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What exactly is gua sha and how does it benefit the skin? Our beauty industry experts answer questions about every aspect of running a successful salon or spa business.
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Gua sha is a technique that has been performed by the Chinese for thousands of years and is used for body pain, beauty treatments and general health.
Gua means to scrape, and sha means redness. This modality has become popular in the beauty industry to firm and lift the skin.
You can use specific tools for gua sha on the face, from buffalo horn to jade or rose quartz, to stainless steel. My favourite is rose quartz. Gua sha tools also come in a variety of shapes, to focus on different areas.
Unlike body gua sha, which creates lots of redness by using firm pressure, facial gua sha needs much less pressure. An experienced therapist will adjust the pressure, as well as the angle of the tool, for different areas of the face, neck and décolleté.
As a therapist, the greater your awareness of what’s beneath the skin, the more profound your skin treatments can be as a whole. The dermis is responsible for oxygen and nutrient supply, but it’s also where cellular waste is disposed, and if the waste is not removed timeously, it can take up residence in the space where nutrients and oxygen belong. Our Qi (i.e. energy) and lymph become stagnant for many reasons – quality and quantity of sleep, diet, breathing, emotions, stress and tension. That stagnation leads to this accumulation of cellular waste, as well as stored energy, causing wrinkles, spots and sagging skin. Using gua sha in a facial treatment can greatly improve how the skin breathes and is able to excrete toxins, resulting in clearer, plumper skin.
Gua sha works by breaking up adhesions and fascia dysfunction and stimulating the Qi. You can feel these fascial dysfunctions easier with a gua sha tool than with your hands. In addition to gua sha in a facial treatment, manual lymphatic drainage using the hands, or face cups, can boost this cleansing, energising and lifting effect in the skin. Including acupressure massage in facials boosts the correlating organs, which may also help to clear and energise the skin in those areas.
Your gua sha treatment can be customised to your client’s needs in addition to a general protocol. Think of the head and neck as a funnel. When you open the pathways of the neck and jaw, everything can filter down. You’ll start every gua sha treatment by stimulating the occipital and clavicle terminus. Then you can use gua sha for lifting and sculpting, in which case you’ll work upwards and outwards before gently draining the lymph downwards.
Clients can also use gua sha at home in between treatments. PB
Louise Pitot is the founder of Body Orchestra, which is centred on helping women live agelessly. Pitot combines organic beauty and face yoga with Eating Psychology and Functional Medicine coaching.
