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The Benefits of Coconut Oil for Thai Massage
Science shows that your skin absorbs about 65 percent of every substance into the bloodstream. Traditional medicine advises against applying anything to your skin that you wouldn’t eat. Two excellent alternatives to oil massage are coconut and sesame oil. Which oil you use depends on whether you want a cooling or warming oil.
Coconut oil is extracted from the white meat of fresh coconuts using a cold-pressed method. Since it has a high melting point, coconut oil is semisolid at room temperature.
There are numerous advantages to using coconut oil in Thai massage. Not only does coconut oil have significant health benefits for your clients, but it also has practical benefits for your clinic.
Health Benefits
One advantage of coconut oil is its many benefits for the skin. First, coconut oil is ideal for sensitive skin because it contains saturated fats that are anti-inflammatory. When applied to the skin, these fats trap moisture and help protect the skin from feeling dry, preventing it from cracking. You can even get relief from the extreme dryness and itchiness of eczema with coconut oil.
Other ingredients in coconut oil include vitamin E, which helps keep your skin rejuvenated, healthy, and glowing. This oil is also rich in antioxidants, which help prevent the signs of aging.
The final beneficial ingredient for skin in coconut oil is lauric acid, which helps reduce acne. Tests have shown that lauric acid is more effective than benzoyl peroxide in killing the bacteria responsible for acne.
Practical Benefits
Apart from its health benefits, there are several practical reasons to choose coconut oil for a Thai oil massage. Many oils change texture when they come into contact with air and are rubbed vigorously into the skin, becoming dry and tacky. When you warm it between your fingers, coconut oil is slippery but not greasy. Coconut oil retains its smoothness and quickly penetrates your client’s skin, leaving no greasy residue. It allows your fingers and hands to glide smoothly along your client’s body without the skin becoming so slick that you can’t control your movements.
Coconut oil also makes a beautiful carrier oil for herbal extracts or essential oils. Essential oils like lavender and lemongrass have a fantastic scent and offer various benefits to the skin, but they can irritate the skin in their concentrated form. However, when you dilute essential oils with coconut oil, the anti-inflammatory properties of the coconut oil counteract the potential irritation caused by the essential oil.
Another advantage of coconut oil in a clinic is that it doesn’t stain. As a practitioner, you don’t have to worry about protecting your sheets. The fatty acids of coconut oil are also safe for your client to leave on the skin, meaning they don’t need to worry about immediately washing it off after your massage. And they won’t feel oily when getting dressed afterwards!
Most importantly, coconut oil is inexpensive and widely available. You can usually find 100% pure virgin coconut oil in most grocery stores, and you don’t have to order it from a supplier.
Most importantly, coconut oil is inexpensive and widely available. You can usually find 100% pure virgin coconut oil in most grocery stores, and you don’t have to order it from a supplier.
Since coconut oil is a cooling oil, it is best used during the summer, in warm climates, or with clients who tend to be hot. If it’s winter, you’re in a cold environment, or you have clients who tend to be cold, but you appreciate the other benefits of coconut oil, you can mix it with sesame oil. That way, your oil will both cool and warm. Another advantage of combining the two oils is that the warmth of the sesame oil keeps the coconut oil liquid.
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