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Tribune News Service

I am getting a brain massage – and it is sublime.
I am lying on a heated massage bed, cocooned in a soft, weighted blanket, as Kayla Faraji caresses my cheeks with billowy, pink goose feathers. She slides them down the sides of my neck and around my bare shoulders, sending chills up my spine.
“Now I’m scratching, scratching your chest,” Faraji whispers into my ear, especially breathy. “These are golden nails.” She drags long, prickly iron nail tips up my arms and along my collarbone, filling my ears with a raspy scraping sound.
It is all part of an hour-long ASMR session at KAS Wellness, Faraji’s new “luxury ASMR boutique” in Costa Mesa, southeast of Los Angeles in the US state of California.
“It’s deeply relaxing and restorative – and there’s such a need for that right now,” Faraji says of our session. “I feel like ASMR is the future of wellness, the new massage.”

ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response, is the pleasurable tingling feeling brought on by gentle auditory, visual or tactile stimuli – think the sound of cellophane wrap crinkling, oil droplets sizzling, fingernails rhythmically tapping a desktop or a hairbrush swooshing through thick, wavy locks.
The feeling is sometimes called a “head orgasm” because, for those who respond to it, ASMR can not only calm the central nervous system, but may bring on a sense of euphoria, giddiness or acute alertness.
Only about 20 per cent of the population, however, experience “the tingles”, as the sensation is often referred to. But for those who are ASMR-sensitive, studies show there are health benefits.
It may temporarily alleviate stress, sleeplessness, low mood and chronic pain, as well as aid focus. People who experience ASMR also show lowered heart rate and blood pressure, because it activates the parasympathetic nervous system for relaxation.

In addition to opening KAS Wellness, Faraji also posts ASMR videos on TikTok, where she has more than 300,000 followers. But ASMR’s online dominance is changing as more bricks-and-mortar ASMR studios pop up across the United States.
“There’s been a lack of real-world opportunities for people to intentionally have their ASMR triggered by an expert,” says physiologist Craig Richard, author of 2018’s Brain Tingles. “It’s only starting to happen in the real world, where you can go and explore it through an intentional ASMR practitioner, like you can walk in and get a massage.”
In addition to KAS Wellness, the LA area also has Soft Touch ASMR Spa, which caters to women and non-binary clients. But little else.
Faraji says she conceived KAS Wellness as a full-scale luxury ASMR boutique with spa vibes. The space is a mash-up of textures: rows of warm, flickering candles illuminate a cool, polished concrete floor, while velvet curtains ripple by plush and furry throw rugs. There is a confectionery dish in the lobby, which is awash in hues of cream and white, offering visitors gummies infused with passion fruit and the calming herb ashwagandha.
KAS Wellness offers one signature ASMR service – or “sensory journey” – for one hour, 90 minutes or 100 minutes. Clients may upgrade to a “four-hand session”, in which two practitioners work on them simultaneously.
As in a massage, guests undress “to the level of their comfort”, Faraji says, and slip beneath crisp white sheets on a treatment bed in a private room. Practitioners – there are four at KAS Wellness – then stimulate the head, face, chest, arms, hands and back using “tingle tools”, as they are sometimes called, or “triggers”.












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A post shared by KAS Wellness (@kaswellness.oc)



One is a so-called sparkle brush, filled with tiny beads that rattle as the brush sweeps through hair; another is a soft “sensory brush” that provides a form of white noise when swooshing over skin; jade stone combs feel cool to the touch and give off a hollow scratching sound.
Faraji likes to use her own nails as a sensory trigger.
“The human connection is such a part of this,” she says. “We try to spend time incorporating real touch as much as possible.”
That said, the ASMR experience is distinctly different from a massage, Faraji explains.
“Fundamentally, the concept of a massage is manipulating your tissue and muscles through pressure,” she says. “ASMR is the complete opposite – we use light sensory touch to relieve stress. We’re not kneading or applying pressure or manipulating your joints. It’s surface touch. We have so many nerves in our body, and they’re all firing – it takes your body out of fight or flight.”












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A post shared by KAS Wellness (@kaswellness.oc)



KAS Wellness may be rooted in ASMR, but the overall effect feels more robust: part high-end massage studio, part spa, part sound bath destination and part meditation centre.
“It’s about the mind-body-soul connection, and ASMR is just the anchoring modality,” Faraji says of her new boutique. “It’s equally important to have the gratitude breathwork at the end [of a session] for mindfulness. Because if your mind isn’t well, your body will never feel calm.”
After my treatment, I lingered in the lounge, where everything felt especially pronounced: my bare feet on the cool cement floor, my toes sinking into the plush rug, even the scent of my hot peppermint tea. I am not sure if I had felt the tingles, per se, but I was relaxed for the rest of the day.
“ASMR is such a universal thing,” Faraji says. “When we’re younger, physical touch is such a big part of our creativity – girls will sit and braid each other’s hair, and there was that rhyming game, where you tickle each other’s backs [like] spiders crawling up your back.
“But as we get older, we have less access to soft, nurturing touch, especially if you’re single. I think that’s why ASMR resonates with so many people. It’s just comforting.”
Deborah Vankin


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Paying for a ‘head orgasm’: ASMR spas are taking off in the United States. Here’s why

ASMR is the pleasurable tingling feeling brought on by gentle auditory, visual or tactile stimuli. More bricks-and-mortar ASMR studios are popping up across the United States. Photo: Instagram/kaswellness.oc

KAS Wellness, a luxury ASMR boutique, in Costa Mesa, California. Photo: KAS Wellness

KAS Wellness offers a signature ASMR service for up to 100 minutes. Photo: Instagram/kaswellness.oc

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Scratchy, raspy, feathery and tingly: more people than ever are paying for spa-like sensory experiences to induce ‘the tingles’ in the brain


Scratchy, raspy, feathery and tingly: more people than ever are paying for spa-like sensory experiences to induce ‘the tingles’ in the brain.


US travel

Beauty

Wellness

Paying for a ‘head orgasm’: ASMR spas are taking off in the United States. Here’s why

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Scratchy, raspy, feathery and tingly: more people than ever are paying for spa-like sensory experiences to induce ‘the tingles’ in the brain

Scratchy, raspy, feathery and tingly: more people than ever are paying for spa-like sensory experiences to induce ‘the tingles’ in the brain