We Care Spa
Olga Trehub
“I was divorced with four children and I was very very stressed,” Susana Belen says as she leads guests on a tour of the We Care Spa, a jewel of an oasis hidden away in an unincorporated area east of Desert Hot Springs. It was 1985 in Palm Springs and the Argentine-born Belen knew if she and her children were going to survive and thrive, she needed to make some positive changes.
“I went to see a chiropractor and in his office he had a colonics machine,” she recalls. “That was the beginning. “I surrounded myself with books and I began to study.”
Belen’s studies turned into practice. Nutrition, exercise, yoga, meditation, colonics, emotional healing, spiritual connectedness—all fit together and reinforced Belen’s view of what a healthy, balanced, toxin-free life should look like.
Belen started teaching classes in the evenings, sometimes getting a comp’d room in a local hotel to conduct her seminars. “One of my clients had cancer, and was crippled by arthritis. She started doing yoga and attending my lectures on nutrition,” recalls Belen. “She was an editor at the Desert Sun and several months later, she was healed. She didn’t know what to do with me, so she took out ads for me in the paper. People flooded my lectures from all over the valley. I decided to build a house in the middle of nowhere and have people come to me.”
Olga Trehub
Belen built an adobe house in 1986 and led her classes in her living room. Her daughter, Susan Lombardi, joined her a couple years later and the two have been refining and expanding We Care ever since. Belen’s little home has been replaced by beautiful, high-ceilinged reception area and kitchen (Belen now lives on an adjacent property) where huge purple amethysts decorate the walls and even the glass tiled floor in front of the entrance. The original kidney-shaped pool is still present, but now what was the garage has an extra story for treatment rooms. There are now TK gorgeously appointed rooms to accommodate TK guests on the TK acre property. “We have many very loyal clients who have been coming here every year for twenty years and they keep begging us, ‘Please don’t change anything’,” says Lombardi. “They didn’t want the special feeling of the property to change.”
They needn’t have feared. During the most recent renovation of the property when new buildings went up and old buildings were stripped down to the studs, Belen personally suspended groupings of crystals in walls all over the property. Whether you believe in the power of crystals, there’s an undeniable feeling of power and serenity everywhere you go on the property.
But the reason We Care has such a loyal following among celebrities and power players (Gweneth Paltrow is reportedly a fan) is the efficacy of the cleansing program. “When you stop taking in food and you give your body a rest, your body goes into detox mode,” says Lombardi. She explains that at about 11 hours of fasting, the body goes into what’s called autophagy, the process by which good cells eat the bad cells, starts taking the proteins from the weakened cells. So, basically, in fasting, you’re doing a whole lot of autophagy, and studies suggest that this is a kind of reversal of degenerative diseases.”
Fasting may sound like torture, but at We Care, it’s a kind of bliss. Belen has refined the program so that their clients are drinking different juices and elixirs every waking hour, and each concoction is designed to target an organ such as your liver or kidneys. And because there are so many treatments and activities from colonics to meditation to yoga to saunas to swimming, guests rarely think about the absence of food past the first couple days. If it sounds somewhat similar to the type of fasting made famous by Dr. Alejandro Junger in his bestselling book, Clean, that’s because Dr. Junger, a former Palm Springs resident, studied cleansing with Susana Belen at We Care.
“The reason we have people come back after forty years is rejuvenation,” says Lombardi. “They say, ‘My skin’s glowing. I’ve got tons of energy. My eyes are clear. I feel creative. I feel like I did when I was young and healthy.’ People feel transformed. It’s amazing to see.”
Dr. Mark Sofonio, Plastic Surgeon
Olga Trehub
Palm Springs native (and PS High School alum), Dr. Mark Sofonio always knew he wanted to be a doctor. “I definitely like surgery; I like to operate. I thought it was very exciting. Then I discovered plastic surgery [and] it’s on another level. There’s an aesthetic…emotional and intellectual component. The other thing I liked is that you establish a relationship with patients. 80% of my patients are return patients. It’s a field unlike any other. It’s art and medicine.”
