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Tension has built up in your body, and your neck is twinging in all the wrong places. It will cost you at least $50 for someone to massage your aching muscles.

You make an appointment anyway, antsy in anticipation of the soothing session.

But when you finally get there, the massage therapist spends the entire hour jib-jabbering, and you can't relax.

The kind of chitchat you enjoy with friends over lunch may not be as welcome when you're forking out precious cash for a massage, spa service or haircut.

Devin Whitney, a 28-year-old Arizona State University student, doesn't want to hear it from a massage therapist.

She says she's already uncomfortable getting a massage — she doesn't like the idea of strangers touching her — so when her massage therapist gabbed during their first session, she wanted to walk out.

"I was annoyed. I was already uncomfortable, and I told her that, so maybe she was trying to make me comfortable, but it didn't work," she said.

The massage therapist even questioned Whitney about why she felt uncomfortable with strangers touching her body.

"I never went back," she said, adding that she felt like she needed a massage at that very moment but wouldn't get one.

Spa services — anything from a manicure to hair highlights to a massage — are pretty personal endeavors.

It's perfectly natural for people to want to experience their massages in silence, said Erin Hughes, a massage therapist and teacher at the Providence Institute.

Communication with a client is important, Hughes said, but it should really only be related to the service.

"It's important to let the client lead the session. I'm not going to start a conversation unless it's related to the session, but if the client wants to talk, it's their choice," said Hughes, who's been doing body work since 1994.

She says most people do prefer silence. She has heard clients complain that their massage therapists were too talkative, even though the physical massage was enjoyable.

If a practitioner is gabbing and ruining your relaxation, Hughes says, it's completely acceptable to interrupt the gab-fest and ask for silence.

"It's always fine to say, 'I'm not interested in talking right now. I just really want to relax,' " she said, adding that most practitioners should have enough common sense to not blabber too much in the first place.

At a hair salon, it's a different story. The cliché concept of a hair salon evokes images of stylists gossiping with their clients before banishing them under enormous, roaring dryers.

Hairstylist Aqua Weant says if a client doesn't want to tell stories and chat with her, the client is essentially not a good client.

"I talk to them about their relationships and what they like to do because I'm nosy and it's boring to spend two to three hours with somebody just sitting there," said the 52-year-old stylist, who has reddish-brown hair and a flair for storytelling.

"If they don't want to talk, my life has more life in it in one week than most people's do in three months," she added.

If a client buries her nose in a magazine to avoid conversation, Weant is disappointed, but she doesn't interrupt, she said.

Some people don't want to hear their stylist's stories, wild or otherwise.

Matt McNeil, a 27-year-old photographer, says getting his hair cut in a salon is an intimate service and he's choosy about who does his hair.

"You want a hairdresser that has a good aesthetic and will give you a good cut, but also someone that you connect with," he said.

A Downtown barber once clipped McNeil's hair, but the man talked too much, so McNeil stopped going to him.

"We just didn't connect."

A good personal connection between a client and a hairstylist is what keeps clients coming back to a salon, said Frank Westerbeke, vice president and director of education for Gadabout SalonSpas.

"A haircut is a wonderful thing, but it's the experience that they come back for and that they love," said Westerbeke, who's been doing hair and working for Gadabout for 24 years.

Westerbeke was once invited to the birthday party of a client — a very prominent Tucsonan — and he was the only non-family member there.

"To me, that's about the relationship. That's special."

Gadabout hires a communication specialist to teach incoming stylists about relating to clients and developing positive relationships, Westerbeke said.

More stylists should have people skills along with deft haircutting skills, McNeil said.

For a few years he was like the Goldilocks of barbershops, searching for just the right rapport with a stylist, to no avail.

"I got sick of it," he said with a laugh. "I haven't been since like 1998.

"If you don't find what you're looking for in a stylist, you wind up like me, in the bathroom with your clippers."