Gua Sha Weekend Recovery

Aug 1

Don’t get us wrong, we love to indulge on our time off. Weekends can be a time to relax, enjoy the outdoors, go out with friends, and perhaps dip out of your weekday habits a bit. However, some of your weekend indulgences may come at a cost. You wake up on Monday after your fun weekend, and see a puffy and swollen face looking back at you in the mirror. Eeeek!!

WHY IS MY FACE PUFFY AFTER THE WEEKENDS?

Yep, we’ve all been there. Heavy eyelids, puffy/red cheeks, dark circles under your eyes, droopy jawline... need we say more? There are a few culprits at hand here—whether you had a bit too much to drink, had a midnight slice of pizza (or two or three? no judgment here), or only got a whopping 4 hours of sleep—all contributing to the Monday (face) scaries. This post-weekend bloating rings especially true if your weekday routine is far from these weekend indulgences. Let’s dive into these culprits, shall we?

Key culprits

Junk Food: As much as you may have a strong affinity towards salty, sugary, cheesy, or processed foods, they ultimately contribute to bloating, swelling, and inflammation. High sodium intake can be fairly damaging to your body, and your kidneys will instruct your body to retain more water in order bring it back to its normal salt-water balance. What’s worse is if you’re eating junk food late at night. Eating late at night, or soon before you go to bed, can spike your blood sugar levels and cause inflammation in the body—especially sugary foods.

Alcohol: Oh how we love kicking back with a margarita, daiquiri, or bloody mary—especially in the summer. However, the high amounts of salt and sugar they contain can lead to dehydration and the overproduction of insulin which ultimately cause bloating, swelling, and inflammation. Since alcohol is dehydrating, the body will try to retain extra water to cope with it. Also, your blood vessels widen when you drink, including those in your face, which can lead to a red, swollen, puffy appearance. Alcohol-induced swelling can also be the blame for enlarged pores, discoloration, facial sagging, and lack of elasticity.

Sleep Deprivation: We’ve said this once, and we’ll say it again—beauty rest is REAL! A lack of sleep can manifest itself as facial puffiness, swollen eyelids, dark under-eye circles, and affects your skin’s pH balance which can cause water retention. Sleeping is your body’s time to heal and clear any toxins. What’s worse is if you’re sleeping face down or in a way that causes fluids to drain to your face.

How GUA SHA combats the puff

Those under-eye patches you got from the store not cutting it? Here comes gua sha to the rescue! Gua sha is a century’s old Chinese Medicine healing practice that utilizes a scraping technique for the body and face. Gua sha offers a multitude of health benefits, but we particularly love it for sculpting and ridding the face of stagnant lymph and toxin buildup.

But what is gua sha? Gua sha is a method that promotes lymphatic drainage, which helps to alleviate puffiness caused by excess fluid retention. This technique utilizes a flat stone (usually jade or rose quartz) to scrape the skin, which promotes circulation of blood flow. The ultimate goal of facial gua sha is to make pathways through the neck in which stagnant lymph, toxin build up, and excess fluid can drain from the face. While gua sha for the body is done pretty aggressively, facial gua sha is meant to have lighter and gentler strokes.

As mentioned above, the morning-after-puffiness is often the result of excess fluid retention, and gua sha lymphatic drainage, in our opinion, is the very best skincare technique to rid the skin of it—making gua sha our ultimate morning weapon after a fun weekend!