Dr. Sofonio did a fast track program through UCR and attended UCLA Medical School. When he finished his training, fellowships, and plastic surgery residency, he returned to Los Angeles to practice. He only lasted a year. “I couldn’t deal with the traffic. I couldn’t stand it. I came back out here. Everybody’s kind of calm and mellow. It was just so much simpler out here…so I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going back’.”
Since returning to the desert in 1996, Dr. Sofonio has operated on over 10,000 patients. He worked in the Kiwi Building at Eisenhower for 25 years and was their Chief of Plastic Surgery for a decade. He kept pushing for more space so that he could offer some of the exciting new technologies. “I wanted to offer those services, [but] they just didn’t fit in with Eisenhower. I bought this place [Sofonio Plastic Surgery, Rancho Mirage] in ’18. It was a restaurant, tore it all down to the concrete and rebuilt it.
“Now I have a full medical spa on half of the building,” he says. “Which includes two esthetician offices, two rooms that run fillers, two Botox rooms, and two or three laser rooms. On this side of the building, we have an accredited, state-of-the-art surgery center. We give less aggressive types of anesthesia here (than hospitals) and because of that, the patients are ready to go home within 45 minutes of surgery.”
Dr. Sofonio says that the main reason the medical spa has become so busy and successful since opening is that the most significant changes in plastic surgery have come about due to advances in non-operative services. “It used to be plastic surgery was all about surgery. That’s not how it is anymore. We’ve had tremendous changes in the aesthetician component of plastic surgery. We’ve got new agents that can be used on the face to regenerate tissue following sun exposure. We have fillers for volumizing tissue and bringing back youthfulness. We now have machines that not only can surface tissue directly, but can—without damaging tissue—go under the tissue into the dermis and tighten the tissue without injuring the top layers. There’s ten or fifteen types of technologies we can utilize to do a midrange of things for patients. We didn’t have any of these products and technologies twenty years ago.”
While some of the technologies such as IPL (intense pulse light), a procedure that cleans the skin of brown spots and other discolorations are more well-known, Dr. Sofonio also offers some more aggressive, fascinating technologies such as ultrasound. He explains that “surgery cuts things and we remove things…surface lasers damage the skin, strip the epidermis off, and then cause the dermis to regenerate itself. Radio frequency [is] electricity. We will make a tiny hole in the skin and then we’ll shoot this energy right there and cause an injury to the dermis without damaging the epidermis. Sound is really a miracle energy because it loves tissue and doesn’t hurt it. You send 5,000 beams of sound to [a point]…and then you send another 5000 beams of sounds and they’ll hit at a certain point and all those competing sound waves will hit each other and create a sonic boom. So you can bring the temperature up to 160 degrees without damaging the skin. That’s incredible.”
Though he no longer does reconstructive surgery, there was a time when Dr. Sofonio ran a burn and would go across the border into Mexico to do pro bono work. “I was doing a lot of skin grafts, scar releases, cleft lips and palettes…and these kids would come up afterwards and hug you and start crying and you’ve completely changed their lives. Just this week, I had a [patient] who had an arm and facelift and we took off all her dressings and she just started crying. And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, what did I do wrong?’ She looked at her husband and says, ‘Papa, look I’ve got my youthful arms back.’ That kind of impact is pretty powerful; it’s just kind of an indescribable feeling.”
Sabrina Zellis, General Manager, Coachella Valley Yoga
Olga Trehub
“We have of course the physical aspect of yoga for people, but we also like to introduce different therapies and wellness aspects,” says Zellis. “We do what we call a studio open house, and we invite different vendors and locals in the community who also work in wellness. Sometimes we have Restore come out and they'll bring their red light therapies and their different massage techniques. We do different things like body metrics and we try to incorporate these different elements of wellness that people may not be exposed to by just coming to a gym or a yoga studio. So, you get the yoga, you get the wellness, and you get physical therapy and learning how to take care of yourself.”
