Have you ever worn a tight hat or headband all day? Then you probably know how amazing it feels to get home and take it off and give yourself a scalp massage. Scalp massages, just like any other kind of massage therapy, are not only great ways to reduce soreness, pain, and stress, but they also have a TON of other amazing benefits when it comes to scalp health and hair growth! Yeah – you read that right. If you’re trying to grow out your hair – you don’t have to look any further for a possible solution. Eager to learn how a scalp massage can help you? Here are the facts:
A scalp massage is a head massage that is designed to relax your mind and stimulate circulation. In general, we tend to hold a lot of tension across our hairline, behind our ears, and in our neck mainly due to stress and posture. The largest muscle in this area – the temporalis muscle – runs behind your ear, around your head, and to your back and can easily become strained during times of stress.
Whenever you feel tension in your head and/or neck, a scalp massage can really help ease anxiety and boost your mood. Especially when you use warm oil during your scalp massage, you can feel significant changes as you relax tightened muscles in the temples and neck. To really understand all the benefits of a scalp massage, it helps to break it down:
Compared to a regular massage you’d get on your back or neck, a scalp massage is typically done with gentle pressure from the fingertips and sometimes the palm of your hand. Besides using your hands, there are also a few scalp massaging devices on the market that you can buy online to mimic the pressure from your fingers.
There are two main techniques you can use while you give yourself a scalp tension massage:
In addition to these two techniques, some spas also offer cranial sacral therapy or CST. This type of massage uses gentle pressure on the head, neck, and back to relieve stress and pain caused by compression in the bones and spine. By focusing on the central nervous system, this scalp massage can help release tension, ease migraines and headaches, reduce stress, and promote relaxation (2).
While there are no specific rules when it comes to scalp massages, the common recommendation is to perform scalp massages daily or weekly for at least five minutes. There are a bunch of different ways that you can massage your scalp to help ease your stress, boost hair growth or reduce a headache. Here are the most common options:
This is the type of scalp massage you can do anyone, anywhere! Use the fingertips on both of your hands to apply light to medium pressure on your scalp, moving in small circles across all areas.
Trying to kill two birds with one stone? Give yourself a traditional scalp massage while you’re washing your hair!
Although some dermatologists recommend using a scalp massager, others believe that a fingertips massage is just as effective (4). In the end, it all comes down to what you prefer and what gives you the best results. Scalp massaging tools can be anything from brushes to light, handheld rubber scalp massagers.
If your goal is to boost your scalp health and keep your hair healthy, you can use beneficial, non-comedogenic oils while massaging your scalp. In other words, make sure you don’t clog your pores if you choose to use a massage oil on your scalp. Just like any other skincare product, be sure to perform a patch test on a small area of your skin to make sure you have no negative reaction to the oil before applying it to your scalp. When you’re done, you can wash the oil out with shampoo.
Written by Selena Ponton
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