When you learn to facial massage, and repeat the treatment regularly, there’s no need to buy pricey anti-age serums and creams, or take the invasive step of plastic surgery, to look younger and healthier. A facial massage irons out fine lines and wrinkles, stimulates blood circulation and removes toxins, allows muscles to ‘slide’ back into place more easily after being tensed.
Below you can learn some facial massage techniques that smooth out facial lines and firm baggy skin, leaving you with a toned and silky complexion glowing with health and nourishment.
Reducing neck lines
Knuckling – Using your knuckles apply small circular movements all over the upper chest, shoulders and neck area, making sure you only work on tissue and not bones.
Fanning – Use your fingertips to lift upper chest and neck skin in fast repetitive movements upwards.
Kneading – Take upper chest, shoulders and neck (front and back) tissue between your thumb and fingers and lift tissue upwards with a kneading motion. Be careful not to pinch but take enough tissue with your fingertips to apply medium pressure.
Tightening saggy chins
Effleurage – Apply circular movements with your fingers from the shoulders and neck to the chin and over the nose to the forehead.
Kneading – Take the flesh between your thumb and fingers and knead with a slightly firmer pressure than for the neck. This is a high tension area so make sure you work quite deeply. With your thumb on top of the jaw and fingers at the bottom, move from the chin to the ears, where you apply slightly lighter pressure.
Prayer movement – With palms flat on either side of the chin, move your palms upwards over the nose to the forehead, dragging the fingers behind.
Zigzag – With fingers flat on the chin, rapidly and repeatedly move the hands together so that your fingers interlock.
Lifting – Cup hands round the chin, and slide and lift with one hand then the other, lifting the tissue of the cheek area with the back of your fingers.
Mouth/laughter lines
Zigzag – With one hand on each cheek and all fingers flat, zigzag from left to right on the skin next to the mouth.
Circular moves – Using your fingertips trace small circles around the mouth, ensuring very light pressure on the skin covering the teeth. Then, dividing the cheek area into three, trace small circles with your fingertips around each area.
Pinching – Lightly pinch tissue in the cheek area between thumb and fingers, increasing blood circulation.
Fast lifting – Cup hands round the bottom of the chin and lift upwards across the cheek to the ear with a very light and rapid movement.
Frown marks and lines around the eyes
Circular moves – Make large circles with your fingertips around the eye area from the top of the nose over the eyebrows and down under the eyes working inwards, applying very light pressure under each eye.
Kneading – On the eyebrows, take tissue between your thumbs and forefingers and make small kneading movements inwards.
Zigzag – Place a hand on each temple and with the back of your fingers flat in the eyebrow area, rapidly move each hand towards each other so that your fingers interlock between the eyebrows.
Forehead expression lines
Circular moves – Using your fingertips make small circles on the forehead using moderate pressure from inside outwards and ending in the temple area.
Friction – With the fingertips of two or three fingers make fast up and down movements on the forehead to increase blood circulation.
Zigzag – Place two fingers on one hand and one on the other hand against the forehead, and slide your fingers together so that the one finger fits between the two. Start rapidly and gradually slow down.
Maybe one of the best things about learning facial massage is that you can either use the techniques on someone else, who should be lying down on their backs, or adapt each move to apply it to yourself anytime you want to relax and feel better.
As well as rejuvenating the face through cell renewal and detoxification, facial massage can also help fight headaches and sinus pain, and can chase away anxiety, stress, depression and premenstrual tension. So when you learn to massage, you not only discover how to look younger but also feel better too.
Alison Peake is a writer and editor with many years' experience in consumer and trade publications, in particular, marketing, architectural and women's magazines, and local newspapers. More recently Alison has worked as a technical author and marketing writer in IT, science and life coaching.
Alison is also a partner at APD Internet Marketing, distributor of Learn To Massage, Full Body Massage, Luxury Facial Massage and Indian Head Massage instructional DVDs.