Koru Touch

A NEW RITUAL OF REST HAS ARRIVED AT KORU TOUCH 🌙

There is a moment when we cross a threshold.

We leave one room and enter another.

We finish one conversation before beginning the next.

We close the treatment-room door.

We turn off the lights at the end of the evening.

And somewhere between what was and what comes next, there is an opportunity to pause.

At Koru Touch, we have always believed in the importance of that space.

Because a ritual does not have to be elaborate to be meaningful.

Sometimes it begins with a breath.

Sometimes with touch.

Sometimes with the aromatic presence of a plant.

And sometimes it takes only one intentional minute to begin moving from doing toward being.

This is why we are so delighted to welcome two extraordinary new whole-plant preparations from our longtime partner Laurel Skin:

🌿 Sleep Mist — Settled Mind
🌿 Sleep Balm — Somatic Rest

These are not simply products that appear at the end of a skincare routine.

They were created as rituals of transition.

Settled Mind begins with aroma.

A beautiful whole-plant mist of lavender, Hawaiian sandalwood and tulsi surrounds the senses, offering an aromatic threshold between the momentum of the day and the possibility of stillness.

Mist the skin.

Mist the pillow and linens.

Mist the space around you.

Then breathe.

Somatic Rest brings the ritual from aroma into touch.

Passionflower, skullcap and valerian are slowly infused alongside other whole-plant ingredients chosen by Laurel through the lens of herbalism.

Warm a small amount between the fingertips and massage it wherever the body seems to be holding the day:

Neck.

Shoulders.

Décolleté.

Temples.

Hands.

Feet.

Then notice.

Notice the breath.

Notice the shoulders.

Notice the difference between holding and releasing.
This is the beauty of ritual.

It asks us to become present enough to experience what is happening within ourselves.

MIST • BREATHE • TOUCH • SOFTEN

At Koru Touch, we are particularly excited to explore these preparations beyond the bedside.

Imagine arriving for your facial, massage, body treatment or healing session and allowing the first minute to become a conscious threshold.

The world outside has been asking things of you.

For this moment, nothing is required.

You arrive.

You breathe.

You receive.

And when your treatment is complete, another small ritual can mark the passage back into the world—not hurriedly, but intentionally.

Then these same plants can accompany you home.

At the end of the evening, the shower becomes ceremony.

Water moves from crown to root.

The day washes away.

Settled Mind is misted.

Somatic Rest is massaged into the body.

The feet are anointed.

The lights become softer.

The breath becomes slower.

And we begin creating the conditions in which rest can naturally be welcomed.

This is something we treasure about Laurel’s approach to whole-plant skincare and herbalism:

The answer is rarely one thing.

It is the relationship between plants.

Aroma.

Touch.

Breath.

Environment.

Intention.

And the extraordinary intelligence of the human body when we finally give it permission to stop doing.

Perhaps self-care does not always require another hour in a day that already feels full.

Perhaps sometimes it begins with sixty seconds.

One minute to arrive.

One minute to transition.

One minute to return.

And eventually...

one minute to say:

The day is complete.

It is time to rest. 🌙

We are honored to introduce Sleep Mist — Settled Mind and Sleep Balm — Somatic Rest to the rituals of Koru Touch.

May they become beautiful little companions in your own practice of returning to yourself.

🌿 Laurel Skin × Koru Touch

Plants • Love • Science

Gregory + Ray

Koru Touch

Dear Koru Touch family,

It has been a little over two weeks since I last wrote to you, on the eve of surgery, and I have thought many times about the extraordinary amount of love that surrounded us that day.

I asked you to send light, prayer, Reiki, color, sound, loving intention, or simply a peaceful thought in our direction.

You did.

And we felt it.

So before I tell you anything about bones, plates, screws, CT scans or what happens next, I simply want to say thank you.

The surgery is behind me

On August 31, Dr. Christopher Touhy performed the open reduction and internal fixation of my right elbow.

As we have learned more about the injury, I have come to understand just how significant it actually was.

At my postoperative visit, the PA used a word that stopped me for a moment:

Shattered.

The olecranon, the prominent portion of the ulna that forms the point of the elbow, wasn’t simply cracked or cleanly broken. It had been shattered into multiple pieces. The injury also disrupted the mechanics of the entire elbow, with the radial head knocked out of alignment, creating a complex and highly unstable fracture-dislocation.

