Who doesn't like to look young? From anti-ageing creams to concealers, women try out their best to hide visible signs of ageing on their face.
Well, now a new study has proved that you don't really need all those products. There's an easy, 'non-toxic' way to look young and you can do that sitting back at home or anywhere you want. We are talking about facial yoga.
The study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology showed that facial exercise program of 30-minute daily or on alternate-days sustained over 20 weeks improved the facial appearance of middle-aged women.
Researchers at Northwestern University studied 16 healthy women aged 40 to 65 years old who underwent two sets of face-to-face 90-minute training sessions from a facial exercise instructor.
The participants continued to do these exercises at home for a total of 20 weeks. For the first eight weeks, they did the exercises for 30 minutes, daily. From the rest of the weeks, they did the same exercises for 30 minutes, every other day.
After 20 weeks of 'facial exercise', two dermatologists assessed the participants' 'before and after' photographs to assess any changes to their appearances. They looked separately at 19 features of the face and rated them at three different time points: at the beginning, at week eight and at week 20.
It was found that women who look 50 years old were thought to be 48 after just 20 weeks of facial 'workouts'.
"Now there is some evidence that facial exercises may improve facial appearance and reduce some visible signs of ageing," said lead author Dr Murad Alam, vice chair and professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine dermatologist.
Dr Alam added: "That's almost a three-year decrease in age appearance over a 20-week period."
Participants learned and performed 32 distinct facial exercises; here are two of them that you can try:
The cheek lifter
To do this facial exercise, one needs to open the mouth and form O, then position the upper lip over teeth and smile to lift the cheek muscles up. Then, the person needs to put fingers lightly on the top part of the cheek, release cheek muscles to lower them, and lift back up.
Happy cheeks sculpting
For this exercise, one needs to smile without showing their teeth and putting lips together. One should force the cheek muscles up while smiling and place fingers on corners of the mouth to slide them up to the top of the cheeks and hold it for 20 seconds.
