When I was a little kid, I spent many hot summers at my grandma’s house in the country. There are no special cooling tools in the summer in the countryside, especially in the Chinese countryside more than ten years ago, there were only a squeaky electric fan and a few fans made of pu leaves. The hot temperature was distracting amid the cicada’s singing, and I often felt sick, weak and nauseous. Normally, my grandma would check on my health, touch my forehead, look at my tongue, etc. Then she would take a ceramic spoon from the cupboard and press and pull along the nape of my neck and back until red marks appeared.
She said I was suffering from heat stroke and this would relieve the symptoms of heat stroke. is that useful? All I really remember is being ashamed because the bruises were like misplaced hickeys. My biggest takeaway: It hurts like hell—it hurts to this day, and when I hear the word Gua Sha—often translated as “scraping” in English—my first reaction is to flinch.
And when I see the gua sha hashtag going viral on Instagram, it’s hard for me to imagine it has any connection to facial beauty. Because in my subconscious it was just red scars and pain that preceded the scars. In these Instagram pictures, there are just faces that look brand new after use, missing the joints that have lost their blood due to exertion. Tools have also transformed from spoons and the like to delicate, beautiful, crystal-made gua sha boards and face rollers.
Why haven’t I heard about the effect of Gua Sha on facial beauty until recently? Is it true that many billboards have been used for facial beauty since ancient times? “No, it’s fake, it’s just because of marketing,” said Dr. Deng, who has more than 20 years of clinical experience in traditional Chinese medicine. “Gua sha was originally used in two situations: sudden, immediate, sudden collapse of the body from heatstroke, and seasonal illnesses, such as the flu.” Zhang went on to describe how traditionally gua sha can be performed with whatever tools are at hand—animals Bones or horns, spoons.
“The beauty effect of gua sha therapy has been developed in recent years,” Dr. Deng explained. “We all know (maybe) that Gua Sha is to open up the stagnant “Qi and blood” in the human body to achieve the purpose of treatment, and awaken the body’s defense mechanism to avoid the intrusion of viruses. Many people’s facial problems are mostly due to Qi and blood Facial dullness caused by blood stasis, pimples and pimples caused by oil accumulation. So from this perspective, gua sha does have a certain effect on facial beauty.”
The requirements for facial gua sha do not seem to be as much as those for body gua sha. Dr. Deng simply asked me to fill out a form, which contained some basic health information about me. Then she will observe the condition of my face and see if I can do gua sha.
The bespoke experience begins with an edible honey and berry mask prepared on-site by Dr Deng — “your skin loves it,” she says as she rubs it in — and then includes a deeply relaxing Gua Sha interlude, using cooling spoons and stone tools for various shapes and size.
When I glimpsed my post-treatment self, my face was bright and clean, with natural lines framing the angle of my jaw and the planes of my cheeks, as if resculpted. “You can do it once a week,” says Dr. Tang, who talks about a big part of guasha’s 21st-century virality: Unlike Botox, the results can be replicated at home. Deng emphasized that family gua sha enthusiasts should not ignore the neck. “Flick up,” she instructs, moving her gua sha tool from ear to ear and around the base of the skull to stimulate the muscles that connect the back of the head to the “frontal crease.” And you don’t need to prepare too many things, just a gua sha tool, it is recommended to use stainless steel or crystal, plus your favorite daily skin care product as a lubricant.
“It’s not just a treatment,” Dr. Tang said. “People’s lives are too fast-paced and impetuous now. That is to say, there is an excess of ‘Yang Qi’. With the advent of social media, ‘Yang Qi’ has been overstimulated to such an extent, while ‘Yin Qi’ has not been nourished. Gua Sha can properly weaken us The yang energy in the body can breed yin, so as to achieve the result of the balance of yin and yang.”