That helps explain both what happened in the emergency department and why the surgical repair was so substantial.

Dr. Touhy had to reconstruct the broken anatomy, bring the fragments back into appropriate position, restore the relationship of the elbow joint and stabilize everything with an impressive amount of plates and screws so that healing could begin.

When I look at the postoperative images now, I understand much better why this recovery cannot be hurried.

This wasn’t simply a matter of putting one broken bone back together. It was the reconstruction of a shattered and unstable elbow.

The encouraging news is that my postoperative imaging shows that reconstruction holding in alignment. The hardware is doing exactly what it was placed there to do: maintaining that carefully restored structure while my own bone begins the much slower work of knitting itself back together.

And that is where we are now.

There is still a long recovery ahead. The complexity of the original injury means that protecting the reconstruction is extremely important, and my activity remains deliberately restricted. This is not yet the moment for aggressive rehabilitation or for discovering what I can make the arm do.

There will be a time for restoring movement and function.

Right now, there is a more fundamental job underway:

Bone has to heal.

So, for perhaps one of the few times in my life, doing less is actually part of the prescription.

Those of you who know me well may recognize this as an advanced course. 😂

And then there was the shoulder

The shoulder has been the other major question throughout all of this.

Many of you know its history. Approximately 20 years ago, this same right shoulder sustained a devastating injury. After the original injury was missed for several months, it ultimately required extensive reconstruction at Duke and another procedure the following year.

So when this fall also fractured my proximal humerus, we knew we weren’t dealing with an ordinary shoulder.

Dr. Touhy ordered dedicated CT imaging of both the reconstructed elbow and the shoulder so that we could finally see, in much greater detail, exactly what we were dealing with.

The CT confirmed the proximal humeral fracture.

And after everything we had already learned about the severity of the elbow, I was preparing myself for the possibility that another surgery might be ahead.

Instead, we received the news I had been hoping and praying for:

At this point, Dr. Touhy believes the proximal humerus fracture can heal without surgery.

I cannot adequately express my gratitude for that.

The shoulder remained located through an extraordinary impact. The reconstruction performed all those years ago survived the fall. And although the proximal humerus is fractured, we now have the opportunity to let that fracture heal while avoiding another operation on an already complicated shoulder.

So I am healing two significant injuries at once: a surgically reconstructed, shattered elbow and a fractured proximal humerus.

That changes the timetable.

It also changes how I think about recovery.

The goal isn’t to get back to work as quickly as possible. The goal is to give both injuries the opportunity to heal as completely as possible so that, when I eventually return to the work I love, I have given this arm every chance to serve me well for years to come.

Nothing about this is being rushed.

For now, we are allowing the body to do what bodies have been doing far longer than orthopedic surgeons have existed: organize, repair, remodel and heal.

My job is to give it the conditions, protection and time to do that.

So when am I coming back?

That remains the question I cannot answer yet.

Hairdressing and Colorpuncture are still on pause.

My doctors have been very clear that this is not the moment to test what I can do with my arm. It is the moment to protect the repair, allow the fractures to consolidate, and gradually learn what my shoulder and elbow are ready to give me.

When the time comes, I intend to return slowly and thoughtfully, beginning with a very limited number of existing clients by individual invitation.

I am not putting a date on that.

I have spent decades telling other people that healing cannot always be forced into our preferred timetable.

Apparently the universe has decided I should have some firsthand experience with my own advice.

Meanwhile, life at Koru Touch continues

This is something I want everyone to understand.

Koru Touch is not closed.

Greg is working, and the sanctuary is very much alive.

Massage, holistic facial work, bodywork and healing self-care sessions continue to be available with him.

If you have been thinking that you should stay away because Ray is injured, please don’t.

Come.

Let Greg take care of you.

Have the massage you’ve been postponing. Come in for a facial. Give yourself a few hours away from the noise of the world. Allow Koru Touch to continue being what we created it to be: a place to exhale, receive and remember yourself.

And, selfishly, there are three French Bulldogs who are beginning to wonder where everybody went.

They miss you.

Their nursing skills, however, have truly begun to reveal themselves, and apparently they have divided the household into shifts.

