NORTH AUGUSTA — Hydration therapy – and other services like vitamin injections, red light therapy and wellness consultations – are expected to be available in downtown North Augusta by Masters Week.
Natasha Davis, who goes by Tasha, opened Downtown Hydration and Wellness on Aiken’s Laurens Street in September 2024 and is now expanding with a second location in North Augusta, moving into the spot at Jackson Square where Orange Otter had been until last month.
“Aiken has done so well, and my vision – it’s funny looking back…,” Davis said.
The goal, she said, was just to make it one year on Laurens Street, to see if she could cover the rent there.
Tasha Davis opened Downtown Hydration and Wellness in Aiken in 2024. She’s now opening a second location in North Augusta.
S. Laughlin Co./Provided
Eighteen months later and “this could really do it,” she said.
Davis is a board-certified nurse practitioner who worked in nursing administration for a home health company in the 12 years prior to starting Downtown Hydration.
There’s a smile in her voice when recalls her first job – serving at the brew pub on Laurens, a job that put her through nursing school – and “to be back as a business owner on Laurens Street is just very meaningful.”
The North Augusta location is something Davis said just kind of happened. A door opened. She walked through it.
Though born and raised an Aikenite, Davis has lived in North Augusta and said she’s maintained relationships with some of the business owners here.
But what is hydration therapy?
It starts with an IV and the idea that hydration boosts all aspects of wellness. And that it’s not just reserved for those severely dehydrated.
“That was kind of the era of my nursing start,” Davis said. Formerly an ER nurse, Davis said there was a time that anyone coming into the ER got hooked up, no matter the issue.
“The first thing they do is give you fluids. They don’t know what’s wrong with you yet; they’re still running tests, you have no answers – but yet, you’re in there and you’re like, ‘alright, it’s because of the fluids.’ Most of us just walk around in such a constant state of dehydration, and we just get so used to feeling so bad that that becomes our new norm,” she said.
And as for which of the IV cocktails to get, “we can ‘zhuzh’ it up however fancy you want to make it.”
Davis said there’s no pressure to decide and that everyone starts with a consultation. No referral is needed since she doesn’t take insurance. The only thing she asks is that those who are pregnant get the OK from their obstetrician and that anyone undergoing cancer treatment get clearance from their oncologist or hematologist.
“Just to make sure nothing we’re doing here is interfering with what they’re doing,” she said. “I always want to be mindful of other planned cares and treatment plans and that it’s adjunct and complementary and doesn’t take the place of [other care].”
Davis said she values transparency and that her patients can expect a lot of information.
“I occasionally spend the majority of my time educating,” she said. “This is a personal soapbox and personal mission and I love it, and so I love sharing the educational portion of what I do.”
David Brannon, business development director for Palmetto Peach, the development company behind Jackson Square, said he’s excited to welcome the new business while also keeping the old one – Orange Otter – in the same district.
“From our perspective, we’re very glad that Orange Otter is not leaving the downtown North Augusta corridor. They’re a great addition to this community,” he said. “And I think Natasha will provide services that are very complementary to the other health and leisure businesses that are flocking to downtown.”
Brannon continued, “I think it continues to show there is an emphasis in this community on health and leisure that residents recognize and that play well off other community aspects like the Greeneway.”
Once open in North Augusta, Downtown Hydration and Wellness will be located at 336 Georgia Ave. The Aiken location, open now, is at 120 Laurens St. NW.
