Anti-aging: how to rejuvenate without surgery?

Gua sha, jade roller: the new tools in vogue

Gua sha, rollers and other massage mushrooms can now be found both at Sephora and in dedicated stores. These tools have been used for a very long time in Asian medicine and care.

• The Jade Scroll was used in China by the empresses to preserve the beauty of their skin. A beauty detox tool, it improves the radiance of the face and the skin texture, reduces facial tension, dark circles and puffiness, stimulates blood circulation and stimulates collagen synthesis. On the other hand, it has no muscular action.
• The gua sha is a flat heart-shaped tool. From traditional Chinese medicine, the technique consists of scraping the skin, the word “gua” meaning “scratching” and “sha”, “toxins”.

In aesthetics, facial massage with this tool adapts ancestral scraping techniques to work deep tissues, tone and lift facial muscles. At the body level, gua sha massage gently stimulates points that lie along meridians and energy lines, and works on lymphatic circulation to drain, evacuate toxins and stimulate blood circulation.

>> How to use them? On the face, it can be used flat, to activate the circulation and detoxify the lymph, as with the roller, or on the edge, forming a 90 ° angle with the face, to work the muscles, catch the fiber muscle, lift and tone it. It then has a deep muscular and anti-aging action. Be careful, among these tools, the cheapest are plastic or reconstituted stone. We prefer those made of real stone, because we associate them with energetic and specific benefits to the skin (see our slideshow).

Anti-aging yoga: to train the facial muscles

Here, it is not only a question of massaging, but of training the facial muscles as one does in a workout to maintain his body. Our face consists of 57 muscles, some of which are deep and support the skin while contouring the face. However, two-thirds are never solicited by our facial expressions. While these exercises often look like grimaces, there is nothing anecdotal about them. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that after 20 weeks, participants aged 40 to 65 who performed facial exercises every day appeared to have looked 3 years younger on average!

>> How to practice? The eyes appear larger, the cheeks fuller, the corners of the lips go back up … But like any sport, for facial yoga to be effective, it must be practiced 15 to 20 minutes every day at the beginning, then 2 or 3 times a week for maintenance. Want to get started? Sylvie Lefranc, concept specialist in France, has created a dedicated YouTube channel, Face Yoga.

Self-massages: to stimulate microcirculation

It has been known for a long time that the way of applying the products maximizes the effects. But the benefits of massage – including the face – are not limited to the skin, they affect the entire organism.

Massage – and self-massage – boosts, tones, purifies and relaxes at the same time. It helps to stimulate microcirculation, and therefore to have a pretty complexion, and delays the appearance of signs of aging.

>> How to practice? The ideal would be to practice it every day for a few minutes, when removing make-up for example. Because a facial massage is performed on perfectly clean skin. We can thus perform tapping with the fingertips, so-called Jacquet pinching, quickly and deeply with the thumb and forefinger, perpendicular to the wrinkle or the relaxed area, smoothing and stretching with the palms of the hands or the fleshy part under the thumb, slow draining movements. The pressure should be firm without being strong, because the skin of the face is quite sensitive.

Light therapy: to stimulate cells

Light therapy uses LEDs of different colors (and different wavelengths) to treat wrinkles, lack of radiance or loss of firmness. Used in the offices of dermatologists and aesthetic doctors as a complement to procedures, they are now available at home with what are called “medical devices”, obviously less powerful, but effective if used daily over an exposure time of 2-3 minutes. LEDs act by photobiomodulation by sending a message to the cell which stimulates it and induces a reaction on its part.

>> What color for what benefits? These devices, with preset programs, combine several wavelengths. Red light has an anti-inflammatory effect, promotes collagen production and healing, and is even said to depigment. The yellow light improves blood and lymphatic circulation and acts on redness. Green light, absorbed by pigment spots, helps to lighten them and beautifies the complexion in general.

Adaptation for the home of the Cellu M6, this device with multiple programs includes lift heads that stimulate, through small valves, the production of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid.

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