Because I still need to protect the arm and cannot safely have the dogs climbing over me during the night, I have temporarily relocated to the daybed upstairs. Beside me are their fluffy round beds, although the overnight assignment has become very specific.

Stillwater is my dedicated night nurse.

He settles in beside me and seems to understand that his job is simply to stay close, keep watch and make certain his patient remains where he belongs.

Tashi and Bridget, meanwhile, have recognized that there is another patient in this household who requires attention: the caregiver.

They have largely assigned themselves to Greg.

So while Stillwater takes the night shift with me, Tashi and Bridget are doing their part to look after the man who is looking after everyone else.

It seems we have accidentally developed a rather sophisticated French Bulldog nursing department.

The staffing ratios are excellent. The credentials remain questionable. But the love is impeccable.

An unexpected joy in being cared for

One of my favorite parts of all the help we have received has actually happened in the kitchen.

People have been helping us prepare the dogs’ food.

Those of you who know us know how much thought and care goes into feeding our animals. Having friends step into the kitchen and help wash, chop, prepare and portion their food has been an enormous practical gift to us.

But it has also become something unexpectedly joyful for me.

Even while I am temporarily unable to do much of the physical work myself, I can teach.

I can explain why we choose particular foods, how we prepare them and what we have learned over the years about feeding our dogs thoughtfully.

And if someone leaves our kitchen inspired to prepare something healthier for their own dog, if they choose to, then something beautiful has happened in the middle of all this inconvenience.

Care has moved in both directions.

Someone came to help us, and perhaps they went home with something that may help another little creature they love.

I treasure that.

For those who have asked, “How can we help?”

This question has been asked so many times that I want to answer it openly.

First, please know that you already are helping.

The meals that have appeared at our door have been extraordinary. The groceries, errands, chores, dog care and dog-food preparation, check-ins, rides, practical assistance, prayers, healing work and simple acts of friendship have carried us through days when ordinary life suddenly required far more hands than the two of us possessed.

Greg has been simultaneously husband, caregiver, business owner, practitioner, household manager and keeper of three French Bulldogs and one cat.

Every bit of help has mattered.

And for those who would like another tangible way to support us while I am unable to work, one of the kindest things you can do is simply continue supporting Koru Touch.

Come see Greg for a massage, facial or healing self-care session.

If your Laurel, OSEA, Shankara, Romany Botanicals or other favorite skincare is running low, let us know what you need. We have an extraordinary collection of beautiful products here, and we would much rather send you home with something you already love than have it sitting patiently on our shelves waiting for my arm to heal.

And if you know you will be coming back to Koru Touch in the future, a gift card is another wonderfully simple way to support the business now and enjoy that care later. Gift cards also make a beautiful way to introduce someone you love to Koru Touch.

Please don’t hear any of this as an obligation.

It isn’t.

Many of you have simply asked us what would actually be useful, and this is the answer:

Help us keep the heart of Koru Touch beating while I heal.

Book with Greg. Replenish your skincare. Purchase a gift card for yourself or someone you love. Tell someone about us.

Those ordinary acts of support are extraordinarily meaningful right now.

What I am learning

The strangest part of this experience may be discovering how difficult it is for someone accustomed to caring for others to become the person being cared for.

There is vulnerability in that.

There is also grace.

Food arriving at the door is grace.

Someone taking care of a chore before we even realize it needs doing is grace.

A friend standing in our kitchen learning how to prepare food for our dogs is grace.

A little cream French Bulldog choosing the fluffy bed beside my daybed each night, while his brother and sister keep watch over my caregiver, is grace.

A friend sitting quietly beside you is grace.

And every prayer, message, card, flower, healing intention and moment in which one of you has simply thought, I wonder how Ray and Greg are doing today, has been part of that same web of care.

In my last letter, I wrote:

Trust the body.
Accept the help.
Allow the healing.

I didn’t realize quite how much practice those three sentences were going to require.

But that remains the assignment.

The body knows something about rebuilding.

And perhaps healing is not simply returning to the person we were before something happened.

Perhaps it is allowing ourselves to become quiet enough to discover who we are on the other side of it.

For now, I am resting. I am healing. I am extraordinarily grateful that another surgery does not appear to be necessary. And I am allowing myself, perhaps more than ever before, to receive the love that surrounds us.

Koru Touch is still here.

Greg is here.

The dogs are definitely here.

