I Tried a Reiki Energy Healing Haircut: See Photos

I moved to Los Angeles two years ago, and since then, I've done a lot of “LA” things. I shop at Erewhon, drink the Hailey Bieber smoothie, go to acupuncture once a week, see two therapists, and date guys with Peter Pan syndrome. You know, the usual LA sh*t. However, this past week, I may have done the single most LA thing ever. I got a reiki haircut.

If you have no idea what reiki is, let me give you a little background. It's a Japanese healing technique that promotes balanced energy and relaxation through touch. Practitioners either place their hands on their client's body or just near it for a few minutes at a time, and the goal is to guide healing energy throughout the body.

I'm not completely new to reiki — I used to get hypnotherapy back in the day, and occasionally, my hypnotherapist would perform it during or at the end of my sessions. But a reiki haircut? Now, that was definitely new for me.

To try it, I visited Freija Collective in Silverlake, Los Angeles, and met with hairstylist Jo Marie.

The treatment was done in a regular salon — but in my humble opinion, Freija Collective is one of the best in the area. It's chic, quiet, calming, and cool — and after seeing it for the first time, it made perfect sense that they'd do reiki haircuts there. Not because it's weird, but because it's very LA. In a good way. I swear.

My session started with a meeting with Jo Marie, who talked to me about my hair and how I was doing that day emotionally. Talking about my feelings isn't a normal part of my hair routine, but honestly, I was all for it. Marie had an ultra-calming presence, so it felt OK to let her know I felt very anxious (unrelated to the impending haircut) and that, over the last few days, I hadn't been feeling quite myself. (Between the two of us, dear reader, I will tell you something about why I was feeling anxious: it had to do with intuition. However, in no way, shape, or form did I mention this to Marie — this is important to remember for later.)

After taking a look at my hair and deciding what direction we wanted to go in, Marie applied a calming scalp oil to my head and gave me a thorough scalp massage using her hands and gua sha. It was a great way to start the treatment and relax me, especially because I came in feeling less than great.

Marie then asked me to pick two different crystals out of a collection that was sitting near the salon chair, which she said I would hold during my reiki treatment. I went with a purple and a sage-green crystal, both in the shape of hearts, and then we made our way to a private room in the back of the salon.

The private room had a massage bed in it, which I got into after taking off my shoes and robe. Once I was settled and holding my crystals, Marie came in, laid a crystal eye mask on my face (one that Hailey Bieber is actually a fan of), and completed a reiki energy healing session. While listening to the sounds of ocean waves, she gently touched my head, neck, and some areas of my face and shoulders. Throughout the process, I felt centered, light, and generally way better than I had before walking into the salon. There was no actual massage going on — reiki isn't about manipulating your body in that way — but it felt calming in a way that I can't entirely explain.

The reiki portion of the treatment lasted about 30 minutes, and once it was over, it was time to wash my hair. Marie said she likes to do a debrief during the hair washing. That's when she asked me how I felt during the session and told me about what was coming up for her while she was doing reiki. “On my end, a lot of what I worked on was your third eye intuition center,” Marie said. Excuse me? Did she just say what I thought she said? Yes, dear reader. She did.

Although I'm not going to share with you everything we talked about (you'd need to sign an NDA and do a blood oath for me to reveal it all, sorry), I will tell you that Marie was spot on with how I was feeling. I'm into some light woo-woo stuff, but this was beyond that. It was like Marie was inside my freaking brain. Once my hair was washed and conditioned (and my entire heart was laid bare), it was time for the actual haircut. Prior to snipping, Marie chose an oracle card for me, and guess what it was? “Inner trust.” Yep, it was once again all about intuition. If I didn't already believe that I was having some sort of spiritual experience, that card sealed the deal for me. Although the connections ended up making me feel a little nervous, we talked through the reading during my haircut, and Marie was great at reassuring me and keeping me calm and centered throughout the entire process.

If you're here to read about the actual haircut, let me tell you — it was great. Marie only gave me a tiny trim, but she made my style more blunt, which ended up giving my hair the appearance of being way more full than it actually is. Then, she swept up some of my hair and put it in a small envelope for me to take home. I left with a cute blowout, as well as instructions to either bury my hair or empty it into a body of water, which is probably the weirdest thing I've ever been told to do. However, it might also be the best.

It's been a few days since my haircut, and after what I experienced, I'm fully considering only getting reiki haircuts from now until the end of time. I'm actually shocked at how much the process helped calm my nervous energy and how well it worked at helping me feel centered. Plus, my hair looks great, so there's that.

Renee Rodriguez (she/her) is a staff writer and social producer for PS. She writes across all verticals, but her main areas of expertise focus on fashion and beauty content with an emphasis on reviews and editor experiments. She also produces social content for the PS TikTok and Instagram accounts.

Image Source: PS Photography / Renee Rodriguez