Enthusiastic Esthetician is an Inspiration

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Retirement just wasn’t for Diane McGuire. Working for 10 years as a secretary at her daughters’ school and at General Electric in Saratoga Springs, New York, for the next 23, McGuire spent most of that time also being a single parent. But shortly after meeting her soul mate, Jon, at work and marrying him, she retired at 65 and, in 2002, the couple moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

“We took golf lessons when we first moved to the Cape, and that is how I met Tricia Howard. She was a local day spa owner, and we began talking, becoming immediate friends,” McGuire explains of her initial contact with esthetics. Howard became her hairstylist, and McGuire also began to work as a receptionist at Howard’s spa—Bellisimo Hair, Skin and Nails in Hyannis, Massachusetts—exposing her further to the world of skin care and beauty.

So when Howard told her she was taking a trip, McGuire decided to tag along. “She told me she was going to a skin care and hair convention at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York, and I told her I would go along—I didn’t want her going by herself,” McGuire says.

Upon arriving, McGuire was entranced. “In the skin care section of the show, I was just mesmerized by everything,” she says. “Exhibitors were doing demos, and I saw them massaging people’s faces and shoulders and making people feel so, so special. As a nurturer, I knew that’s what I wanted to be doing.”

On the ride home, McGuire told Howard she wanted to become an esthetician, and Howard promised her a position in her spa when she graduated. With that, in August 2005, McGuire enrolled in esthetic school. “I went back to school to learn about skin care, and there were only eight other people in my class, all young,” she says. “Of course, I became ‘Mom’—that’s what they started calling me—and we had a wonderful time.”

Graduating in December 2005 and passing her state board exams in January 2006, McGuire’s new career was launched and she went to work in Howard’s spa for the next six months as an apprentice while Howard mentored her. “Tricia is still my mentor,” McGuire says. However, after Howard sold her business in June 2006, McGuire moved on to her next challenge.

“I received a call from a physicianwho owned The Anti-Aging Center located in Centerville, Massachusetts, and she asked me if I’d be interested in managing photorejuvenation there,” saysMcGuire. She worked there for the next six months, performing IPL treatments and hair removal services under the physician’s supervision, but realized she wasn’t following her initial path.

“It started to include things that I didn’t want to be doing, getting too intense, so then I went to work for Innovations Hair, Skin and Nails, also in Centerville, for a year and half,” McGuire says. “During that time, Kelly White, the owner of Body Sense Day Spa in Hyannis, who I had been friends with for several years, invited me to a Repêchage seminar in Boston. On the ride home, she offered me a job. I’ve been at Body Sense since May 2008.” And along the way, in January 2008, McGuire received her full esthetic license.

Now, at Body Sense, she provides facials and massage to her clients, and often helps them most by allowing them to relax and rejuvenate. “Many times, people fall asleep,” McGuire says. And she continues to gather inspiration from her co-workers and White. However, it seems to be the connection with clients she most enjoys. “I just want to make people feel good. At my age, I am financially secure, so money is not my goal. I just want to make as many people as happy as I can and help make a difference.”

Always eager to learn new techniques and trends in the industry, McGuire often practices on her built-in support system—her family. She’s refined her techniques and product usage on her daughters, granddaughters and even her husband, and is grateful to them for their patience and encouragment of her esthetic adventure.

McGuire is equally eager to spread her love outside the family, as well. “I work with the Look Good ... Feel Better program sponsored by the American Cancer Society, and I volunteer each Friday at the oncology unit of the Cape Cod Hospital, administering hand, foot and shoulder massage to patients there,” she says. “It is so fulfilling and rewarding. Many of the patients keep in touch, and we have become friends and share lunches and beach walks after their treatment.”

And although she recently broke her pelvis in two places while doing volunteer work, she was as eager as ever to return to the spa, planning open house parties for Body Sense’s upcoming events. It’s not unusual, considering her enthusiasm and drive. “I enjoy every aspect of being an esthetician,” McGuire says. “I have heard from friends that they tire more quickly than they used to, but I can honestly say, at my age of 73-plus, I do not get tired when I am being an esthetician. Body Sense is just a happy place. I love being there, and I can’t say it’s work—it is a fun job.”

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