I first bought one of these for my boyfriend, and the first time I ever massaged him with it he completely fell in love with it. He frequently has pain in his neck, shoulders and back and he also has RLS that affects his calves and feet and I have (with just a little practice) found ways to use this massager on all of his problem areas with great results. The big thing was getting some relief from his RLS, it had gotten to the point at which it was keeping us both awake way too often (him from the need to move and the discomfort, me from him accidentally kicking me when he would doze off out of sheer exhaustion but still be twitching.) We needed help! This massager has not "cured" his RLS but is sure has helped A LOT, more than either of us hoped or would have thought possible. The little pointy things on the orange balls are harder than I thought they would be and I was initially concerned that they would be irritating or painful, but this is not generally so. When I use the massager on the bottoms of his feet he has to have socks on or the sensation is too close to tickling for the massager to work for him. Otherwise, he is fine with it being used on his bare skin although it does seem to work a lot better if I have first put some skin lotion on him. (We tried a sweet almond oil based massage oil as well but just regular old body lotion like Lubriderm or Aveeno seems to work better for us with this massager.) It's MUCH easier for me to massage him with enough strength and pressure to give him substantial pain relief with this massager than it is without it, we both love this thing! Since my boyfriend and I have been so thrilled with this massager I ordered another one as a birthday gift for a friend who I know has some neck and shoulder pain and he is very happy with his too. He told me that he either has to have something like a t-shirt or some kind of thinner, soft fabric between his skin and the pointy balls of the massager or else the pointy things are too painful and irritate his skin. He still likes it, says it works great and uses it often, he simply wears a t-shirt (he pulls it up over the back of his neck when he's getting his neck massaged with it) and that solves any pointy thing pain/skin irritation issues perfectly. Anyone using this massager is probably gonna need another person to massage them with it, especially if they are wanting their neck/shoulders/back massaged. I have tried using it on my own neck and shoulders a couple of times when home alone and though I was able to get some pain reduction, it was a difficult and frustrating process and it didn't get anywhere near the relief I'd have gotten if I'd had a 2nd person to massage me with it. I have also tried massaging my calves, thighs, feet, and upper arms with it just to see how easy it is or isn't, and although it was definitely easier to reach these areas than it was to reach my neck, shoulders and back, it would still be much easier for someone else to reach and massage these areas. Another thing: if you have hair that is any kind of long at all, you will want to get it up out of the way before having someone massage your neck with this thing. If it grabs your hair, it will not let go of it easily at all and it will pull like hell and hurt. This is not a problem with me, I usually put my hair up securely before having a neck massage anyway as I don't want massage oil or lotion getting in my hair. I did try to massage my own neck with this thing once without thinking about the state of my hair (it was up but loosely enough for some to get caught up by the massager) and was rewarded by having a small amount of wispy escapees ripped right out of my head. Body hair is not a problem unless you are sasquatch or have body hair like a sasquatch, as far as I can tell hair has to be at least 3"-4" long to get caught up in this thing. Gaiam Restore got my order to me promptly, it was appropriately packaged and in perfect condition. I received my massager on time and exactly as pictured/described by the seller. The amount I was charged for shipping was very reasonable. I would recommend this massager to anyone looking for a good massage tool to help with tight muscles or to get some pain relief from muscle cramps/knots and I would happily do business with Gaiam Restore anytime. I am actually wanting to try more Gaiam products in the near future, this massager has worked out so well I'm thinking their other stuff is probably pretty good too.
