Head Spas Are The Ultimate Self-Care Experience You'll Want To Try

The importance of self-care has become more discussed as many celebrities and social media influencers are speaking up about their journey with mental health and sharing how they choose to take care of themselves. Self-care days are great for your brain health, and TikTok is helping more people than ever find ways to unwind. 

One popular TikTok beauty trend is the head spa. A head spa is essentially a detailed spa treatment specifically designed to improve your scalp and hair health. Sandra Chiu, a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, told Allure: "Head spas and similar services are popular because when you watch one being done, you want one. On social media and YouTube, it has an ASMR quality that is an instant draw. It's like what you didn't know you needed because you didn't know it even existed."

The hashtag "head spa" has millions of views on TikTok, and it's easy to see why. Read on to learn about the ultimate self-care experience that you need to try.

Head spas are a great investment to make for your self-care regime. According to hair experts, the practice itself has been a tradition for years. Sandra Chiu told Allure: "While the term 'head spa' refers to a specific style of scalp treatment from Japan, scalp massage and treatment is huge throughout Asia."

Chiu specifically recommends the head spa treatment for those dealing with stress that has negatively impacted their hair health. Hair salon owner Kim Sun Young believes a hair spa treatment every 30 to 45 days is healthy, telling Well+Good: "Scalp care is very important because it provides the necessary environment for growing healthy, strong, beautiful hair."

The physical benefits of a head spa include improving blood circulation, unclogging pores in the scalp, moisturizing the scalp, and reducing dandruff. The mental benefits include reducing overall stress levels by deeply massaging the scalp. A quality head spa treatment has the power to reinvent your self-care, but how does the process actually work?

The head spa treatment is individualized for the customer. The first step of the process is the evaluation of the scalp, which the masseuse will perform to examine and analyze hair follicles (via Elle). This evaluation is done to help masseuses decide which types of essential oils they plan to use on your unique scalp to get the healthiest results. After the scalp evaluation, the masseuse rubs and massages the scalp, head, and neck with oils, even adding a hair mask. Once the hair mask is rinsed out, you're treated to a full blow-dry.

One satisfied customer named Alaina Demopoulos told Allure after getting her first head spa treatment: "My head felt clean — maybe the cleanest I've ever noticed it. I could feel smoother skin on my scalp, and you could have probably seen your reflection in my hair, that's how shiny it was."

Head spa treatment prices vary by time spent getting the massages, but the feeling you'll have after getting one will have you making appointments for more. Treat yourself to a head spa on your next day off and take the self-care time that you need.