My hairstylist softly asked me, “So you have a lot going on right now, huh?” I laughed. Maybe I was making some weird face? She continued, “I can feel it in your scalp.” “We tend to hold a lot of tension across our hairline, behind our ears and in the neck; this is mostly due to stress and partly to posture,” Robin told me later. “We accumulate quite a lot of tension in these areas and often disregard them.” Unfortunately there’s little research about general tension in this area, and most of it has to do with tension leading to headaches. However, you do have muscles on your scalp that can tense. The largest is the temporalis muscle, which runs from behind your ear, around your head, and to the back. This muscle can become strained in the same way your shoulder or jaw muscles can become so: By holding them tightly during times of stress. “Many people—myself included—constrict the muscles in the scalp, shoulders, and neck when they get worked up, so you can absolutely develop tension there,” says board-certified dermatologist Jeanine Downie. She even notes that some patients request Botox in the scalp to relax the muscle. However, she notes, this is for severe cases where the patient complains of frequent headaches or even migraines. I thought about my own behavior. What is my first reaction when I feel my anxiety build? I pull up my shoulders, clench my jaw, and the muscles in my scalp start to pull backward. No wonder I’m stiff. If you do a quick Google search about scalp massages, the positive claims range from hair regrowth to reduced dandruff. And, again, there isn’t a lot of research to back up these claims, but there was one small study1 that showed standardized scalp massages in men increased hair growth, likely due to increased circulation. And, also, there is plenty of research about the benefits of massage therapy 2in general: It’s said to decrease cortisol and increase serotonin and dopamine. And a scalp massage is something you can do by yourself daily, which makes it a low-lift tool for when you start to feel the area tense up. First, tip your head forward to get the blood flowing to your scalp. (Or lie on your bed and let your head hang off the side, he told me when we first met.) Then follow Robin’s four steps:
