For years, the tanning business has evolved by adding services that support the core. Some have expanded the audience. Others have increased visit frequency or helped smooth out seasonality. But very few have changed the structure of the business itself.

That’s the difference operators are now looking for.

Red light therapy has already begun to shift that conversation. In many salons, it’s no longer an add-on—it’s a true counterpart to tanning, capable of driving memberships, attracting new clients, and standing on its own as a primary service.

The next question is what comes after that.

What salons are searching for now is not just another way to enhance an all-access membership, but another high-value service that can operate independently, brings in a different type of customer and supports premium pricing.

Cryotherapy may be one of the only services currently positioned to fill that role.

Cryotherapy is already well established across athletics, professional sports, and the broader world of fitness and recovery. It’s widely used by recovery studios, boutique wellness centers, medspas, and fitness facilities, and has even become the foundation of entire business models built around cryotherapy and recovery services. In many of these environments, it’s priced at a premium, structured around repeat usage, and positioned as a core service—not a secondary one.

That doesn’t automatically make it a fit for tanning. But it does make it worth a closer look.

The question is whether cryotherapy can truly function as a foundational service and whether that role is strong enough to justify an investment that can approach or exceed $100,000 for a single unit.

Click here to read to the entire article in the latest issue of Smart Tan Magazine online.