For context, it is best to know that gua sha is just not a brand new apply and its origins don’t have anything to do with aesthetics. “Gua sha is an historical Chinese language drugs apply that goes again centuries,” Sandra Chiu, an authorized acupuncturist, herbalist, and conventional Chinese language drugs practitioner primarily based in Brooklyn, tells me. “It’s at the start a therapeutic method used to alleviate ache and strengthen the immune system.” Stephanie Zheng, a licensed esthetician primarily based in New York Metropolis and founding father of Mount Lai, a gua sha model rooted in conventional Chinese language drugs, elaborates: “Gua sha loosely interprets as ‘to scrape’ in Chinese language and is the apply of utilizing a flat instrument in opposition to the pores and skin to focus on stagnation and assist restore the stream of qi. Qi is vitality power within the physique and has an in depth relationship with blood stream.” Right now, gua sha stays “an vital modality” that conventional Chinese language drugs practitioners use for the therapy of ache and to help the immune system, in accordance with Chiu.
The apply wasn’t used on the face till lately and, even then, the supposed use of facial gua sha is to not erase a double chin or to slim the face by any means. “Facial gua sha is a comparatively new ‘beauty’ therapy derived from conventional gua sha,” Chiu says. “It’s a gentler, softer variation that improves blood circulation, releases extra muscle stress, and smooths fascia” (the connective tissue that primarily holds all of your muscle fibers, bones, blood vessels, and so forth., collectively). “The purpose continues to be to focus on stagnation and restore the stream of qi for wholesome pores and skin and wholesome tissue,” Zheng concurs.
Western tradition kind of took that idea and threw it out the window in favor of strategies that appear to offer extra drastic visible outcomes at the price of muddling the intentions and skills of conventional gua sha. On our facet of the world, the apply has been broadly lumped along with lymphatic drainage, which Chiu credit to the West’s cultural appropriation of the apply. Whereas the 2 are related in some ways, they don’t seem to be the identical. “The concept gua sha is a lymphatic drainage apply comes largely from estheticians, Western MDs, and influencers who interpreted gua sha by way of that lens,” Chiu clarifies. “Calling gua sha a lymphatic drainage method is type of like calling yoga a sort of Pilates as a result of they each stretch the physique.”
If you apply that perspective to TikTok, it is clear to see how individuals on the app bought wrapped up in the concept gua sha can and/or ought to be used as a instrument for double chin discount and common facial slimming — lymphatic drainage is definitely supposed to reduce swelling and puffiness, in any case. However within the case of gua sha, the subtly sculpted look of the face is merely a facet impact of improved circulation and the discharge of stress within the chin, neck, and jaw. “Stagnation can appear like extra fluid buildup within the face, which gua sha may also help with, leading to much less puffiness or extra outlined facial options,” Zheng explains. Connecticut-based, board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, agrees: “Gua sha may also help to shift fluid from one space to a different,” she explains, likening the shift of inside fluids towards the lymphatic nodes to pushing water towards a drain utilizing a mop or broom. “It could enhance circulation, elevating radiance.”