And I am here too, healing one day, one bone and apparently one lesson in patience at a time.

Thank you for carrying us through this.

With enormous love and gratitude,

Ray
Koru Touch

An update from Ray: healing, gratitude, and what comes next at Koru Touch Click here for an update from Koru Touch!

🌿 HEALING IN PRESENCE 🌿

I received the most beautiful message from a guest after our time together at Koru Touch. I won’t share their words directly because their experience and privacy are sacred, but they expressed something that touched me deeply: an emotional release that had been waiting for a very long time, and the experience of feeling safe, seen, held, and somehow closer to home within themselves. 🙏✨

This is where I feel the healing arts become so much greater than simply choosing a treatment from a menu.

We cannot rush the nervous system. We cannot rush soft tissue. We cannot rush healing. The body has its own timeline and its own magnificent intelligence. 🌿

Within my studies and understanding of somatics and energy, I experience the joints as minor chakra centers. Physiologically, proprioception gives us that remarkable internal navigation—an awareness of where the body is in time and space. 🌀

Sometimes the invitation is simply to close the eyes, return to the breath, and listen.

When the outside world becomes quiet, the subconscious has an opportunity to communicate through sensation, imagery, emotion, memory, and that intuitive knowing that doesn’t always require words. ✨

For this particular gathering, we integrated Abdominal Collective Practice, Certified Esalen Massage, and a Colorpuncture Light Therapy Facial. 🤲🌈

But I don’t really experience these as three separate things anymore.

Through decades of study, touch, intuition, breathwork, and being fully present with the human beings who have trusted my hands, these modalities have begun to weave themselves together.

Perhaps that is what mastery means to me now.

Not knowing everything. Not counting years. But having enough experience to listen deeply and allow the work to become one language.

Hands. Breath. Intuition. Presence. Energy. Joy. 💚

I believe this is part of my mission in being of service to humanity—to hold a space where we can soften enough to reconnect with harmony, possibility, and true Self.

A guest came for a treatment.

What they described afterward was release, safety, recognition, and home.

That, to me, is ceremony. 🕊️🌿

People • Presence • Possibility

With love and gratitude,
Gregory Cartwright
Koru Touch 🌿

An update from Ray, what happens next at Koru Touch, and a request for a little light on Monday.

Dear Koru Touch family,

Life has a remarkable way of changing the plan.

On Tuesday, I was doing something completely ordinary: helping a longtime client and friend with a troublesome television remote. As I was leaving, I tripped on the sidewalk and had a very significant fall onto my right side.

A few seconds later, life looked rather different.

I spent the remainder of Tuesday and much of the night in the emergency department while the extent of my injuries gradually became clear. I fractured the proximal humerus at my right shoulder and sustained a significantly displaced fracture of the olecranon at my elbow. The elbow joint itself was also knocked out of alignment, requiring sedation and a closed reduction before my arm could be immobilized.

There was one particularly welcome piece of news. The shoulder itself remained in its socket.

Many of you know that this is the same shoulder that was extensively reconstructed at Duke approximately 20 years ago, so I was enormously grateful to learn that the previous reconstruction had held through such a substantial impact. At this point, the shoulder fracture is expected to heal without surgery.

The elbow, however, requires surgical repair.

On Monday, August 31, Dr. Christopher Tuohy will perform an open reduction and internal fixation of my right olecranon at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Davie Medical Center. I am scheduled to arrive at 11:30 a.m., with surgery to follow later that day. The procedure itself is expected to take approximately two hours, and if everything goes according to plan, I should be able to come home afterward.

What this means for my clients

For the time being, I am taking a medical leave from hairdressing and Colorpuncture.

Although I am fortunate to be left-handed and this is my right arm, anyone who has watched me work knows that neither hairdressing nor Colorpuncture is particularly interested in becoming a one-armed profession.

I don’t yet know exactly when I will return.

Rather than continually moving appointments farther into the future, we have taken my appointment availability offline while we learn what surgery, healing and rehabilitation are going to require.

For those of you whose appointments are being canceled, you have not lost your place with me. I fully intend to return to the work I love.

At the same time, I recognize that hair continues to grow whether one’s hairdresser has broken his elbow or not.

Many of you have already asked me, “Who should I see?”

For some clients, I have specific thoughts and am addressing those individually. For everyone else, I don’t want to casually hand you a name simply because I feel obligated to produce one.

