Читать книгу Indian Head Massage: Discover the power of touch - Narendra Mehta - Страница 11

Massage has always played an important part in Indian life, featuring in the earliest Ayurvedic texts that date back nearly 4,000 years. When used in conjunction with herbs, spices and aromatic oils, massage had an important medical function and could not only ‘strengthen muscles and firm the skin’, but also encourage the body’s natural healing abilities. Today, Indian infants still often receive a daily massage from birth to keep them in good health. From three to six years old, they are massaged once or twice a week, and after the age of six, they are taught to share a massage with family members on a regular basis. Massage then occurs across the generations as an integral part of family life. My own family is typical of many others in this respect.

Indian head massage springs from this rich tradition of intergenerational family massage, and has been practised for over a thousand years. It was originally developed by women as a part of their grooming routine. They used different oils according to the season (coconut, sesame, almond, olive oil, herbal oils, buttermilk, mustard oil and henna) to keep their hair strong, lustrous and in beautiful condition.

The benefits of head massage were not confined exclusively to women: barbers practised many of these same skills. They used to ply their trade by going to individuals’ houses, cutting men’s hair and offering ‘champi’ (head massage) as part of the treatment. In time, this became quite a custom: everyone, including royalty, would receive regular head massages from their own barber. Treatments differed from the massages performed by women in that the barbers were mainly giving invigorating scalp massages designed primarily to stimulate and refresh the individual, rather than to care for the hair. Echoes of this Indian tradition reached the West long before the practice itself in the form of the word ‘shampoo’, which comes from the Hindi word ‘champi’. Being ‘champi-ed’ meant having your head massaged.

Massage skills have evolved through the ages and have been handed down from barber father to barber son in much the same way that the women in the family have kept the tradition of hair massage and grooming by passing it down from mother to daughter right up to the present day. In India nowadays, it is very common to go to a barber’s shop, receive a wet shave or haircut and have a head massage thrown in as part of the treatment. A word of warning: should you experience one of these massages in India, do ask your barber not to click your neck, which is a normal part of their head massage. Head massage can now also be seen in many other locations in India: on street corners, at markets and on the beach … so you can even experience a wonderfully relaxing Indian head massage with the rising or setting sun for company!