The Times – T2

November 7, 2003

'The touch of heavenly healing hands'

By Lucia Van Der Post

I don't know about you, but I’ve always thought of massage as a kind of optional extra. I’ve never been overly fond of them myself — all that lying prone for two hours looking at the floor through a hole in a towel has always struck me as a strange way to pass the time. However, I have been known, when finding myself in swanky hotels with sweet Thai girls beckoning me in with garlands of flowers, to succumb to their blandishments.

Turns out, though, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Massage is serious, not just a delicious, girly treat. I first got wind of this when I went to see Oz Garcia in his brilliantly named Longevity Lounge in New York (about which more another time) and among the stern advice he gave out (no tea, no coffee, no red meat, grilled fish, green vegetables, more exercise, vitamins, supplements …but you know it all already) was the instruction to have at least two massages a month.

I was thunderstruck. Oz was adamant. It keeps the muscles flexible, he said, the toxins at bay, helps along a sluggish lymphatic system, prevents the build-up of knots of tension in neck and back. “Vital,” he added, nodding sagely, “at your age.” Grrrrr…

Then I discovered that Oz wasn't the only one. All sorts of very serious people think that massage is much, much more than just a pampering treat (though it can be that, too). Particularly as you get older, massage has huge benefits. Dr Ali, who treats many of our most famous citizens, thinks that massaging the neck and shoulder area helps the functions of the pituitary gland (the headquarters of hormone control) by improving blood flow to the brain and he, too, thinks that twice a month is about right. But where to go? There are massages and massages. There's Thai and Swedish, Ayurvedic, Shiatsu, Chinese and Indian Head, Watsu (a New-Agey sort of massage that takes place in water) and Esalen (both masseur and customer are naked - it's a new notion from California - where else?) just to skim the surface. And they're all, of course… ancient, ancient.

Well, I can’t claim to have tried all the masseurs in the land but I can give you a few pointers. First, let me recommend Pure Massage. It is in the unfashionable part of Fulham but it is sweet and clean and has lovely, spacious and calming treatment rooms. It has no grand pretensions, though it has a serious purpose. The founders of Pure Massage, Beata Aleksandrowicz and Jean-Marc Delacourt, decided that there was nobody around who specialised only in massage. There were hair salons with some treatments attached, or spas with facials, wraps and massages as well as gyms

So that’s what they decided to do. They have simplified the matter and offer a small range of clear-cut options, all of which aim to be beneficial to health and wellbeing. Beata uses massage to help with back problems, with migraines (often, caused, she says, by tension in the back), to relieve stress and tension, particularly in the neck and back, to help with lymphatic drainage, which keeps the immune system in good order, and to keep the joints and muscles flexible.

Beata studied massage very seriously and came to believe that a flexible combination of Thai massage, Swedish massage and Indian head massage - which also uses all the acupressure points - could be adapted to suit almost all clients. As her customers range from rugby players and other fitness enthusiasts to people with back problems as well as one 91-year-old lady (who is such a fan that she is now a regular), it seems blindingly obvious that touch and pressure has to be adapted to each person's needs. She also, like my New York friend Oz Garcia, believes that a one-off massage is better than nothing, but best of all is to go regularly and see the difference: "Each time you come back the practitioner can go deeper into the muscle tissue and you can release more toxins."

She also sees her role as preventative: “For instance, the 91-year-old lady now has quite bad arthritis, but she believes that if only she had discovered the benefits of massage earlier she might have avoided getting it.”

Customers can choose from seven sorts of massage (to take in pregnant women, athletic men, elderly people with aches and pains, and so on) as well as face therapy, which is a programme of six sessions that they say (can’t wait) will gradually “lift and sculpt the face, making the skin firmer and smoother, the wrinkles less visible, the oval of the face more regular”. I went for the 75-minute full-body pure massage, a most delicious, delicate massage with oils of my choice. I ’d certainly like to think I’ll go back. I’m persuaded that it does help to keep things running smoothly.

The salon also has all the Ren range (which fans will know are some of the best and purest beauty products around) and a heavenly collection of incenses, candles and burning oils, as well as the most elegant incense-holder I’ve seen (a square piece of Carrara marble with a hole in the middle for the stick, for £29).