Please go to the person who calls to you. Ask friends whose hair you admire. Look around. Trust your instincts. If someone feels like the right person to care for you during this intermission, go see them.

You are not cheating on me. 😂

After decades together, I think our relationships can survive another hairdresser touching your head.

And yes, realistically, many of you will probably need to see someone else for a while. My hope is simply that you find someone talented and kind who takes good care of you until I can welcome you back into my chair.

Koru Touch is still here

There is another piece of this that I don’t want to get lost.

My medical leave does not mean that you have to put your own self-care on hold.

Greg is continuing his work at Koru Touch.

For those of you who have been receiving facial work from me, Greg is completely capable of performing those treatments. He is a licensed massage and bodywork therapist and esthetician, and he brings his own extraordinary hands and decades of experience to that work.

He has also been trained to incorporate elements of Colorpuncture into his treatments.

It won’t be a replacement for a full Colorpuncture session with me, nor would I want to pretend that it is. But light and color can absolutely become part of the care he offers when appropriate.

So if you had time carved out on your calendar to come to Koru Touch and suddenly find that your appointment with me has disappeared, perhaps don’t automatically give that time back to the rest of the world.

You might still come through our door.

Have a facial. Have a massage. Rest on a treatment table. Let someone take care of you for a change.

I am apparently being given an intensive course in that last one myself.

Greg and I would both love for Koru Touch to remain a place where you can exhale, receive and take care of yourself while I heal.

A request for Monday

Koru Touch has always been home to an extraordinary collection of healers, intuitives, physicians, nurses, therapists, bodyworkers, lightworkers, meditators, Reiki practitioners, Colorpuncture people and wonderfully loving humans of every description.

So I would like to ask something of you.

Beginning around noon on Monday, August 31, if I cross your mind, please send some of that goodness in our direction.

There is no need to watch the clock or try to catch the precise moment surgery begins. Hospital schedules have their own relationship with time.

Send light. Prayer. Color. Reiki. Sound. Loving intention. Peaceful thoughts. Or simply stop for a moment and hold us in your heart.

Please include Greg and our family, who are walking through this with me.

And I would especially love for you to include Dr. Christopher Tuohy and the entire surgical team.

Clear minds. Steady hands. Good judgment. Peaceful hearts. And a beautifully uneventful day in the operating room.

Rather than trying to direct the outcome, my intention is simply to surround that room with clarity, wisdom, compassion and love, and then allow the people who have trained for this work to do it beautifully.

And to my surprisingly substantial collection of physician, nurse, hospital administrator, therapist and other medical clients:

If any of you happen to be having dinner with Dr. Tuohy Sunday night, please send him home early. No second bottle of w**e. I would like my surgeon well rested Monday morning. 😂

Consider that your contribution to my preoperative protocol.

And finally, thank you

The amount of love that has reached Greg and me in only a few days has been extraordinary.

People have brought food, cared for our dogs, checked on Greg, helped us navigate the medical system, offered professional expertise, sent prayers and healing work, and simply reminded us that we are surrounded by an extraordinary community.

I have spent much of my life thinking about healing as something larger than fixing what is broken.

Healing asks us to listen.

It asks us to become present to what is actually happening rather than what we thought was supposed to happen.

And sometimes it asks the person accustomed to providing the care to lie down, be quiet and receive some.

Apparently, this particular lesson has arrived with plates and screws.

So I am listening.

Koru Touch remains very much alive. Greg is here. I am still here, albeit temporarily accessorized with an impressive amount of orthopedic material.

Thank you for giving me the space to heal properly. Thank you for caring for Greg as well as for me. Thank you for continuing to support Koru Touch. And thank you for being part of this strange, beautiful community we have built together over so many years.

I fully intend to return.

For now, I am going to practice what I have spent so many years asking others to do:

Trust the body.
Accept the help.
Allow the healing.

With enormous love and gratitude,

Ray
Koru Touch

A Personal Note from Ray: An Unexpected Healing Journey Click here for an update from Koru Touch!

🌵✨ BRIGHTEN RETURNS — A SEASONAL OFFERING FROM Laurel Skin

At Koru Touch, we believe the changing seasons ask us to listen differently to our skin.

