Working on more, uh, hairy clients......

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Permalink Reply by Darcy Neibaur on January 4, 2010 at 9:41pm

Where I work we have to wash the stones inbetween each client session of Hot Stones. If the stones are being used on each client how is there enough time to wash them inbetween? We make time just for that procedure.

Donna C. Agrinsonis, LMT said:

I am relatively new to hot stone massage so thus far I have never had more than one massage during the course of a day where I used the stones. If you have 3 consecutive clients where you use the stones, you wash the stones each time in between? This is something I have been wondering about, particularly now that I was considering using the stones on a more regular basis.

Steve Traylor said:

Donna C. Agrinsonis, LMT said:

Awesome! The pictures are FABULOUS! Wow you are doing things I keep thinking about doing but have been putting off. What kind of camera are you using because your pics are very clear and sharp? Also, since you use stones in most of your massages (something I would LOVE to do) - do you ask your clients for permission to use the stones or do you advertise that you automatically use them?

My camera is an Olympus D-580 Zoom digital. I bought it six years ago based on a quality comparison in Wired magazine. It was in the upper part of the middle price range, about $800, before prices for digital cameras dropped. But since I use it mostly for my business it was completely tax deductible. Some of the clarity comes from having additional lighting rather than depending on the flash. Instead of regular photographers lights I use five or six clamp-on flood lights (about $6 at Home Depot).

I offer a combination massage that includes hot stones and a full hot stone massage. My menu and webpage describe them this way:

Pinnacle Signature Massage
Created to meet the special needs of each client, a Signature Massage combines long, relaxing massage strokes with Hawaiian Lomi Lomi and Swedish massage techniques. Deeper muscle work and the penetrating warmth of hot stones are added to help with problem areas of muscle tension.

Hot Stone Massage
The weight and penetrating warmth of heated volcanic stones placed on the body and under the body and used in the therapist's hands melt muscle tension and create an amazing level of relaxation.

A majority of my new clients come through referrals, so most new clients know what I offer. Otherwise, I ask during the intake session whether the new client has experienced a hot stone massage before and I tell them that I use hot stones as a regular part of my massage.

If you start using hot stones you will need to add extra set-up time between clients. I usually use four pairs of stones for my regular massage. After a massage I use anti-bacterial dish soap and a scrub brush to clean the stones. I also wash the liner of the stone heater and the plastic bowl that holds cold water to cool the stones down to a comfortable temperature. A full hot stone massage uses about 45 stones, including eight small toe stones, and the turnaround time is around 45 minutes.

Permalink Reply by Donna C. Agrinsonis, LMT on January 5, 2010 at 9:36am

Steve I appreciate the detail you have provided because our massage school did not teach anything at all about hot stone massage. What I have learned thus far has come from a super quick lesson from a massage therapist at the spa where I work part-time and from a nice stone massage video I own. In the DVD, not much is said about sanitation of the stones.

I had a question - you mentioned "volcanic stones" - do you use some special stones? I just purchased some several months ago from Massage Warehouse.

Steve Traylor said:

Donna C. Agrinsonis, LMT said:

Awesome! The pictures are FABULOUS! Wow you are doing things I keep thinking about doing but have been putting off. What kind of camera are you using because your pics are very clear and sharp? Also, since you use stones in most of your massages (something I would LOVE to do) - do you ask your clients for permission to use the stones or do you advertise that you automatically use them?

My camera is an Olympus D-580 Zoom digital. I bought it six years ago based on a quality comparison in Wired magazine. It was in the upper part of the middle price range, about $800, before prices for digital cameras dropped. But since I use it mostly for my business it was completely tax deductible. Some of the clarity comes from having additional lighting rather than depending on the flash. Instead of regular photographers lights I use five or six clamp-on flood lights (about $6 at Home Depot).

I offer a combination massage that includes hot stones and a full hot stone massage. My menu and webpage describe them this way:

Pinnacle Signature Massage
Created to meet the special needs of each client, a Signature Massage combines long, relaxing massage strokes with Hawaiian Lomi Lomi and Swedish massage techniques. Deeper muscle work and the penetrating warmth of hot stones are added to help with problem areas of muscle tension.

Hot Stone Massage
The weight and penetrating warmth of heated volcanic stones placed on the body and under the body and used in the therapist's hands melt muscle tension and create an amazing level of relaxation.

A majority of my new clients come through referrals, so most new clients know what I offer. Otherwise, I ask during the intake session whether the new client has experienced a hot stone massage before and I tell them that I use hot stones as a regular part of my massage.

If you start using hot stones you will need to add extra set-up time between clients. I usually use four pairs of stones for my regular massage. After a massage I use anti-bacterial dish soap and a scrub brush to clean the stones. I also wash the liner of the stone heater and the plastic bowl that holds cold water to cool the stones down to a comfortable temperature. A full hot stone massage uses about 45 stones, including eight small toe stones, and the turnaround time is around 45 minutes.

Permalink Reply by Steve - Maryland L.M.T. on January 5, 2010 at 8:23pm

Donna C. Agrinsonis, LMT said:

Steve I appreciate the detail you have provided because our massage school did not teach anything at all about hot stone massage. What I have learned thus far has come from a super quick lesson from a massage therapist at the spa where I work part-time and from a nice stone massage video I own. In the DVD, not much is said about sanitation of the stones.
I had a question - you mentioned "volcanic stones" - do you use some special stones? I just purchased some several months ago from Massage Warehouse.

Some of this will be a repeat of what I posted on the Stone Therapy group a few days ago. I'm sorry if that bothers anyone, but since on one else is using this space at the moment . . . .

Stones used for hot stone massage are most often basalt, which is hardened lava.

(This is a picture of basalt lava flowing over hardened basalt. I pulled it off Wikipedia and it's in the public domain because it originally came from the U.S. Geological Survey.)


Basalt works well as massage stones because it is fine-grained and I've found that it holds heat much better than rock with large crystals like granite. Basalt also weathers evenly, without pits or sharp edges. And it doesn't crack when it goes from one temperature extreme to another.

I bought my first set of massage stones from Massage Warehouse also. I was working at a dayspa that had Hot Stone Massage on its menu, but the therapist who did it had left before I arrived. So I ordered a set of stones, which came with an instructional video. Ironically, my video included a lot of information about how to clean the stones and how to place them on the body, but not so much about how to use them in my hands. That I worked out through trial and error.

I obtained my second and third sets of stones when I put in a rock garden in my office.

The stones are called "Mexican River Pebbles" when you buy them from a landscaping supplier, and they cost me $30 for a 70 lb. bag (about 5 gallons). It's a good thing they didn't cost more because the garden needed 900 lbs. of stones.

As I was placing the stones I pulled out ones that looked like they had the right size, shape and smoothness to work for massage. Then, except for a couple of larger stones, I made pairs that were roughly the same size and shape. After I discarded the leftovers I had almost two new sets.

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