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Acupuncture facial treatment
I don’t exactly consider myself a skincare savant (what are AHAs again?), but I know just enough where a trip to Sephora doesn’t feel like some sort of retail battlefield in which I uncontrollably lob my wallet at every shiny, overpromising object that lines my path. As a thirtysomething woman, I’ve learned to keep my expectations in check when it comes to too-good-to-be-true serums and unicorn eye creams. We’ve all accepted that anti-aging miracles are found in a healthier lifestyle or some sort of cosmetic procedure.
But–and hear me out here—what if there was something out there with good-for-you qualities that emulated the look and feel of a skin-smoothing treatment, without the invasiveness or $$$? I’d recently gone down a wormhole of articles about “acu-facial” treatments—an acupuncture facial that results in a lifted complexion—and how, worst case scenario, you leave feeling more relaxed and best, your skin exudes a sort of collagen-forward radiance. I reasoned that I do little in the Treat Yo’Self department these days, and set up an appointment with a local acupuncturist to see what the buzz was all about.
Jessica Maynard, L.Ac, MAcOM, walked me back to a bright and airy treatment room where we discussed family history and overall health concerns as she checked my pulse and tongue. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, she explained, it’s thought that different areas of the tongue reflect the health of primary organs. Here I thought we’d be taking a Sharpie to my fine lines and getting down to business (kidding!) but, as it turns out, your skin is a mirror of internal health. And when things go awry it, well, shows.
Threaded and Grounded
As I reclined on the exam-table-spa-bed, Jessica slowly and very studiously circled me, needles in hand, determining where they’d be administered. A couple went into my lower calves and the tops of my feet—areas tied back to our GI tract. “This pressure point is known as Spleen 6 and it aids in digestive issues,” she said. “It’s connected to the Earth element; it’s grounding and nourishing at the same time.” Every season, she said, has a different energy to it. We’re familiar with the four elements but in Chinese Medicine, there are five: wood, fire, metal, water, and Earth. Our digestive organs are associated with the Earth elements so when they get run down, we experience digestive issues, food allergies, carb cravings, and weight gain.
Within minutes, my stomach began making some pretty audible (but harmless) whooshing sounds. Whatever she was doing, I thought, was drawing a real, physical response. A promising start.
She made her way over to my face, asking me to identify the parts I wanted to focus on. “You tell me what you want me to work on or where we see visible traces of collagen breaking down, and then I’ll insert them into those creases,” she said. Using my pretend Sharpie, I gestured toward my smile lines and that annoying crinkle between the eyes. She “threaded” the needles in those areas–meaning the needles were pushed in a little further than the ones on my feet and calves. I felt a slight pinch, but it was fleeting.
Micro-injuries=Macro-results
Her needlework didn’t stop there, however—I found myself wearing a crown of them. Needles on the top of my head, needles surrounding my hair and jawline. Jessica would massage my skin upward and “hold” it tautly in place as she inserted the needles. “We’re literally pulling from the jawline and then up through the cheeks,” she said, gently kneading the sides of my face. “From there, I take the needles and ‘pin’ into the temporal muscle.”
She explained that the massaging stimulates circulation which, in turn, stimulates collagen production. And not only that, but we experience a histamine response at the sight of the needles. A compound gets released by our cells in response to injury or inflammatory reactions, which causes capillaries to dilate and muscles to contract.
The needle pricks are like a “tiny, tiny injury that sends a signal to your skin’s repair mechanisms to get to work,” she said. I grimaced when we talked about “micro-injuries,” wondering if I would leave the appointment with my face looking like a thimble. But to my surprise, there was zero evidence that I had 20+ needles in and around my head.
“There are people that come in that are skeptical right off the bat, but they don’t know what else to do and feel like they don’t have anything to lose,” Jessica said. “I actually love working with people like that because although our field still lacks a lot of scientific research, we can watch what the body is doing.”
It takes about 12 treatments scheduled pretty close together in order to see best results. Jessica recommended doing 2-3 every week for the first month, and then slowly tapering off from there. It only took one treatment in order for me to become a believer—I felt like I finally grasped that elusive “glow” all those loudly-designed skincare products (usually falsely) boast.
Not only was my make-up routine significantly pared down for the following two weeks, but my skincare regimen gained a new step. I left my appointment with five future treatments scheduled and newfound, fresh-faced confidence. Not bad for a skincare skeptic.
Jessica practices out of Ascent Acupuncture and charges $125 for first-timers (allot 90-120 minutes). Follow-up treatments are $75 and last from 60-90 minutes.
