Shirodhara notes for therapists

Room and turnaround

The limiting factor in a commercial setting is rarely the session; it is the turnaround. Plan for:

• 10 minutes setup and oil warming before the client arrives, done in parallel with the previous client’s rest period if the space allows.
• 30 to 45 minutes of pour.
• 15 to 20 minutes rest, during which the room is occupied but you are not.
• 15 minutes strip-down, straining and surface cleaning.

A realistic slot is 90 minutes end to end for a 40-minute pour.

Oil economics

Oil is the recurring cost and the one most often mis-modelled. The variables:

• Volume in circulation per session. Roughly half a litre to a litre for a hand-filled pot, around 1.5 litres for a vessel that runs a whole session unrefilled such as the Surya, which holds two litres. Model the one you actually use: the difference is most of a bottle per session.
• Loss per session, what soaks into hair, cloth and the basin, rather than what is poured.
• Reuse policy. Whether oil is carried between clients is the single biggest driver of cost per session, and it is a hygiene and consent decision before it is a financial one. Decide it explicitly, write it down, and tell clients what your policy is.
• Reheat cycles before oil is retired. Our own policy is a maximum of three sessions on a charge of oil, after which it is discarded rather than topped up indefinitely.

Worked through, that gives a figure you can price against. A two litre vessel charged with 1.5 litres, three 500 ml bottles, serves three sessions before it is emptied. That is about one 500 ml bottle of oil per session, plus top-ups for what is lost to hair, cloth and the basin, so one bottle per session is the floor rather than the exact number. A hand-filled pot running on half a litre to a litre works out lower per session and costs more in labour, because somebody is reheating and returning the oil by hand throughout.

Apply your own cost per bottle to that and you have the recurring cost. A session priced on the assumption of full reuse and delivered on a single-use policy loses money quietly.

Hygiene

• Strain through fine mesh after every session, without exception.
• Fresh cloth, eye covering and forehead band per client.
• Wash the catch basin and any tubing between clients, not at the end of the day.
• Document your oil policy where clients can see it. In a market where most competitors do not, this is a differentiator as well as good practice.

Single-operator working

Traditional Shirodhara assumes two people: one at the head, one managing oil. If you work alone, the constraint is that you cannot leave the client to reheat and return oil mid-session.

The options are a vessel that holds the whole session’s oil, so nothing has to be returned while the stream is running and the run-off is recovered from the base afterwards; warming to the top of the appropriate range and accepting a drift downward across the session; a powered unit with a pump and a heated reservoir; or shorter sessions. Most solo practitioners on a gravity setup end up combining the first two.

Claims and advertising

Shirodhara equipment is sold as general wellness equipment, not as a medical device, and Ayurvedic oils are regulated products. Advertising a session as a treatment for a named condition is a regulatory exposure in most markets, whatever the classical texts say about indications. Describe the practice, describe what people report, and let the tradition speak for itself.