Zellis, a Texas native who found yoga in 2009 after taking a class at her local LA Fitness, found yoga to be the perfect de-stressor for her fast-paced career as an executive ‘guru’ at sunglass giant, Oakley. Her job entailed traveling frequently to California where she discovered Yoga Works. On one of her trips, the teachers at Yoga Works informed her of a management job opening up. She applied and was hired. Once living in LA, she began taking frequent trips to the valley (“I’m a Texan, so I love the heat.”). She took classes at Coachella Valley Yoga and became friends with the owner, Charissa Farley Hay. On a girlfriends’ weekend in Palm Springs, she met “the love of my life” and not long after, she was offered the general manager’s job at CVY. “It was definitely meant to be.”
“You should make this part of your exercise routine because it’s going to change you from the inside out,” says Zellis. “One thing we usually hear is ‘I’m not flexible enough to do yoga.’ That’s the perfect person for yoga because they’re going to learn so much about themselves and as well as their bodies.” Zellis says that one of the great things about CVY is that unlike most yoga studios that focus on a single type of yoga, they offer several different types such as Vinyasa, Hatha, and hot yoga. “We’re also planning on offering a true beginner’s class…so you can go in there and feel like, ‘Ok, I don’t know anything about yoga, but at least no one else in this class does either.” Zellis says that one of the best aspects of CVY is the support and community. “It’ll be someone’s first class…and they may be nervous…and [afterwards] they’re so proud of themselves for doing the class. And people will congratulate them and tell them they did great and ask when they’re coming back. Everyone keeps each other encouraged, which is really beautiful.”
Desi Tenebruso, Giancarlo Salon
Olga Trehub
Having worked with some of the top stylists in New York such as Vidal Sassoon, Bumble and Bumble, and Tony and Guy, as well as owning highly successful salons in New York and New Jersey, Tenebruso and his wife moved to the desert to retire. It didn’t last. “After six months, I couldn’t stay anymore,” he says, “So I went back to work again.”
Named after his son, Giancarlo Salon on El Paseo is a six-chair operation for both women and men where Tenebruso is dedicated to beautifying even the most damaged heads of hair. Like many businesses in the valley, things slow down considerably in the summer (Tenebruso often takes advantage of the lull to revisit his native Italy), but starting in October, every chair every hour of the day is often booked until late spring. “I think during the season, 80% of my clients are from Canada.”
Tenebruso says that the specialties of his salon are coloring, haircuts, and treating damaged hair and returning it to full luster. “Sometimes the hair is very badly damaged…too much bleaching. But we can fix…and completely transform the hair.” His secret weapon in hair restoration is a Japanese shampoo and conditioner called Shu Uemura. “That’s the best product we can buy. We have everything to make a hair shine healthy. When customers see how Shu Uemura works on their hair, they cannot believe it.” He says the good news for residents and visitors is that the desert is actually good for hair. “It is the low humidity. In New York, people have to wash their hair almost every day. Here, you can go three days or more.”
When it comes to color, Tenebruso says that variations of blonde are the most commonly requested, though red is gaining in popularity. Because of his many years of experience in coloring, Tenebruso is able to select the perfect shade of color to compliment a person’s complexion and skin tone. He suggests to new clients that they make an appointment for a free fifteen-minute consultation to discuss what they’d like to achieve with their hair. As far as styles, Tenebruso says he sees a trend away from straight hair to hair styles with more wave. But as far as specific styles, he says that these days, “it’s anything goes.”
Chelsea Nicole Hair and Make Up
Olga Trehub
When La Quinta native, Chelsea Dorris, was in third grade, she told her mother, “I’m going to do hair and make up for stars in Malibu. I was going to have a salon in Malibu. That was my dream.” Through high school, she says that she was that friend who did hair and make up for everyone. After a detour into the fashion industry, she returned to her first love, hair and make-up, in 2008. She went to work for Mac Cosmetics in Palm Desert while building a portfolio working with photographers on editorial shoots. While out on maternity leave in 2013, she happened to do hair and make up for a wedding that her aunt posted on Yelp. This led to more weddings and various events and “I realized that I could do this on my own and I decided not to go back to Mac.” Since 2015, her salon, Chelsea Nicole Hair and Make Up has steadily grown. Last year, she moved her salon to El Paseo and spent 8 months on the renovation of the space. She now has nine chairs, a beauty bar, and an aesthetician. She manages to juggle the salon, being a mom to three kids, weddings on the weekends, and editorial shoots when the opportunity presents itself.
