Crystals are ultra-hot right now, especially when it comes to beauty. From rose quartz rollers to skincare products infused with gemstones, everyone wants to reap the numerous benefits that are associated with crystals and crystal work. Andi Scarbrough is the founder of CrownWorks, a series of customized beauty rituals that heal and balance the mind and body, and her unique work has been featured on Vogue, Goop and many more. 

She invited me into her Santa Monica-based business, Framed Salon, to try one of her signature hair rituals. From start to finish, the experience was unlike anything I had ever tried before. Rituals vary from person to person, but in my case, it started with her offering me a choice of her beautifully crafted crystal combs to use in the service. Since I'm drawn to love and romance, I opted for the rose quartz (more on the different types of crystal combs later in this post). 

Next, we had an "Exploration and Discovery" session, where she read my intuition cards and learned more about me, we discussed my scalp and hair issues (based on what I told her, Andi then selected a custom blend of essential oils which she mixed into the products she was going to treat my hair with.) At the shampoo bowl, she proceeded to give me the most amazing scalp massage, combing the essential oil formulation from roots to ends with the crystal comb, and used tuning forks for energy work. After my blowdry, I felt clearer, lighter and more relaxed!

Read on to learn more about what inspired Andi to start CrownWorks, the different treatments she offers and their benefits, and more.

Where did the name Crown Works come from? What does it mean? 

I go to meditation or journaling for much of my creative inquiry. When I began to round out the context of all the different aspects of what this message wanted to offer, I was a little overwhelmed. It wasn’t just a salon service, or a product, or even an education offering. It was a practice and methodology. When the phrase "Crown Work" came forward, I had full-body goosebumps. I had no idea at the time what it would grow into, but I knew that this name would encompass the wide scope of offerings. 

The Crown Symbol has been a long standing symbol of the reception of divine counsel. Royalty were “crowned” to demonstrate their direct access to source wisdom. Now, though the practice of intentionally engaging one’s own crown chakra, that same divine guidance is always available to us.

CrownWorks is an action. It's the ongoing process of accessing wisdom, information, clarity and energy from the infinite source that animates us through the crown chakra. With this connection open, nurtured and tended, we are able to draw from endless inspiration and move those ideas from their purest form into embodiment. 

What does Framed Salon mean?

“Framed” came from a desire for infrastructure and support, but not confinement. We operate as a salon collective: like a collection of studios without walls where each stylist participates in the salon upkeep and occupies the space with a sense of ownership, community and belonging. 

How long have you been offering crystal hair healing services? How did you get into it?

I’ve been “out of the broom closet” (so to speak) for several years now, but the individual components of the service have been part of my offerings for over a decade. In the beginning, I might offer a discreet moment of silent meditation before a big haircut, I had stones in or around my station, then I started to incorporate essential oils. Over time, I explored other modalities on my own healing journey--from reiki, breath work and sound healing to the power of journaling exercises and the use of medicine cards--and would share with my clients what I was currently practicing. Often they were interested and wanted to know more or try it.

Over time, these practices became such a regular part of my conversations and offerings, that people began to request extra time during our appointment to allow for some of this exploration. I found it deepened my connections with my clients--we were growing together--and we became accountable to each other. Soon, new clients started to find me because they heard about this “thing” I did. I realized they were often shy about asking for it, and it became a natural progression to create a clear set of services available for people that were specifically seeking this deep dive.

It also gave me the space and permission I needed to unfold my whole medicine bag and expand into developing my own intuitive gifts within the clear container of a CrownWorks Treatment. I still keep crystals and cards out on my station, and you are likely to find clients reading about crystal gridding or Ayurvedic practices or using a CrystalComb to detangle while I mix color during in the course of a “regular” salon day. 

How do your services differ from other hair salons?

The ritual that I perform differs for each client. There are many different elements to consider, and like my color bar, it becomes an apothecary of unique prescriptive-style combinations of services best suited to an individual client's needs and openness. For some clients, there is a guided meditation before a haircut (similar to a shamanic cutting of cords ceremony) to symbolically release old experiences and beliefs that are no longer of service. For others, it is a gentle shoulder massage (with a little Reiki energy infusion) while they discuss the motivation for their big change.

Some people want to have a Third-Eye-opening essential oil infusion present during their deep conditioning treatment, while others just want an "extra relaxing aromatherapy" added to their steam towel. Some clients know those oils are clearing, like Clary Sage or Palo Santo, others just enjoy the fragrance. Some clients may be open to a breath work practice, sound healing or guided mediation during this time. The truth is, healing meets you at your point of willingness and readiness. 

In an effort to anchor focus on intentionality, I find crystals incredibly helpful. The client has had the stone they selected at the beginning of the service in their hands this whole time-- “programming” it with their intention, and creating a point of resonance to return to when they engage with it later. Sending my client home with a stone provides them with a touch point to their intention and our time together; seeing the beauty of that stone serves as a reminder of the meaningful way they experienced themselves in my chair. 

Tell us about your journey and how it led you to where you are now.

I feel REALLY lucky that I learned I wanted to be a stylist early on. I knew I wanted to be an artist--creative expression is life-breath for me--and I have always been fascinated by learning people’s stories. In a primal/ tribal way, this is how we’ve passed down wisdom, and I feel like I learn from my clients and what they share every day. School has been in session for 15 years and counting! 

About 10 years ago, I started to work in beauty education. This allowed me to venture out of my local bubble and hear the stories of what stylists were collecting from their clients all over the country. We’re such a group of hidden healers--almost every stylist I meet says they got into this business because they wanted to make people feel better about themselves. Part of that is because so many of us felt like black-sheep or misfits in our own lives, and offering this to other people is a way to heal it in ourselves. 

