!)
But the rest of the damage can be undone quicker than you think. With the right spas, salons, and shopping sprees at CVS, beauty recovery can be a piece of, well, Tate's.