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In China, gua sha has been practiced for centuries as a way to improve the skin’s tone and texture and erase the signs of aging naturally — is it time to start your own practice?
LET’S SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT — gua sha (pronounced “gwa shah”) has always been popular, it’s just that the Western world and wellness industry are only cottoning on to it now. This 700-plus-year-old practice is rooted firmly in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and can be found in medical texts dating as far back as the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). So why the sudden interest? “Selfcare across the board is trending and people are participating in skin care routines at younger ages, 30 january/february 2022 marin living.
largely because of social media,” says Gianna De La Torre, L.Ac., co-founder of Wildling (www.wildling.com), a California-based brand specializing in gua sha products. “Gua” comes from the Chinese word for scraping and “sha” refers to the purple or red spots, known as petechiae, that appear on the body as a result of the scraping (a more gentle approach is taken on the face so petechiae is not an expected effect). While gua sha can be done all over the body to stimulate blood flow, release toxins,
help with lymphatic drainage and more, for our purposes we are going to focus on gua sha for the face. The scraping is done with a flat stone that has both rounded and straight edges. The tool is moved in various patterns all over the face, and the practice is meant to be a slow, almost meditative endeavor. While you can find these stones made of materials like rose quartz and jade, Wildling uses the traditional Bian stone. “Bian stone is one of the original pillars of Chinese medicine; it was one of the OG healing
Courtesy of Wildling
By Casey Gillespie
