So — haircut, massage, or … cranial nerve exam?

I know, I know: It sounds like the beginning of a horribly inappropriate joke, but guess again. The fact of the matter is that these words are currently among the trending results on YouTube when providing ‘asmr’ as the search term.

But if we consider these results for a moment, what exactly is an “asmr haircut”? Might it be anything like a normal haircut? What about an “asmr massage”? At first glance they seem strange.

Welp, to explain the situation: these are various types of roleplays that, in some sense, indicate the content of the videos.

Say, for example, a person’s trigger is hearing a deep sound of scratching something soft. Rather than listen to a person claw an object with no context, a roleplay video of someone playing the part of a barber can simulate a situation in which one would generally hear those types of sounds. In many ways, people that experience ASMR may derive comfort by imagining the environment of the sound, as well as the sound itself.

This characteristic is among the most prominent found in the online ASMR community. One can’t glance at reddit’s asmr page without finding dozens of roleplay videos abound.

To that end, roleplay videos encompass both the sounds and communication one might expect to find in those situations. From the idle chat of a barber, to the ambiguous questions of a doctor — roleplaying runs the gambit of professions and locations in an effort to provide the listener with the most comfortable context possible.

With that in mind; I have absolutely no idea what a cranial nerve exam sounds like.

(Image Source: YouTube + siiiic’ paint skillz!)