The owner of the UK's first ASMR clinic charges up to £100 to pretend-brush people's hair - and says the practice helps anxiety, ADHD and insomnia patients.
Kellie Ripley, 46, opened the ASMR Live Lounge and sees up to seven clients a day.
ASMR - or autonomous sensory meridian response - refers to a feeling of wellbeing combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck.
It is usually experienced by people in response to a specific gentle stimulus - often a certain sound.
The qualified hypnotherapist and masseuse mostly "treats" people from corporate backgrounds who need to relax.
Kellie says it’s like "therapy" - with practices including tapping on people with fake nails, pretending to brush their hair and light face-touching.
Kellie, from Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, said: “I opened the ASMR Live Lounge because I wanted to go and get this done for myself - but I couldn’t find anywhere.
“It’s filled with all different sounds and smells and we do mostly role play.
“I have clients with ADHD, anxiety and insomnia and some say it’s the only but of time where their mind can just stop.
“At first I got into it only wanting to do ASMR, but I realised it’s like therapy for them, too.”
Kellie has been a lover of ASMR since she was little - even before she knew what it was.
She’d spend time brushing her friends’ hair at sleepovers and would ask them to trace her arms and hands with their nails.
“The first time I experienced the tingles was in my teens,” she said.
“My friend and I would have our sleepovers - we’d trace each other’s arms and hands.
“When mum wasn’t in a rush having my hair brushed was actually quite a nice feeling.
“It was a very content and safe feeling - who would’ve known it’d become my full-time job all these years later?”
In 2015, Kellie started watching ASMR on YouTube to relax - her favourite channel being WhispersRed, who specialises in hair, beauty and medical examination role play.
After eight years of enjoying the practice she decided to look up ASMR spas in the UK to experience it in real life.
“I thought 'surely I can go and get something magical done',” Kellie said.
“But I couldn’t find anyone at all.
“So I decided to open up my own spa - going online to look for therapy rooms to rent in Southsea.
“I contacted a lady called Debbie - who rented me a room there for £50 per day.
“I told the insurance company all I do is role play, it’s like telling a story from the moment you walk in and they were fine with it.”
Kellie has marketed the ASMR Live Lounge - which she opened in February 2023 - as an “immersive live ASMR venue” - offering different “stories” for different prices.
Her personal favourite, the “bliss” role play, involves light touch and brushing all over the clients’ back, neck and hands.
She said: “Some of them are an hour - but there’s one 90-minute one, which costs £70.
Kellie Ripley, 46, opened the ASMR Live Lounge and sees up to seven clients a day.
ASMR - or autonomous sensory meridian response - refers to a feeling of wellbeing combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck.
It is usually experienced by people in response to a specific gentle stimulus - often a certain sound.
The qualified hypnotherapist and masseuse mostly "treats" people from corporate backgrounds who need to relax.
Kellie says it’s like "therapy" - with practices including tapping on people with fake nails, pretending to brush their hair and light face-touching.
Kellie, from Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, said: “I opened the ASMR Live Lounge because I wanted to go and get this done for myself - but I couldn’t find anywhere.
“It’s filled with all different sounds and smells and we do mostly role play.
“I have clients with ADHD, anxiety and insomnia and some say it’s the only but of time where their mind can just stop.
“At first I got into it only wanting to do ASMR, but I realised it’s like therapy for them, too.”
Kellie has been a lover of ASMR since she was little - even before she knew what it was.
She’d spend time brushing her friends’ hair at sleepovers and would ask them to trace her arms and hands with their nails.
“The first time I experienced the tingles was in my teens,” she said.
“My friend and I would have our sleepovers - we’d trace each other’s arms and hands.
“When mum wasn’t in a rush having my hair brushed was actually quite a nice feeling.
“It was a very content and safe feeling - who would’ve known it’d become my full-time job all these years later?”
In 2015, Kellie started watching ASMR on YouTube to relax - her favourite channel being WhispersRed, who specialises in hair, beauty and medical examination role play.
After eight years of enjoying the practice she decided to look up ASMR spas in the UK to experience it in real life.
“I thought 'surely I can go and get something magical done',” Kellie said.
“But I couldn’t find anyone at all.
“So I decided to open up my own spa - going online to look for therapy rooms to rent in Southsea.
“I contacted a lady called Debbie - who rented me a room there for £50 per day.
“I told the insurance company all I do is role play, it’s like telling a story from the moment you walk in and they were fine with it.”
Kellie has marketed the ASMR Live Lounge - which she opened in February 2023 - as an “immersive live ASMR venue” - offering different “stories” for different prices.
Her personal favourite, the “bliss” role play, involves light touch and brushing all over the clients’ back, neck and hands.
She said: “Some of them are an hour - but there’s one 90-minute one, which costs £70.
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FunTranscript
00:00 [Silence]
00:18 My name is Kelly Ripley and I opened the ASMR Live Lounge back in February 23
00:25 because I myself was looking for somewhere to go and have, I don't know
00:31 what you would have called it, a massage or an experience where I would receive
00:36 that lovely ASMR tingle and I couldn't find anywhere. So I decided to open the
00:41 ASMR Live Lounge and it's doing really really well. I've sort of done some, I've
00:49 done a video with Whispers Red Emma who's really well known in the ASMR
00:54 community so I'm so grateful for that because then it meant that the ASMR
00:58 world knew that I was here and yeah I have people from all over the world
01:05 which is lovely. So I have UK residents they can drive for hours to come and see
01:10 me sometimes which is quite humbling if I'm honest it really is. I've had people
01:15 from America and Singapore. It feels quite magical that they come to visit.
01:23 [Silence]
01:34 The ASMR Live Lounge, like I say, is here purely for that lovely, I keep going to
01:42 my arms but that's because you kind of get that goose bumpy feeling when you
01:46 have that experience and that is why I opened so that people can enjoy having
01:53 that relaxation because that is what it's like, it's relaxation, it's that
01:57 feeling of contentment. Most people that feeling they can remember that from when
02:04 they were very young as children so maybe from a family member tickling
02:09 their ear or stroking their neck, you know brushing their hair. So I kind of I
02:15 suppose in some ways it's that reenacting that feeling of safety and
02:19 security and that's why I think people find it relaxing and use it for sleep
02:24 because it's that feeling of being safe.
02:28 [Silence]
02:31 So I use brushes on the face and the skin. I've got a beautiful head massager
02:39 which I'm sure a lot of people do know how that feels. I have some what I call
02:45 my Thai dancer nails and they're used on the skin and that can be over the
02:49 clothing and whatever people are comfortable with.
02:54 [Nails clicking]