This awareness of the “Wounded Healer” archetype present in so many beauty professionals is what really spurred me on my journey to explore how to heal these original hurts in my own emotional body so that I could better serve the people I work with and for.  Where these wounds went untreated, I observed tendencies towards negative coping mechanisms, addiction, poor boundaries, compassion fatigue, and creative burnout.

Our keen intuitive gifts and empathic natures are so integrated into what we do we take for granted the boot-camp level magnitude we navigate really complex energetic transactions all day long. We wade through the biggies like trauma, sex, and money--- all while producing art. It’s no small thing! While I was most assuredly seeking to better the clients experience, this was also a self preservation mission. I love what I do and wanted to find a way to maintain a long, healthy, dynamic career.  

After years of study and cultivating these practices for myself first, then in our salon, it was time to create content to share with other stylists about what I’d learned had worked for me. Each CrownWorks Conversation program is different, because this is an ongoing process, just like my own practice of tending to my crown chakra.

What services do you offer and what are their benefits? Which crystals do you use?

Crystals serve in many ways both in the salon itself and in a CrownWorks Treatment. We use Selenite, Rose Quartz, Black Tourmaline, Amethyst and Citrine to anchor the salon itself and maintain clean and uplifted energy in the space. 

Each stone has unique intrinsic properties and healing attributes. Over my life, I have found solace in ritual and comfort in objects like crosses, prayer beads, candles and stones. What I love about working with crystals is the specific nature of the intention inherently associated with each stone. Keeping crystals on my workstation like Smokey Quartz (useful for transmuting negative energy into positive) and Watermelon Tourmaline (fostering self love and acceptance of hard emotional lessons) serves as a good reminder of my personal intentions.

For a treatment, I will track 6-12 crystals with properties that I sense may be in someone's field and teach the client to “track” one themselves. From there I use them to find a point of entry into an often unconscious motivation and offer support to the underlying story asking to be told, treated, or looking to be shifted.

The CrystalCombs are currently available in 4 varieties: 

Black Obsidian is the stone of transformation. It helps to release and repel negativity, and gives us the strength and power to make decisive shifts. It’s associated largely with the lower chakras. This stone may be used if someone or has a skewed self-perception, is experiencing trauma or grief, or feeling floaty/disconnected from their body.

Rose Quartz is the stone of love. One of the most used and recognizable crystals, it resonates directly with the heart chakra, gently opening the way for greater peace, compassion, forgiveness and harmony. This stone would be used to invite a softness of being with oneself or with others, coming into acceptance of the process of a grow-out, hair loss or hormonal changes that are creating physical changes.

Amethyst is the stone of wisdom. Also known as the sobriety stone, it helps to clear mental chatter and strengthen connection to the guidance of higher wisdom by clearing and opening the third eye and crown chakras. This stone is ideal for someone who is looking to optimize their time (either in the salon or at home during their own weekly treatment) for developing a spiritual practice. 

Clear Quartz is the master purifier and amplifier. It offers protection, clarity and insight, and aids in the transmission of energy. Though it is primarily used as a crown chakra stone, clear quartz is helpful to open and clear all the chakras. This is the stone I go to when someone is looking to step out, become visible, and turn up the volume on their visual transmission through their aesthetic choices.  

To purchase CrownWorks combs, click here. 

What is reiki and how do you incorporate it into your treatments? 

Reiki is only one of the most commonly known forms of energy work. It is the act of having someone volunteer their energetic system to access source energy and move it through their physical being and into another person, typically through the hands, but physical presence and touch are not actually required. This about it like having someone jump start the battery on your car--once it’s ignited, it will keep going, but that initial charge sometimes needs a boost from an outside source.

The client can experience everything from profound visions and astral travel to a gentle feeling of warmth, a sense of color, or a blanket of peace and well-being. It has been known to increase cellular function, alleviate pain, and soothe and balance emotional disease. 

Tell us more about what Intention Setting is, as well as Exploration and Discover sessions. 

The Exploration and Discovery portion of the service is a way for us to access what limiting beliefs may be playing a part in what may be running the story about how you are viewed, or what aesthetic expression may be available to you. Cards and crystals are both tools we use as points of entry into bringing this often subconscious story to the surface. This lets us become crystal-clear about what we want to embody, express, or define as our new truths moving forward.

In a ritual haircut, we create an offering from the cut hair akin to a Shamanic Despacho ceremony, where flowers, sacred herbs and pieces of the cut hair are folded into a bio-degradable paper bag. At this point, I may as the client to list the old beliefs, patterns, name what (or who!) is being released. The client then will take this gift and either burn it, bury it, or cast it out to sea. The idea is to have a ceremonial release and restructuring the same way a marriage or baptism ceremony symbolizes the a distinct moment of creation. Creating a mantra or phrase from this intention can be incorporated into the rest of the treatment and in a home practice. 

What products and brands do you use?

I use several different products in the treatment, from La Tierra Sagrada's treatment infused with ayahuasca essence to a huge variety of pure essential oils. I love to use Hairstory New Wash as a base for the treatment as it easily holds and mixes the oils, and allows me to work with ease in both the cleansing and conditioning portion of the treatment. 

Future plans for expanding your services and offerings?

This summer, I'm launching an intimate 4-month mentorship program designed for professionals who are ready to harness the fruits of their own journey and integrate these kinds of services into their existing salon businesses. I'm currently creating program offerings and group rituals for non-professionals. This summer at the Spirit Weavers Gathering, I'm presenting a new Galaxite CrystalComb created for use in a more acute level of self-healing and energetic clearing, and I have another secret product in development hopefully to launch later this year for both professionals and consumers. 

—The Spa Insider

For more information, visit crownworks.net and check them out on Instagram @crown_works