Nuru Massage If You Are Ticklish: Why the Gel Often Helps

Anyone who jumps when a hand brushes their ribs has good reason to hesitate over a nuru massage. The technique is described as slippery, full-body and continuous, and to a ticklish person that sounds like an hour spent trying not to laugh. For most ticklish guests the experience runs the other way. The kind of touch that sets the reflex off is almost exactly the kind the gel takes away, and people who have never managed to lie still through an ordinary massage sometimes find this the first one they can sink into.

What actually sets a tickle off

Tickling answers to a particular pattern of contact: light, small, moving and hard to predict. A fingertip trailing along the side of the ribs is the classic example, and a feather is worse. The unpredictability matters as much as the lightness, which is why nobody can tickle themselves; a hand you are moving is a hand whose next position you already know, and the reflex stays quiet. Firm, broad, steady contact tends to do nothing at all. A palm laid flat and heavy on the same ribs that leapt at a fingertip usually just feels warm.

Why nuru mostly avoids it

The gel moves every one of those variables in the helpful direction. Contact is made with a forearm, the side of a body or a long stretch of torso rather than a fingertip, so the surface is broad. Pressure comes from leaning, so it is heavy rather than light. And because the gel removes friction, the stroke does not stop and start. Anticipation, which is half of what makes a tickle, depends on the body waiting for the next touch to land. When the touch never leaves, there is nothing to wait for, and within a few minutes most ticklish guests notice that the part of them standing guard has quietly stood down.

Compare that with a sensual massage in oil, which is built from light, drawn-out strokes of the hand. It is lovely, and it is also far likelier to catch a ticklish guest than a technique made of weight. A body-to-body massage sits somewhere between the two.

Where nuru can still catch you

A few moments and a few places deserve honesty.

• The first pour. A thin trickle of gel running down the side of the waist is light, moving and unexpected, which is the whole recipe. Gel laid in a heavier line along the spine avoids it.
• The ends of a pass. Where a long glide trails off at the fingertips or toes, contact briefly turns light again.
• Feet. Soles are the most dependably ticklish surface on most bodies, and some guests would simply rather they were left out.
• The sides of the ribs and the backs of the knees. Both react to lighter work, and firm, flat contact usually calms them.
• Turning over. The front of the body is often more sensitive than the back, and the first minute after the turn can wake the reflex again for a moment.

Nuru massage for ticklish guests: what to ask for

Tell her at the start, standing up and dressed, which is always easier than explaining while face down. Name the places, and she will adapt without any fuss. The adjustments are small and familiar to anyone who does this work:

• a firm, still hand laid flat on the back before anything moves, so contact exists before movement begins;
• a slower opening that stays longer on the broad surfaces of the back and shoulders;
• gel kept a touch warmer, since a cool drip startles more than a warm one;
• heavier pressure along the sides and on the feet, or those areas left out entirely.

None of this alters the character of the session. It alters the opening, and the note on how those first minutes unfold shows how naturally a slower start fits inside them.

If you laugh anyway

Then you laugh, and the session carries on. Therapists who work with the gel have met every kind of reflex, and a guest who laughs on the first pass is neither unusual nor a problem. The mood survives, because the technique depends on continuity rather than on silence, and a moment later the weight is still travelling. Most ticklish guests find the reflex fading as the body warms and stops expecting the next touch. Some find it gone for the rest of the evening.

Should a ticklish guest book it?

Usually, yes. If light touch is what you dread, a nuru massage is made of the opposite. Mention it when you write, name the one or two places that worry you most, and give the session at least ninety minutes, so the gentler opening takes nothing away from the part that matters. Ticklish guests who try it tend to be surprised twice: once when the first pour arrives without incident, and again when they realise, somewhere in the second half hour, that they stopped bracing a while ago.