Right, one of my favourite moves, this is known as piano tapping. Very light, but really helps to stimulate this area, as though you're playing the piano. Then I'm going to go in and do some pressure points around the ear. Just very subtle pressure, doesn't need to be excessive. Just helps release any tension you've got there. So I'm going to start with some finger pressure moves just above the eyebrows. It's amazing how much tension you can have around your nose and at the sides of your ears. Hello everybody, and welcome to my channel. I hope you're all taking time out today, having a good day, taking a little bit of time to have a rest at some point in your day, and thinking about your wellbeing and some of the things that we've been talking about in terms of relaxation and massage. And today, what we're going to focus on is talking a little bit about aromatherapy oils. And Melissa has kindly volunteered to share her knowledge that she has gained in the last few weeks about aromatherapy oils, in choosing the right oil for what we're going to do today, which will focus on the neck, the face and the scalp, and choosing oils that might be appropriate for that. So Melissa, welcome back. Thank you for having me. So what we're going to do is refer back to the little discussion that we had about choosing aromatherapy oils that were appropriate for what we're doing. Now normally with a full aromatherapy massage, we would spend a lot of time studying lots of different oils. Today we're trying to condense that into a slightly smaller massage, shorter massage that is focusing just on a few areas. Some of this is around the scalp and normally for the scalp, you wouldn't necessarily require aromatherapy oils. But I think this is a good way of introducing you to enabling you to choose the oils that might be suitable and to get used to this mixture and blending of oils. So what I'd like to start with doing is just focusing on choosing those oils and getting used to having a choice of a couple of oils and then choosing one that you feel comfortable with. First, we'll start with choosing a top note. And I've got a couple for you to smell and see. Quite happy for you to tell me which ones you like. So this one is tea tree. And we've got another one here which is bergamot. Oh, they're both really nice. But I've always really, really like tea tree. Tea tree? Okay. So we'll leave that out as the top note. And then let's move to a middle note. This one you might be familiar with. This is rosemary. Smells like our garden. It does. I've got quite a lot in the garden. I'm just going to leave that out for now. And another smell from the garden, from a middle note, which is lavender. So again, we've got a lovely lavender bush. Out of those, have you got a particular preference? That's really tough. I love both of them. Lavender always really helps me sleep. It's really relaxing. But then rosemary has that really kind of nostalgic smell to me. I don't know. I think I'm more in the mood for rosemary today. Rosemary today? Yeah, that's absolutely fine. And that's very good. Rosemary oil is actually one of the top essential oils for hair growth. So it's a really good choice actually. It's used to increase the cellular metabolism of hair. So really helps with hair growth. So it's a good choice. And then we have base note to choose. So this is known as ilang ilang and I don't think we've smelt this one before. No, I like it though. An unusual smell. And the alternative is one that you might be familiar with, which is rose. Oh well, yeah. It really smells so gross. Again, a little bit of a choice for you. So ilang ilang or rose. Yeah, it's so tough. But I think because ilang ilang I've never really come into contact with here at least. I quite like to try that today. That's okay. Yeah, that's fine. Pop the rose back. Right, the other thing that we do need to choose is a base oil for this to be mixed in. Now sometimes if you were doing something like an Indian head massage, you might literally just want to use the base oil. And various base oils have different properties. But in terms of what we're going to do today, I'm going to do something similar and give you two options. So one is sweet almond oil, which we have here. And the other one is avocado oil, both with really good therapeutic properties for hair growth. Does any, do either one of those appeal more than the other? I'd like to try avocado. It sounds quite interesting. Actually that's a really good choice. Avocado oil is really hydrating for the hair. Almond oil is slightly different, more maybe for dry hair. So I think overall, and I think for you really looking at hydrating the hair, locking in moisture, avocado is a really good choice. And as I said to you, if you were doing maybe a self-Indian head massage, and we looked at this in one of my other videos, you could literally just use the base oil. I would strongly advise with some of the aromatherapy oils that you research a little bit before you mix oils, because some of them can be very potent and very strong. And you would need to understand how much of each to use. So you need to be very careful and choose the right amount of oil if you're going to include it. So just do a little bit of research or get some pre-blended oils. It's perfectly okay if you're doing a scalp massage to use a pre-blended version. It will still have a hydrating impact on your hair and hair growth and get some hydration into the hair follicles and the whole hair metabolism. Okay, now I just want you to relax and I'm going to blend the oil, the oils that you've chosen. I'm going to spend some time blending those and I'm going to put a little bit of your chosen blend into the oil diffuser, which I've got just behind me. So not only are we going to have those mixtures going on to your hair, but we're also going to have that smell into the room as well. Now one thing to check is the sensitivity. Now we've checked your sensitivities to some of these oils, particularly if you're going to use them on the face. If you do have a sensitive face at all, you are best to literally stick with the base oil on the face if you've got very sensitive skin, because some of these oils can actually irritate, although something like tea tree that you have chosen has antibacterial and cleansing properties. So that actually might be a good one to put in, but literally just one or two drops is more than sufficient for the blend. So you just relax while I blend the oils. Okay, so I'm going to take some avocado oil, use that as a base, I'm going to put slightly more than I would normally use, because we're going to put some in the diffuser as well. And then literally a couple of drops of each. That's the Langilang going in as your base note. That's rosemary going in as your middle note. Then tea tree as your antibacterial oil. I'm just going to blend that. Then