Gua Sha, a facial massage technique in traditional Chinese medicine, has gained viral popularity thanks to social media influencers in the West.
Photos Tanja Ivanova / Getty
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Photos Tanja Ivanova / Getty
Gua Sha, a facial massage technique in traditional Chinese medicine, has gained viral popularity thanks to social media influencers in the West.
Photos Tanja Ivanova / Getty
Growing up in Detroit, skin care brand founder Rooshy Roy keeps her cherished parts of Indian culture to herself.
Indian staples – like turmeric in many home dishes and the coconut oil she uses to condition her hair – have become a source of shame outside of her Kolkata native parents’ home.
“Girls tell me I like the smell of curry or my hair looks like I haven’t showered in a long time,” she says. “Things like that, I just started to absorb over time and assimilate myself to fit the best I could.”
She started washing the “oily” coconut oil from her strands before going to school. She stopped eating meals with turmeric that would stain her nails when a 4th grade classmate called the “mushrooms” on her hands “disgusting”.
So when she saw how hair oiling was trending on TikTok recently, the 32-year-old said: “All I can think to myself is: Oh my gosh, I’ve been mocked so much because of how rough my hair was, and now all these amazing girls are doing it.”
From hair treatments to turmeric masks to Gua Sha facials, traditional Asian wellness practices like the once mocked Roy have become hugely popular in Western culture in recent years. .
A welcome opportunity to bridge cultural divides
While it’s important to Roy that Asian cultures don’t lose their vibrancy, she sees it as a positive that rituals that once made her feel alien are now being embraced by a generation. just received.
“I’m just happy to imagine that young Indian girls in my position now don’t feel ostracized the way I did,” she said. “It’s almost a sense of relief in many ways, about my two cultures, about my two upbringings, finally being bridged in a very authentic way.”
Rooshy Roy says part of her job as founder of Ayurvedic skin care company Aavrani is meant to educate Western audiences about the history and benefits of Indian wellness practices. .
Aavrani
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Aavrani
Rooshy Roy says part of her job as founder of Ayurvedic skin care company Aavrani is meant to educate Western audiences about the history and benefits of Indian wellness practices. .
Aavrani
It wasn’t until after studying business that Roy felt empowered to take on his Indian roots. Roy, then stressed and turned to the trusty at-home tanning ritual, started her own skincare brand in 2017. As the co-founder of Aavrani, she’s now selling products with the same ingredients that she and her mother used to meticulously craft in modified DIY recipes. for various skin problems.
As social media influencers popularize and rebrand Asian-inspired techniques, health experts and founders in the Asian diaspora are trying to maintain integrity of rituals in their culture.
“If we – brands like us who are authentic in the way we pursue this – don’t do that, then that’s where the stories and culture are lost,” says Roy. “And then we thought, you know, Gwyneth Paltrow is a person discovered artwhen in reality it feels like something very sacred to our heritage for centuries. “
With the opportunity, of course, the burden to correct cultural appropriation
Hair conditioning – a 5,000-year-old ritual from South Asia that involves rubbing oils into the scalp and hair – is currently being promoted by writers and influencers in the US. like “slugging”.
With captions like “Is haircut legal?” and posts showing results Day 1, social media influencer content that mentions the phrase “slugging” has seen the number of posts more than double between May and May. 2021 to April 2022, year over year and around 600% increase in video views, according to influencer marketing firm Traackr.
Shalini Seneviratne, Growing up in Sri Lanka, soaking her hair in oil with two generations of older women in her family, said it was disappointing to see the Western media have to adopt “a new, cool name” to legitimize the practice. oil the hair.
“I don’t think people from [South Asian] Cultures are the main beneficiaries of these things becoming trendy,” she said.
Seneviratne is working to change that. In March, she launched the coconut oil brand Wildpatch, as a tribute to her Sri Lankan heritage.
“I think this is an opportunity to really change the narrative and really present South Asian stories in its own way,” she said.
To ensure that South Asians benefit from the popularity of Western exports, her company sources its ingredients from Sri Lankan farmers. “It would be a mistake not to give credit when it’s due and not support the people whose culture I’m promoting,” she said.
Gua Sha have accumulated a large number of the following. Celebrities like Hailey Bieber and the Kardashians are fans. Miranda Kerr’s beauty line sells this tool. Traackr’s analysis of influencer accounts shows a 40% increase in video views of Gua Sha content since May 2021, year over year.
Gua Sha expert Sandra Lanshin Chiu examines the thin line between cultural cross-culturalism and cultural appropriation when it comes to facial massage methods rooted in ancient Chinese medicine.
She notes that a simple Google search of the practice will pull up pictures and articles showing Asian faces and traditional Chinese medicine doctors in the minority. “I find this ironic,” she said.
“I think how those feelings of cultural appropriation and erasure come into play, and how I’ve experienced it myself, is when you’re thinking who’s selling these Gua Sha tools and who is teaching you,” she said. “Anyone who teaches and sells Gua Sha should get training, and there must be some sort of cultural connection to the practice – but not always.”
Holistic Asian wellness practices rebranded as quick beauty tips
“Gua” means “shave” and “Sha,” referring to the “redness” that occurs when a person uses a tool such as a flat jade stone to “shave” the face, Chiu said. The technique dates back millennia, with Gua Sha first being used on the body to relieve pain and prevent fever and other ailments.
Sandra Lanshin Chiu, a Chinese medicine practitioner, is concerned about the “bleaching” of Gua Sha, a facial massage technique. On social media, she teaches her followers about its ancient origins and how to safely practice Gua Sha.
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Sandra Lanshin Chiu, a Chinese medicine practitioner, is concerned about the “bleaching” of Gua Sha, a facial massage technique. On social media, she teaches her followers about its ancient origins and how to safely practice Gua Sha.
Lanshin
However, writers, brands, and influencers have advertised the technique as a wrinkle-removing alternative to Botox, among other claims of its cosmetic benefits. Chiu notes that it is also widely cited as a lymphatic drainage technique, who says that no traditional Chinese medicine text defines it as such.
“Although Gua Sha can produce cosmetic results, it is important for people to understand that this result comes from its ability to promote inner health as a valid Chinese medical technique,” he said. she said.
An acupuncturist and herbalist who founded New York City-based wellness studio Lanshin, Chiu spends a lot of time on Lanshin’s Instagram account educating followers about the benefits of Lanshin. Gua Sha’s facials are in part combating misinformation.
“On the other hand, I’m delighted by the growing interest in Gua Sha and other TCM practices. These are great portals to learning more about Asian cultures, as well as health. and endless vitality built into our wellness tradition,” she says. “But more importantly, the bleaching of Gua Sha is leading to a distortion of the practice. And this damages its credibility as a legitimate form of healing.”
Like Chiu, other Asian-American leaders in the industry don’t quite see these rituals as “beauty” protocols. Roy and Seneviratne emphasize that their brand is part of a holistic, spiritual approach, one that draws from the ancient mind-body-spirit wellness rituals of ayurveda from the Indian subcontinent.
From May 2021 to April 2022, videos of ayurvedic composition have grown by more than 170% in views on major social media platforms, year-over-year, as reported by Traackr.
In another sign of growing interest is South Asia’s first ayurvedic skin care brand. to hit Sephora.com in February.
“I love the fact that it is finally starting to reach people outside of India, and hopefully eventually worldwide, because wisdom is something that everyone can benefit from,” said Director Aavrani’s executive, Roy said. Unlike other beauty trends, she adds, “It’s not just about trying to conform to a certain beauty standard – it’s actually good for you.”
