Upper back, neck, shoulders, scalp and face, with warm coconut oil — lying down, not sitting in a chair. For the tension that settles above the shoulders.
Upper back, neck, shoulders, scalp and face, worked with coconut oil. Unlike most places, you lie down for the whole treatment rather than sitting in a chair.
Almost all the tension people carry lives above the shoulders. Hours at a laptop, a long flight, a phone held at the wrong angle — it gathers in the upper back, climbs the neck, and ends up as a tight band across the scalp. This treatment follows that line from bottom to top. We work the upper back and shoulders first, then the neck, then the scalp, and finish at the face. The scalp is the part people are unprepared for: there is far more muscle there than most of us realise, and releasing it often settles something behind the eyes as well. One difference worth knowing before you book. In most places an Indian head massage means sitting upright in a chair for half an hour, shoulders braced, working to stay in position. Here you lie down for all of it. You cannot properly let go of your neck while you are holding your own head up, and letting go is the entire point. We use coconut oil, warmed. It is the traditional choice for this treatment and it suits the scalp better than a heavier oil — it does not weigh the hair down, and it leaves the skin of the face soft rather than greasy. And you do not have to walk out with oil in your hair. You can wash it in the treatment room afterwards, and there is a hairdryer, so you can leave dry and presentable. A fair number of guests book this one on their way to dinner. This is one of our gentlest treatments. There is no deep pressure and nothing hot, so almost anyone can book it. If you have had a recent neck or head injury, tell us when you book and we will adjust.