Fascial Massage & The Aging Face
“Be patient. Your skin took a while to deteriorate. Give it love, care and time to reflect a calmer inner state. Soon you’ll reveal your true face.”
Achieving a youthful facial appearance is more attainable when you combine professional treatments with a consistent home skincare routine. This holistic approach can greatly enhance your skin's health and appearance.
The face is a vital element of our identity, reflecting not only our external features but also what is happening internally—emotionally, psychologically, and physically. Our facial features reveal personality traits, health status, and even imbalances that could affect our overall facial integrity. As we age, the once-youthful contours of our face may start to diminish, leading to noticeable changes such as jowling, neck laxity, and volume loss in the mid-face.
Your skin tells a story of your lifestyle, diet, and experiences. Factors such as poor lifestyle habits, undernourishment, excessive sun exposure, or even too much exercise can contribute to the breakdown of facial structure. Emotional states like loneliness and stress may also play a role in altering the shape of your face. Understanding these elements can help in identifying the reason behind such changes and provide a roadmap to restoring a more youthful appearance. Combining professional treatments with a dedicated home skincare routine can significantly impact your skin’s health and appearance. Your skin gives clues to your personality, health and imbalances that have contributed to the decrease in the integrity of it. Whether from poor lifestyle habits, undernourishment, over sun-exposure or a decrease in facial volume from too much exercise, even loneliness and stress. There’s also several other reasons our faces begin to change and lose shape.
Bone Loss
One reason for premature wrinkles around the mouth is due to a collapse in the bite caused by clenching or grinding. Facial muscle tone decreases as we age, this process is accelerated with tooth and bone loss. Since facial muscles are attached to facial bone, the bone loss severely affects these muscles and their function. The facial skin begins to sag. When the bite collapses there is a decrease in the facial muscle tone which causes the chin recess, the lips to lengthen out causing the entire face to appear tired, prematurely aged and angry. It doesn’t look as supple which increases dullness as a result of layers of dead tissue that starts to build upon it.Fascia Elongates
Fascia at its most basic level is several layers of connective tissue that is just below the skin’s surface and basically encases our entire body like a spiderweb. However, giving it more detail, fascia is much more than that. There are three layers of connective tissue that makes up the framework of the face + body. The deeper layer connects the skin to muscle and fat and forms the “girdle” of facial muscles— Superficial, Deep and Subserous. As the fascia dries out, it begins to fray or stiffen. This shows up in numerous ways, both obvious and not so obvious. Wrinkles are a result of fascia growing out and lengthening. Since the skin is attached to fascia, it makes sense it begins to fall with it. If this fascia is restricted, it will hold deeper facial wrinkles “in place” until released. Plus, fascia constricts in many different directions and can be restricted by repetitive facial movements, surgery, scars, injections, implants, fillers and other facial procedures. And, thereby, blocking optimum lymph flow (waste removal/detoxification) and blood circulation in the skin. The aging of the fascia is a key factor in many age-related changes that happen as we get older. This is why I feel filler isn’t the answer to address volume loss. You have to strengthen and work the fascia to support it. It’s commonly known that hydration is also critical to the youthfulness and suppleness of fascia. If there is a point of deep congestion and dehydration, the mechanical separation of fascial layers becomes critical to allow water to be absorbed into the tissue. Drinking water is always beneficial, but an even more effective solution for hydrating the fascia and improving overall health of the skin + body is with daily movement, yoga, deep breathing, scraping/sculpting and rolling.
Emotional
In my twenties I was on a spiritual journey into the practice of yoga. I was away at a retreat with the Indian guru- Swami Satchidananda, I’ll always remember his quote stating “our issues get stuck in our tissues”; and he was referring to was the deep emotions that get trapped in our connective tissue, essentially our fascia.We are a bored, restless culture that fears our own emotions, the chaos of transformation and the possibility of surrendering ourselves to the fierce beauty of the aging process. Anxiety and tension is so common most people don’t even realize how stressed they are. Walking around clenched and holding tension in the chest, neck and mouth. The mouth, is like of a river, it’s a gateway that lends access to another existence! A door to the soul. Our center to so much interaction— breath, speech, consumption, communication and romance. The avenue of expression becomes a battleground between authentic sound and silent self-protection. Our bodies and our face hold on to negative or repressed emotions with any type of trauma we’ve experienced can get stuck in our tissues for years. This can cause many health concerns and dictate the way we age. Emotions, like fear and love, are carried out by the limbic system, which is located in the temporal lobe. The emotions and the brain (the area in our frontal lobe of left hemisphere ) the Broca’s area control our facial muscles, tongue, jaw and throat. The release can be profound. Trauma and inflammation create restrictions in the fascia, which can hold tensile pressures too.
“Our Issues Get Stuck In Our Tissues”—Swami Satchidananda Saraswati
How do you restore a more youthful shape and improve radiance?
