Feeling good deserves as much care as looking good

Most of us keep a regular hair appointment without a second thought, yet the stress, tension and tiredness we carry on the inside rarely get the same attention.

Full body massage therapy can help ease everyday stress, release tension throughout your body, settle your nervous system, and lift your mood and sense of wellbeing. When you feel better on the inside, it shows in how you carry yourself on the outside.

For decades, the outside came first.

About two years ago, I stopped dyeing my hair.

I'll give that a minute to sink in. I'm sure none of you who know me noticed my rapid ageing. You're all far too lovely to mention it. Before anyone reaches for the phone to cancel their colour appointment: please don't. If you dye your hair, go for your life. I did it for decades and I'd do it again.

I started going grey in my late twenties, and I was so self-conscious about my roots. No one could see them. Good job the weather up here is always hat weather. Shame the wind is so strong it blows the hat off all the time. Sigh.

Getting touched up was one of my top priorities. I may even have skipped a couple of lunches to pay for it. Whatever else was going on, the outside had to look finished. I couldn't let anyone see the cracks.

The inside matters too.

I think about that a lot now, as a body massage therapist working with women of all ages. I see the transformation that comes from a consistent commitment to self-care. But often we leave the inside until we're struggling. If we did the same with our hair, we'd all be walking around with crazy birds' nests and need landscape gardeners, not hairdressers!

What you can't see creeps up on you, just like roots between appointments. The tension that settles across your shoulders after a long day. The tiredness a good night's sleep doesn't quite touch. The low hum of stress that's been running so long you've stopped noticing it. For those of us in perimenopause and menopause (solidarity, love you my sisters!), there's often more of all three. None of it shows up in the mirror, so it doesn't get an appointment.

Here's what you can do now.

This is what actually happens on the table. The pressure and movement of massage help tight, overworked muscles release the tension they've been holding. At the same time, your nervous system shifts out of stress mode and into rest-and-digest: your heart rate slows and your body gets on with recovery.

Studies have measured a drop in the stress hormone cortisol after a single session - so think what a course of three can do. The reference is below before my NHS gals start kicking off. ;)

The catch is that the effect doesn't last forever. Life gets back to work on you. That's exactly why regular massage matters more than the occasional emergency booking.

You don't need to be at the end of your rope to book. Some of the best massages happen on an ordinary Wednesday, when nothing in particular is wrong, and you get to enjoy your body instead of rescuing it.

So next time you book your hair, book something for the inside too. Same diary, same rhythm, same lack of guilt. Your roots will thank your hairdresser. The rest of you can thank me.

Reference
Moraska A, Pollini RA, Boulanger K, Brooks MZ, Teitlebaum L (2010). "Physiological adjustments to stress measures following massage therapy: a review of the literature." Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 7(4): 409–418. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18955340/