Let’s face it

One of my latest health interests is face yoga/massage and fascia work in order to look younger and healthier.

I came to this stuff through an exhaustive investigation into tongue tie releases, mouth breathing, tongue position, airways and myofunctional ideas - which then led to learn about “mewing” and general looksmaxxing. Please go down the Youtube rabbit hole if it sounds interesting.

This is a whole new conversation that appears to have happened in the last ten years, and is certainly an improvement from medicalised face augmentation; empowering people to look after their faces, tongues, airways and posture without costly and toxic injections or procedures.

However, because it’s new, it’s the Wild West out there in terms of quality information.

In my experience, while myofunctional practitioners, and those making a living out of tongue tie release ,make a lot of sense and are definitely helping people - they also run the risk of overdiagnosing every bodily issue as related to tongue tie, jaw position etc. And the occasional person isn’t happy with the results. The industry is unregulated in Australia currently, so doing your own research and thinking about whether this is best thing for your own body is important too.

Same with looksmaxxing, where people are creating their own techniques like thumbpulling (pushing up hard into the palate to create a better looking face) and showing very impressive before and after pics. It works, but maybe we don’t know quite enough about it yet, so I’d tread carefully.

However, researching all these concepts (or perhaps the algorithm that knows my age) has led me to YouTubers talking about face yoga and reversing the effects of ageing. A lot of them say facial ageing is not actually ageing, but muscle tension and stored emotions (who knew?).

And I love this stuff.

I had a face roller, which I broke by going too hard. I also broke a standard looking guasha (a smooth-edged jade tool) by smashing it. But I have now purchased a guasha with ‘teeth’ which I absolutely love - based on the advice of Sage Facial Tension Release.

This works even better for the fascia if you heat it up under the hot tap first, go slow and work in alignment with the muscles of the face. And it feels so nice.

Facial exercises also feature heavily with these content creators, and can be hit and miss I find. Personally I go hard with cheek exercises and trying to set my face posture in an upwards V rather than downwards. Trinh Georg (pictured below) has the greatest cheeks I have ever seen so I’m currently giving her methods a go.

I also now massage my whole scalp, by pressing down firmly and trying to move the skin over the scalp - rather than friction-rubbing the hair - in order to create blood flow for hair growth and work the web of head muscles which in turn helps the face muscles to improve.

The drainage points of the face and neck are also key for reducing inflammation and puffiness. I quite like this clip by Soloma as I can feel actual draining happening in the back of my nose and throat when I work the three points she suggests.

Once you start this stuff its actually amazing how much tension, and how many truly stiff and sore spots you can find in the head, face and neck - and freeing them feels incredible - although can bring up emotions (makes sense) and feel quite icky at the time.

All in all, there is a lot of good information out there for those who want to improve their face, posture, lymph drainage, eye bags, droopy cheeks, jowls, saggy neck, forehead and eye wrinkles - and who wouldn’t really? Just writing some of those words depresses me.

It’s a practice where you have to be consistent, and make it a part of your routine. But it’s a very self loving thing to do and a nice way to unwind at the end of the day.

I have only been doing this stuff for a couple of months, but have definitely improved the look of my face in a way I like. The results are not dramatic yet, but that’s ok because I like the practice and I’m happy to keep going.

Another good tip I picked up from Tracy Campoli, who speaks about looking after yourself in middle age, is to use scar tape on the 11 lines between the eyebrows. This one works so well in combination with releasing the head muscles. One night with a teeny piece of scar tape between the eyes immediately reduces the 11s.

Here is a list of some of the videos I like:

Beyond a basic gua sha routine - Sage Facial Tension Release.

Facial exercise routine for a natural face lift - Trinh Georg.

Watch me lift and snatch my saggy jowls in 1 minute - Sadie Nardini.

Here is my guasha.

This type of brush thing seems to get a lot of attention for moving the fascia really well, and lifting the face up, but I haven’t tried it yet. The advertising looks pretty impressive, but the prices vary a lot.

I also use beef tallow balm (haven’t worked out a brand I love yet) which seems to be really great for thin eye skin, but can be bit much as a daily moisturiser. It’s a little greasier than normal moisturisers, but that makes it great for face massage and gliding the guasha across the skin successfully. Liquid coconut oil would be my next choice for guashing, although today I have used Shea butter.

Hope this is interesting and helpful. Happy guashing!