As a wholistic aesthetician and practitioner I guide my clients through the process of change. Consistent maintenance and action that allows for skin renewal to support those changes in every season of their life. The process requires repeated professional treatments and a curated skin program with compliance. To start one of my go to treatments is Myofascial face massage and using my unique beauty tool, the sculpting plate in your at home regimen. It improves skin suppleness because it reduces and releases muscle tension in the face and jaw. By stimulating rejuvenation and cellular activity, fascial face massage can help to tighten the skin and underlying muscles and reduce expression lines and wrinkles promoting blood and lymphatic circulation, increasing the supply of nutrients to the cells. It also aids in the removal of dead skin cells to reveal a fresh, youthful appearance that begins from within.
This technique not only reduces muscle tension and tightens skin but also diminishes expression lines while enhancing blood and lymphatic circulation. The fascia, a crucial connective tissue in the body, plays a vital role in your appearance. It supports skin structure and is key to maintaining a youthful look. By releasing tension that accumulates in the fascia, this helps to improve skin elasticity and promotes a radiant, relaxed complexion. This approach nurtures both your inner well-being and outer beauty.
What is the main purpose of myofascial massage?
To perform a deep relaxation of muscles as much as possible, to reduce tension on a bone, to strengthen muscles from the inside out. Improving the mobility of myofascial structures prevents interbone dysfucntions. Myofascial Release treats these symptoms by releasing the uneven tightness in injured fascia. During treatment areas are located that feel stiff or stuck, rather than elastic and movable under light pressure. Small areas of muscle are stretched at a time.The focused manual pressure and stretching used in this release helps to equalize muscle tension throughout the face and loosen up restricted movement, leading indirectly to reduced pain and a smoother complexion.
THE FACE SCULPTOR- includes intra-oral (buccal) massage that relaxes parts of your musculature where tension is stored opening up space in the mouth in order to promote blood circulation and oxygenation of the skin. The lines around the mouth are smoother, the skin is tighter and the lips become naturally plumped. It creates a natural lift and provides symmetry to the face. It also promotes lymphatic drainage to reduce puffiness and leave behind a deep glow. By releasing contracted muscles and fascia this treatment can also help reduce wrinkles in the face that are caused by excess tension. Expect to leave with open and brighter eyes thanks to improved circulation. The face sculptor myofascial massage treatment can assist in alleviating jaw tension tightness, grinding, and or TMD (temporal mandibular disorder) TMJ— It’s deeply healing and relaxing as is cosmetically appealing. It strengthens and relaxes the facial muscles and also has an impact on the facial bones of the skull. This dynamic lift procedure is aimed at a deep study of underlying mimetic muscles that control facial expression.
People see changes in one treatment, which continue to improve over the next 48 hours. I recommend a course of treatments to achieve the best results. After that, bi-monthly maintenance should keep you looking smooth and fresh-faced in conjunction with other procedures you can see immense changes to the complexion and face shape. When necessitated cupping and Gua Sha massage may be incorporated to minimize smile lines and my personalized Sculpting Tool can assist in creating an additional lift when utilized correctly. Beauty tools and self-massage can be a great asset to your skin + care rituals. I also use Furlesse and Frownie wrinkle patches and myofascial tape to help relax sleep lines and wrinkle patterns. You can purchase some of them here in my Amazon store. They work great as an addition to your regular facial treatments and professional products.
The benefits of this deeply relaxing treatment include:
Facial Filler Like Natural Results Without A Needle!
Reduce fine lines and wrinkles
Tightens and Lifts the skin
Brightens and Lightens Skin
Improves Skin Tone
Removes metabolic waste, excess water, toxins, and bacteria from tissues
Relaxes the sympathetic nervous system to relieve stress, tension, and anxiety
Helps the body to heal more quickly from surgical trauma, chronic conditions, and edema
Reduces TMJ pain
Reduces migraines & tension headaches
Alleviates sinus congestion and puffiness–Aids in pre/post plastic surgery healing
Other Professional Treatments to Consider
Microneedling: Stimulates collagen production and boosts the regeneration of the skin’s vital fat cells, aligning more closely with natural skin processes than some heat-based modalities.
Microcurrent Therapy: Uses low-level electric currents to improve facial muscle tone and skin texture by increasing ATP levels, which rejuvenates and heals cells.
Plasma Technology: Tightens and improves skin texture through precise plasma thermal energy, causing controlled trauma that results in rejuvenated skin, although downtime is expected.
Chemical Peels and Masks: Regular at-home treatments like hydrating and detoxifying masks (1-2 times weekly) and monthly professional chemical peels can target pigmentation and rejuvenate the skin.
Facial Exercises & Massages: Incorporate techniques such as Gua Sha, Fascia facial tension release, Jade Rolling, and self-massage to enhance circulation and muscle tone.
Don’t forget to share the love!
Sending Love + Light to your skin + fascia
xo Claudia