When I got my first Thai massage, I was still super jetlagged and hadn’t really read up on what Thai massage actually was before entering the room. That meant that I went in expecting some form of a deep-tissue massage, where I’d be doused in oil and then massaged to sleep, potentially with a couple hot stones thrown in for good measure.
But oh, how wrong I was! Although the atmosphere in the room was very relaxing—soft spa music playing in the background, a trickling waterfall perched in the corner, and the sweet, sweet smells of lemongrass and jasmine wafting in the air—I was decidedly not massaged into a lazy, comatose state of sleepytime bliss. Instead, my therapist instructed me to lie down on my stomach, and before I knew what was happening, she was sitting on top of me, pulling and cracking my arms in all directions. There is also no oil involved in Thai massage.
“Yes, during a Thai massage, you will be pulled, stretched, and rocked at the hands of your massage therapist,” explains Pittayakorn. “They will use every part of their body in order to do this, including their thumbs, elbows, and knees—it’s a completely different approach from what most Westerners are used to.”
I’ll say. Throughout that first massage, I continued to be surprised. This, my friends, was no time for sleep. One moment my therapist would be sitting on my butt, and then the next, she’d be asking me to sit up so she could pull and stretch my arms and legs in surprising directions. A couple times, I even had to ask her to go more gently, as she was using quite a lot of force to pull on my limbs. “Thai massages are certainly not gentle, and it is important to note that oftentimes, they can feel unpleasant. But as soon as you tell your therapist that you are feeling any pain, they will decrease the pressure right away,” Pittayakorn says. Thankfully, my therapist did. https://share.evernote.com/note/b9311e93-8439-470c-dfd5-9931ce4cf568
Another difference between deep-tissue massage and Thai massage is the clothing situation. For most of the massages I got on my Thailand trip, I actually wore loose-fitting clothes provided by the spa, as opposed to going full-on naked like I do during deep-tissue massages. The outfits were sort of like hospital scrubs—loose cotton tops and drawstring pants. They also provided disposable underwear. That said, not all of the spas provided clothes, as it really does vary by spa. (They all gave out the disposal underwear, though, so the times I wasn't given clothing, I just wore those.) The Thai massages I’ve gotten since I've been back in New York have been fully clothed, likely because I’ve chosen to go to very traditional Thai spas, like Fifth Avenue Thai Spa in Manhattan.