Late summer brings its own conversation: prolonged sunlight, heat, humidity, outdoor living — and a complexion that has traveled through all of it with us. ☀️🌿

This is precisely when we welcome the seasonal return of Laurel Skin’s Brighten Compound — Resin + Rhizome.

Brighten is not simply another serum.

Laurel’s Compounds are highly concentrated whole-plant preparations designed to address specific skin imbalances. Brighten was created particularly for hyperpigmentation and sun-damaged skin, bringing together five remarkable botanical allies: Creosote, Licorice, Uva Ursi, Frankincense and Turmeric.

🌵 Creosote especially captures our attention.

This resinous desert shrub has adapted to environments of tremendous heat and solar exposure. Laurel highlights its antioxidant constituent NDGA for helping protect against lipid oxidation and free-radical damage while supporting the skin’s resilience to intense UV exposure.

There is a beautiful lesson here.

Some of nature’s most resilient plants do not merely survive challenging environments.

They flower within them. 🌼

This is the kind of whole-plant intelligence that inspires our work at Koru Touch.

We don't view skincare simply as correcting something that has gone “wrong.” We look at the complexion as a living landscape — responding continuously to season, environment, hydration, nourishment, stress, rest and the elements.

And then we ask:

Which botanical allies would best support this landscape now? 🌿

Brighten Compound offers one beautiful answer for this moment in the season.

Just 1–2 drops are applied to damp skin following a generous mist of Hydrating Elixir, then followed with Serum and/or Balm — allowing this concentrated plant preparation to become part of a complete Laurel ritual.

✨ BRING THE RITUAL HOME

Brighten Compound and our curated Laurel Skin collection are available through the Koru Touch online shop, with convenient curbside pickup and national shipping.

🌿 OR LET US CARE FOR YOU

If summer has left your complexion feeling beautifully sun-kissed in all regards, we invite you to experience a Laurel Holistic Facial Ritual at Koru Touch.

Rather than following a one-size-fits-all facial, we meet the skin where the season has brought it — allowing whole plants, intentional touch and thoughtful observation to guide the ritual.
Come journey with us through the never-ending greatness of Laurel’s alchemy, whole-plant formulations and holistic code for great living.

Because sometimes the most beautiful approach to skincare is simply allowing:

🌿 Nature to meet nature.

Shop + Book Online: www.korutouch.com


Photo Credit Laurel Skin

🌿🦋 THE OLD MAP SAID: CLEANSE. TONE. TREAT. MOISTURIZE.

But what happens when the map itself changes?

For generations, toner occupied an established position within skincare and the classical European facial.

Our relationship with Laurel Skin has invited us to consider something much larger:

Perhaps toner isn’t a category waiting for a better replacement. Perhaps it belongs to a skincare paradigm whose purpose has been completed.

Laurel Whole Plant Skincare offers another orientation entirely.

Rather than dissecting the skin into individual concerns and searching for one ingredient or “hero product” to conquer each problem, Laurel brings us back into the intelligence of relationship and synergy.

🌱 Plants support plants.

🌿 Ingredients support one another within thoughtfully composed formulations.

💧 The Hydrating Elixir prepares the skin to receive.

✨ Serums, Balms, Compounds and the greater Laurel range continue that botanical conversation.

👐 And the ritual of application itself mirrors the synergistic intelligence within the formulations.

The brilliance isn’t located in one bottle.

It lives within the relationships between them.

In Gregory’s newest Koru Touch blog, this botanical philosophy opens into an even larger exploration of skincare, memory, ritual and radiance.

Through his personal spiritual lens, Gregory also considers whether our renewed relationship with plants and innate intelligence reflects something larger unfolding in this moment—a movement toward what he experiences as a Golden Age, with messengers appearing to help us remember another way.

For Gregory, Laurel is one of those messengers.

Her language is whole plants.
Her map is synergy.
Her medium is the skin.
Her invitation is radiance.

🦋 The Forgotten Language of Skin begins with an Elixir.

But what waits inside is an entirely different conversation about how we understand, listen to and care for the skin.

Read the complete blog:

https://www.korutouch.com/s/stories/the-forgotten-language-of-skin

Welcome to whole-plant synergy.

Welcome home to your radiance.

We welcome you into a treatment room✨ of all possibility and greatness at Koru Touch🌀Book your “Laurel Holistic Facial Ritual” today online❤️