what I'd like you to do is just smell that, see if you're happy with it. Oh, that's really nice. I love the tea tree in there. Yeah, you can always smell that note first. It's a lovely blend you've chosen well. I'm just going to pop some of this into the diffuser and that will actually diffuse into the room. Then I'm going to just brush through your hair, brush through this beautiful hair that you have, just to make sure that there are no knots and no tangles. I'm just going to do that now. I have a lovely wide pronged brush here, which helps to get rid of any knots. The application of the oils will help soothe through the hair. That allows your fingers not to be knotted in the hair so much. If you find that you're either doing self-massage or somebody's massaging you, you can always stop when it gets tangled and re-brush the hair. It's very, very relaxing for somebody to brush your hair. So you can use that as an additional way of adding a relaxation method into the actual massage that we're doing. Continue until the brush runs through smoothly. Take out all of those knots. Here we go. And then we're ready. We're just going to start on the scalp. I'm just going to pour a little bit of oil into my hands. A little bit on the scalp. You don't need a lot. But that just adds to the hydration of the hair. Just soothe down the hair so that you stop getting a connection with the hair. And then when you're working on the scalp, obviously because the neck is designed to wobble, what you need to do is have a firm grip on one side to stabilise that head while you do the other side. So we're going to start with just some heel rubbing around the ears here. How does that feel, Melissa? At the right time? Yeah, it feels nice. Lovely. With your own choice of blend, it's sometimes nice where you've got a bit of input into self-healing in a way by your choices. Okay. A little bit of friction around this area, which is very sensitive and can hold a lot of tension. A little bit of rubbing there. You can put just a little bit of extra pressure on here. And then do the same on the other side. A little bit of whole hand rubbing. A little bit of friction just to get the scalp stimulated. Okay. I think we need to go back to the brush just temporarily. And you can go back to brushing. It's very nice and relaxing. You can go back to brushing as many times as you need. And then return to the massage. And what we're going to do is just a little bit of massage on the scalp as close as you can get to the scalp. So it just stimulates this area. It's going to lift the hair slightly. And I'm going to start doing some gentle tugs so you can feel the pull. It doesn't need to be painful or really sharp. Just a gentle tug to stimulate that scalp area. Okay, back to brushing after that. Right. One of my favourite moods. This is known as piano tapping. Very light. It really helps to stimulate this area. So you're playing the piano. Having a piano maestro just pretend. Get faster and faster the more practise you get. Right. What I'm going to do now is just focus on the side around the ears. Getting really into those pressure points. So in order to get in with a little bit of pressure, I'm going to rest your head slightly into the crook of my elbow there. Then I'm going to go in and do some pressure points around the ear. Just very subtle pressure. It doesn't need to be excessive. It just helps release any tension you've got there. It relaxes your head area. I'm going to bring you back. Then I'm going to do the same but on the other side. So just gently release this tension around here, this area. Some of this can be quite sensitive so don't press too hard. Very light pressure. I'm going to bring you back. Right. Now what I'm going to do is just do a little bit of squeezing movement. This is where if you brush the hair, it really helps because otherwise you can get tangled and you don't want that. So I'm going to do a little bit of squeezing movement. So I'm going to do a little bit of squeezing movement. Just to finish the scalp, I'm going to do a whole level of a rash down there. Right. There we go. So that's just finishing off the scalp massage now. Right. Okay. What we're going to do now is move to the face. Put the tiniest bit of oil on from the blend. Just enough for it to feel comfortable around your face. And this isn't really a facial, this is more a pressure point massage just to get the area stimulated and release tension more than a facial type of massage. Okay. So I'm going to start with some finger pressure moves just above the eyebrows. This is particularly good if you've got headaches. This really helps. I'm just going to go under what we call the psychomatic bone, just amazing how much tension you can have around your nose and at the sides of your ears. Wherever you feel there's a slight tension, just massage that out or pressure point it out. That will help. And then another area where you hold a lot of your stress is actually your ears. So sometimes just squeezing the lobes of the ear, coming up slightly and then the top of the ears, just circling gently. You have a lot of nerve headings in these ears. Just soothing them out can be really helpful. And then finally just want to do a little bit of cupping. Just relax that out. Take your back. Raise your neck very carefully there. Feels like you've fallen asleep already. I'm just going to brush your hair again before we move to the neck. Just very gently. And then we're going to focus on that neck area at the back where you have a lot of tension. Just work away gently through some of those pressure points there. Now because it's the neck you need to be very careful. The neck's quite a sensitive area so it's often a good idea if you have one hand on your forehead here. I'm just going to rock that gently. Just work on this area here. Then I'm just going to work a little bit more in this area where you've got a bit of tension. It's very light because this is a very sensitive area. Let's really release that area. It's amazing how much tension you can have in this area of your neck. I'm just going to do the same on the other side. Bring your head back. Just very gently move the winds to the bottom of the neck there. I'm going to pop you in there and I'm going to do some light stretch just along the neck there. You should be feeling a lovely movement there. Do the same on the other side. Bring you back to centre. I'm just going to do a bit of air massage down the bottom here from the neck where we've done work. Then we're going to do some centering at the end through some breathing exercises just to bring us to the end of the massage. We would like you to breathe in and out for three breaths. Again. How do you feel? It's quite meditative. Try and relax. Have heavy meals, limited alcohol, preferably water, plenty of it. Just try and rest for the rest of the day. Thank you.
