MONDAY 5 AUGUST 2019

Is gua sha the new Botox?

Christine Manby tries out the at-home massage which purports to

smooth those lines, with some surprising results

Give yourself a lift: the technique is supposed to flush out facial toxins (iStock)

To paraphrase the late great Nora Ephron, lately I’ve been feeling bad about my neck. And my jawline. And
the deep horizontal grooves on my forehead, which I blame on having spent my twenties and thirties on a
never-ending series of terrible dates that required me to hold a both-eyebrows-raised “that’s really
interesting” facial expression for several hours at a time. I’m paying for it now. So much so that recently, my
old friend Anna, a dermatologist, suggested a little light Botox. She wasn’t joking. She offered me “mates
rates”. I wondered for a moment if we could even be mates anymore. Aren’t your best girlfriends just
supposed to tell you that you look wonderful even when you’ve got eye bags right down to your jowls?

I told Anna I’d think about it but the truth is I’ve always been frightened of Botox and even the thought of
having it administered by someone I’ve known and loved for almost 30 years didn’t allay my fears. I just

Section 2 /Happy Talk