“I really believe that beauty and great makeup truly starts from the inside,” she says. “Especially here in the desert, hydration is key. It plays into the health of your skin and how much you radiate. The focus should be on good skin because good skin makes good make up. Right now, we’re in a place where people are wearing less makeup…natural makeup, so the focus needs to be on having good skin.”
One of Dorris’s services is teaching women how to use makeup. She says that many women over fifty need to learn about new products and techniques. “Something you did in your thirties, you may need to change as you enter your forties,” she says. “I have clients bring in their makeup and I look at what they have. Then we work on creating a day-to-day look and I show them how to bump that look up if they are going out to dinner or to something special.”
Generally, Dorris believes that less is more. “I like to build products from cream to powder. It’s like building layers that add depth to the face. Depending on who’s in the chair, we might do a little bronzer, then maybe we finish it and set it with a little powder bronze. That will give it longevity in our climate here.” Dorris says some people make the mistake of starting with concealer and “try to conceal everything they think is a flaw. Then they put their foundation over the top of their concealer. I like to do it in reverse.” Dorris says that much of the time a light foundation will result in needing less concealer.
Dorris says a big problem is that girls and women look at models on the internet who (thanks to AI and filters) appear to have perfect skin. “You have to be realistic and gentle with yourself. We’re suppose to have pores. We’re not suppose to have a face that doesn’t move and doesn’t have expression. If you have some wrinkles around the eyes or here and there…I don’t think you should cover them up. The effort should be on softening the skin, making the skin look hydrated because the more that you try to cover up, the less natural you’ll look. For instance, say that you have a very dark sun spot. Let’s work on covering that..but not putting heavy coverage over your entire face. Let’s target the severe areas and keep everything else soft and natural.”
Aarron Johnson, Personal Trainer
Olga Trehub
After stints in the US military and semi-professional basketball, LA native Aarron Johnson was stopped one day by a neighbor while he was out for a run. “He said, ‘Every time I see you outside, you’re doing something with a purpose, whether it’s running or riding a bike. Would you train my son?’”, recalls Johnson, who agreed and did a training session with the young man. “Afterwards, the kid went home and went right to sleep. When I saw his father again, he said, ‘Hey, you almost killed my son.’ I said, ‘Sorry, man, I thought he was good to go.’ And the father was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. I want you to train my whole family.’ And that’s how I got started as a personal trainer.
Ten years ago, Johnson moved out to the desert and got certified as a trainer. He worked at a gym where the owner had an attitude that he was better than anyone else. It turned off Johnson. Johnson wanted a gym for ordinary Joes. When he opened his own gym in Palm Desert, he named it Trainer Joes.
Trainer Joes specializes in what Johnson calls “functional fitness tools, like kettlebells, mac bells, and TRX. We do exercises that stimulate activities that you might do, like rowing a boat or pitching hay.”
Every fitness routine that Johnson devises is uniquely tailored to the individual and the fitness goals of that person, whether it’s to lose weight or put on more muscle mass. Not surprisingly, he gets a lot of clients during the season, both local and snowbirds, who want to get themselves in shape for the golf course. “We modify some of the workouts for them so they can incorporate them into their golf game,” says Johnson. “Balance pads are by far the best things for golfers. They might have one leg shorter than the other or their hips are imbalanced. Exercises on a balance pad can help with those issues.”
Not surprisingly, the 2000 square foot facility at Trainer Joes is hopping year round (especially in the summer when it’s too hot to do anything outside except faint) and Johnson’s training schedule is usually booked up three months out. His rate of $125 per hour is entirely reasonable (“We usually go over the hour, but we never go under it.”) and he has packages available for clients with long term fitness goals. And what if Johnson puts you through a tough workout like he once did for his neighbor’s son? Don’t worry. Trainer Joes also sells a CBD pain lifter.
