00:07Is it working?
00:10She's having a head orgasm as we see.
00:12It's like insane.
00:18ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response.
00:22From what I'm told, it's a euphoric experience that's characterized by head tingles
00:27starting in your scalp and they travel down to the back of your neck and your upper spine
00:31and it causes extreme relaxation.
00:34People who have ASMR say that it's triggered by certain visual and acoustic stimuli.
00:38If you type in ASMR to YouTube, you'll see over 5 million search results.
00:43Some are just people's hands playing with different things, crinkling paper, carving soap, folding towels,
00:49very methodical activities that people watch and just fall down this head-tingling rabbit hole.
00:54So I did a Google search and found a woman named Paige Towers who lives in New York City.
00:59She's a writer and is currently writing a memoir about ASMR.
01:02I'm going to head to her apartment where I'm hoping to learn all I can about ASMR
01:06and also to try to create some of those triggers and see if maybe, just maybe, I can experience the
01:12head tingles.
01:13Hi!
01:14Hi!
01:15How are you?
01:15Nice to meet you.
01:16Yeah, good to meet you too.
01:18Come on in.
01:19I'm Paige Towers.
01:20ASMR is something I've experienced since I was a little, tiny kid and since when I can first remember.
01:27ASMR is now this, like, huge, massive thing.
01:31And I didn't even know that it was, like, a thing that other people experienced until 2012
01:36when I just happened to put in some search terms and come across these videos.
01:41And all of a sudden I discovered that I'm not, like, this freak of nature
01:45that, like, experiences these, like, really crazy things in response to just, like, mundane, everyday activities.
01:53Okay, so we're going to play with some props and make some different sounds
01:58and see if anything, at the very least, kind of makes you relax or even gives you the tingles.
02:12It's definitely relaxing.
02:21I'm feeling this one a little bit more than the crinkling bag.
02:30It's not even that relaxing to me, just a good sound.
02:36The tortilla chips, the book, the steel wool, some light towel folding.
02:40This one doesn't do it for me.
02:43Still no head tingles.
02:46So I began to wonder, what is life actually like when you walk around getting pleasure from life's minutiae?
02:51My childhood is, like, littered with all these little, like, ASMR events.
02:55I used to fall asleep watching Bob Ross, the painter on PBS, as, like, a five-year-old, like, as
03:02Bob Ross on.
03:03But it would make me just, like, so tangly and warm.
03:06This is my purse.
03:07The really soft, like, very kind voice.
03:10And the main part, I have my wallet.
03:12The sounds of the brushes, and you can watch the paint spreading on the canvas.
03:16And everything would just make me, like, explode and tingles.
03:22Next, we're going to do role plays.
03:23I'm going to be a hair stylist, which is a profession I never thought I'd have.
03:27And you're going to be my doctor.
03:30Okay.
03:31So what kind of style are you, uh, wanting to do?
03:35I think a fancy updo.
03:36Fancy updo?
03:37Mm-hmm.
03:39Okay, I can do that.
03:40I'm super good at hair.
03:42You know, a few loose strands is really the style right now.
03:46Just right in front of your face.
03:48It feels so good to get your head scratched, and especially if they have long nails like Paige does.
03:54It's incredible.
03:55I couldn't really tell, though, if the tingles that I was getting, because I was getting tingles,
04:00were from the fact that she was giving me personalized attention.
04:03Are you relaxed, Jess?
04:04Or if it was because of the fact that she was touching my head and it almost felt like a
04:08scalp massage.
04:09Although I didn't feel these sensations myself, seeing Paige's genuine excitement and euphoria
04:14in response to the triggers has really opened up my eyes to what it's like for people out there who
04:19do experience this.
04:21Hi.
04:21Oh, it's nice to meet you.
04:22Nice to meet you.
04:23Dr. Lucy.
04:24Dr. Lucy.
04:25How are you?
04:26Good.
04:26Listen, I get that it's easy to write this concept off as a bit bizarre,
04:30but researchers are putting more and more effort into studying this phenomenon.
04:34I even discovered that ASMR enthusiasts find these videos can be therapeutic,
04:38easing symptoms of insomnia, anxiety, and depression.
04:41There are potentially millions of people just like Paige who share in this experience.
04:45Are you one of them?
04:49Hey.
04:51I have my wallet.
04:57I've also got some other fun things.
05:01I've got some concealer.
05:08This makes a nice little sound.
05:16I've got my book that I read on the train.
05:24Hey, YouTube.
05:25It's Lucy Fink.
05:26And I'm Paige Towers.
05:27Click here to watch another video on our channel.
05:29And click here to subscribe to Refinery29.
05:32Say goodbye to the puppies.
05:34Bye.
05:35Bye.
05:35Mwah.
05:35Mwah.
05:36Mwah.
05:36Mwah.
05:36Mwah.
05:36Mwah.
