Everybody loves a quick fix and if it’s easy and affordable, all the better. A seemingly recent trend that in fact has been around for years is face taping as an accessible alternative to Botox.
If you’ve managed to ignore or avoid all knowledge of face taping, it is what it says it is, the practice of applying sticky tape to areas that traditionally have the most furrows, such as forehead, the nasolabial ‘marionette’ lines from noses to the mouth and the ‘11’ lines between the brows.
The idea is that by immobilising the muscles with tape, and doing it overnight as you sleep and doing it consistently, the muscles will move less and also ‘learn’ to move less, thus reducing wrinkles. You can very easily find all sorts of tape designed for this purpose, and glowing endorsements, but does it really work?
“While face taping may temporarily soften the appearance of fine lines by physically immobilising the skin, there’s no scientific evidence that it has any long-term anti-ageing benefit,” says Dr Caitriona Ryan, co-founder of the Institute of Dermatologists. “In fact, repeated taping can irritate the skin or even cause contact dermatitis. Unlike Botox, which works by temporarily blocking the nerve signals to overactive muscle to relax them for months, tape cannot impact muscle movement in a meaningful or lasting way.”
What about gua sha tools or face yoga exercises, can they make a meaningful difference?
Gua sha tools are flat, smooth devices, curved to fit the contours of the face and made of bone, stone or even metal. Originating in traditional Chinese medicine, you drag or ‘scrape’ — though it’s not supposed to hurt — the gua sha across the face to improve circulation and blood flow. Over time, some suggest, muscle tone can be impro...
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