Does Gua Sha Facial Massage Really Work?

• Post author  By Kayvan
• Post date  May 9, 2022
•  No Comments on Does Gua Sha Facial Massage Really Work?

What is Gua Sha? 

The Chinese characters for Gua Sha are Gua 刮, which literally means to shave (the lines on the right side of the character are a picture of a blade) or to scrape, and Sha 痧, which contains the character for “sand”, and is the name of the characteristic small sand-like marks that Gua Sha aims to produce in order to provoke the body’s natural healing response. These marks are called petechiae in modern medicine, and are sometimes confused with bruises, but they are more like a rash than a bruise and do not hurt when pressed. 

In East Asia, Gua Sha is mainly a home remedy, and is used for colds, flu, headache, body pain, fever or chills, and cough. It is usually performed on the back, neck, shoulders and chest. It can also be performed on areas of the limbs that have thick muscle. Though special Gua Sha tools can be purchased inexpensively, East Asian families often use the lids of food jars, which work well and they are easily available in any kitchen and the edges are not sharp. Although the edges are not sharp, oil is usually applied to the skin first, in order to prevent excessive pulling or dragging of the skin, which can be uncomfortable. 

Scraping is not the only method of producing the Sha rash, and especially in Hong Kong there is a method called Pai Da 拍打 which means “patting” or “slapping”. This is sometimes done with flexible rods and sometimes by patting or slapping quite hard with the flat of the hand. This method can be considerably more painful than the scraping method however, and is thus unlikely to become popular outside China. Yet another method of producing the healing effect of the Sha rash is by cupping. Suction cupping sets can be purchased extremely cheaply on the internet (for $10-$15), they last forever unless they are stepped on, and require almost no skill to apply, and are safe and usually completely painless. 

According to Chinese Medicine, cupping and Gua Sha on theback can be used to drain the heat / inflammation that causes acne, unlike the modern derivative (“facial Gua Sha”) below. It seems intuitively correct that since acne is usually on the face, we should apply the treatment to the face, but Chinese Medicine is not always intuitive and often applies treatment in one place (in this case the back) to address problems elsewhere in the body (in this case the face). 

What is Facial Gua Sha Massage? 

In recent years, something called “Facial Gua Sha” has become very popular, but this is actually more similar to massage than Gua Sha, since not enough pressure is applied to produce the Sha rash, and if it were, it would leave bruise-like marks on the face for several days, which would obviously be cosmetically unacceptable. Therefore this must be considered a modern derivative rather than a traditional practice. 

Whether it is actually likely to bring about any benefit is another matter though, since Gua Sha requires that the rash is produced in order to produce the healing effect and “Facial Gua Sha” deliberately avoids producing it. To the extent that it is promoting an unproven modern method which claims legitimacy from an ancient practice, it may well be psychologically harmful because it is likely to raise unrealistic expectations of facial rejuvenation and thereby to cause or to exacerbate body image disorders. 

In the same way that Facial Gua Sha, so-called, is really just a form of face massage, face yoga stretches seem to be just ordinary facial muscle stretches, and whether they are an authentic yoga practice I have my doubts, but I am not qualified to say, as my expertise is in Chinese Medicine and Chinese Yoga / Taichi / Qigong, which is different to Indian Yoga. As for face-rollers, however useful they may be, they are not definitely not Gua Sha and the use of rose quartz and jade etc are not a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, but are apparently an amalgam of contemporary “crystal healing” with a simple massage tool.  

So the answer to the question posed above – does Gua Sha Facial Massage really work? is …No. Gua Sha Facial Massage is not Gua Sha at all, since it does not produce a rash. So if you take out the “Gua Sha”, what are you left with? … Facial Massage. What is special about this facial massage? Absolutely nothing, so save yourself some money and massage your face with the tools that nature made – your own two hands. Now whether massage alone produces significant cosmetic improvement in the appearance of the skin, I somewhat doubt, unless it is combined with body acupuncture, or moxa, or Chinese Herbal Medicine. 

There are too many practitioners out there making extravagant claims for cosmetic acupuncture, while only applying needles to the face and not elsewhere on the body, in accordance with Chinese Medicine Theory, in order to improve overall circulation. Applying needles only on the face requires no skill and is not Chinese Medicine and the exorbitant prices that are often charged for it are in inverse proportion to the skill required – ie it is no better than a face massage that you can do yourself, for free.