Keep it covered

Draping tips for Barefoot Massage Therapists

Licensed Massage Therapists are legally required to keep their clients body covered with a sheet or towel during the massage session: except of course for the area they are working on.

When giving a Barefoot Massage, we typically need more of the clients surface area exposed so that our feet can glide uninterrupted - while still keeping our clients covered where it counts. I often see LMTs shocked and nervous at the liberal draping techniques we need in the Ashiatsu Barefoot Massage classes I teach. It can be understandably shocking to give and receive different ways of wrapping fabric around the body: but when done creatively and with care, you can help keep the client feeling safe and secure while experiencing their Barefoot session.

After more years spent massaging with my feet than with my hands, I’ve learned some draping tricks that work great specifically for us Barefoot Massage Therapists.

…BUTT don’t get this loosey goosey with your draping. (Photo by EVREN AYDIN on Unsplash)

Here are my main pointers for where to drape your sheets when massaging with your feets:

1. Use a fitted bottom sheet that is a different color than your top flat sheet so that you can easily see the difference in layers. In a dark massage room, or when tangled in fabric, this hack has been a time saver for me!

2. Typically, linens made for massage tables are actually too skinny once you get them onto a padded, 35” wide table that we Barefooters’ love to use. So instead, get yourself some nice twin-sized sheets. You’ll have a bigger selection to choose from, and won’t be locked into a massage supply company. (If they are too baggy and don't fit tight- hang tight, we have a hack for that below!)

3. Everyone has their own preference on thread count. T-shirt and flannel fabric material are nice, but sometimes too stretchy. Microfiber material is sometimes too slippery OR it feels like everyone’s skin gets snagged on it often. Find your happy medium. Splurge if you have to on nicer fabric, it’s worth it!

4. Always drape with your hands, not your feet. You can tighten up the draping with your feet if you can grab the sheet with your toes, that is TOEtally OK. Just don’t waste everyone’s time trying to be fancy moving fabric around with your feet. Nobody cares - they just want to be rubbed already.

5. It’s always OK to get down off the table and stand on the floor to move the fabric where it needs to be, if that’s what it takes for you to make the draping super snug.

6. It’s always OK to have your client help you tighten up the draping.

7. It’s always OK to work through the sheet with your feet in a way that oh-so-slyly helps to fix or secure any fabric that you think isn’t secure enough.

8. Be vigilant not to sit, stand or lean on any excess sheet so you don’t pull the rest off them.

9. Put a pillowcase on your leg bolster/pillow and keep it above the bottom sheet so that you can stand under it, on the flat surface of the table.

10. If you are working on the left leg, and that stroke is going to reach into their torso, a 1/2 drape only covering the entire right side of their body will often just get in your way. Your toes will catch on it somewhere, or you’ll be wasting time and energy dodging fabric. Instead, drape only the leg and glute that you aren’t working on yet. Leave their entire back and same side leg uncovered. This is a 1/4 drape and works great for Barefoot Massage.

11. If you are going to be flowing everywhere with everything all at once, or will be doing double footed strokes that include working alternating legs and the back together, learn to master the “diaper drape,” and get the fabric wings wrapped around and under their quads, not just wadded up into twisted fabric between their legs.

12. If you are using a blanket, don’t drape with the blanket. Move it out of the way, put the sheet where it needs to go, then recover that sheet with the blankie. Too much bulk means it’s likely for everything to slide off their body once you start grooving Barefooted.

13. Here's a tip from a student: consider silkier king-sized pillow cases so that when you need to move the bolster pillow, it slides off the bottom sheet like butter!

The most important thing is respecting your clients privacy by keeping them feeling safe, protecting their modesty. The second most important thing is to arrange your linens in such a way that it feels secure to them while safely out of the way for you while standing on the table.

Look at that coverage! It could get a little snugger at the top of the leg, but this is often the best draping approach for our work. You might find yourself working under the top flap corner of the sheet to get to the sacrum, so just go slowly and whenever you pause on the glutes, pin down the fabric with your toe to reassure it’s in its place.

Tripping over your excess fabric on the table, or getting a toe stuck on too much sheet covering some part of their body are both things that can cause a possible exposure issue. So always know where the fabric is, fold crisply and intentionally, and get good at your massage sheet origami!

This example sorta worked, but all that floofy fabric could have been tightened up to avoid trips or slips later. Do better <3 Also, do you see how the grey’s are similar? It looks pretty, but if they were two different colors you may find that it’s easier to know where to pull on the sheet to untangle it.

Want to see draping in action?

The Center for Barefoot Massage’s YouTube channel has this playlist that compiles any/every sheet-related video we’ve made, so you can watch and try some new tricks at work on your next willing client. (This playlist also has the hack mentioned earlier in this post about tightening up loose bottom sheets!)

Aww Sheet.

We all have had extra “rules” that were imposed on us in massage school or at a job that add a modifier to exactly HOW draping is to be done. Some are helpful, some are overly conservative. I’ve come across some of the following, but I don’t adhere to them all.

• Don’t work under the sheet

• The underwear line is their boundary. If they left them on, don’t move it

• Always use a blanket over the sheet when they are face up

• Tuck under the other leg

• Wrap the sheet around the limb as high up as you can

• Keep them tucked everywhere like a burrito

• ONLY the body part in focus for each section of the massage is to be uncovered

• Keep the sheet in place with a wedgie

• Keep the sheet in place with a weighted hot pack

• Keep the sheet in place by tying a knot around their limb

• Drape like a Toga and have them lay on part of it

• Never use white top sheets incase they are see through

• Hold the sheet up in the air like a screen and have them roll over

• Pin the sheet down to them as they roll over

• If using a flat sheet as your bottom sheet, tuck that into the portable table legs, or tie the corners, or rubber band the corners to make it snug

…You get the idea. Some of these I find myself using, some I threw away years ago. Some contradict the other, some of them just get you both more tangled up in fabric than kneaded. (See what I did there!?)

What do you think? If you’ve got any tips, comment below and let us know your hacks!