Words by Fiorella Valdesolo
Ready to sculpt, lift, and make your skin glow in just 10 minutes a day? That’s the question posed by Anastasia, a wide-eyed influencer with Rapunzel locks and chiseled cheeks known online as @anastasiabeautyfascia. Her videos and “GLOW transformation program” (pricetag: $300) offer detailed guidance for how to squeeze, tap, and rub your way to a smooth forehead, lifted eyes and a slimmer jawline. In Anastasia’s world there is no need for Botox or Juvederm or blephs or facelifts (all of which she actively denies partaking in), just your fingers and your time. Anastasia’s qualifications (she is a board certified structural integration therapist) for doling out her transformative tips are a bit nebulous, and her theories (like how our swallowing pattern is the cause of a double chin) can veer into unscientific territory. But it’s her own face, which she frequently shows in its pre-fascia-molding state, that may be the most convincing endorsement for her many followers (2.7 million on Instagram, 1.5 million on TikTok).
Online and off, fascia is being mentioned ever more frequently. Fascia educators like Lauren Roxburgh and Ashley Black and Sue Hitzmann are making fascia a part of the broader wellness conversation, and it’s become a singular treatment draw: you can sign up for a functional fascia fitness class at the new Ritz Zadun resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, or take a fascia flow and release at Sage +& Sound on New York’s Upper East Side. But for all the hashtags and mentions, what fascia is, how it functions, and what manipulating it can (and, just as importantly, can’t) do for our faces and bodies remains widely misunderstood.
What is Fascia?
A primer: Fascia is a connective tissue that runs through the entire body. “It wraps around muscles, organs, nerves, and blood vessels, linking everything together into one continuous system,” says Jessa Zinn, a movement therapist and founder of The Zinn Method, adding that it behaves like a single piece of fabric, all of it interconnected, instead of separate parts. More than simply a foundation, fascia is our internal scaffolding, a critical support system. Joseph Carrillo, aka The Facial Sculptor, uses an orange to explain fascia to his clients. “The flesh is like muscle, the peel is like skin, and the thin white membrane holding everything together is fascia,” says Carrillo.
Our understanding of what fascia does has shifted in recent years. “For decades in the West, fascia was considered inert packing material, something surgeons might cut through to get to the ‘important’ structures underneath,” says Sophie Carbonari, a sought-after Paris-based facialist whose unique technique has been described as “skin cracking.” But in the past two decades, since the start of the Fascia Research Congress in 2007, that thinking has evolved. Recent research has shown that fascia is highly innervated (it has more nerve endings than muscle) making it a major sensory organ, that it contains cells that contract in response to stress hormones, that it’s rich in hyaluronic acid, and that it’s a primary pain generator, so when pain is chronic it becomes stiff and inflamed, Carbonari explains. “We’ve gone from viewing fascia as passive wrapping, to understanding it as an active system that communicates with the nervous system,” she adds. Ashley Black, an author and entrepreneur who has been spreading the gospel of fascia (via the use of her system of FasciaBlaster tools) for nearly three decades, sees the body’s fascia as a singular energy system. “It circulates light throughout the entire body,” says Black. “Those of us who have been working with it forever, call it a life force.”
But while fascia manipulation may feel, if we’re judging by our algorithms, like a more recent discovery, it’s not new. In fact, says Carbonari, other traditional healing systems have been working with it for centuries, just under different names. Carbonari points to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices like tuina, gua sha, and acupuncture and their focus on releasing blocked “qi” (energy flow); Ayurveda’s abhyanga oil massage, which is designed to lubricate deeper tissues and soften fascia; and how in traditional African medicine, Yoruba and Zulu healers use various methods to “untie knots” in the body’s fabric, mobilizing what we would understand now to be fascial tissue.
How Does Fascia Movement Work?
According to Black, manipulating and releasing the fascia allows the face and body to function as they should. That manipulation can take many forms. Her FasciaBlaster tools look, with their molded claws, not unlike torture devices, albeit chic ones, and they function by loading (or applying pressure), stretching and shearing, thereby not just breaking up areas of tension but also, Black claims, regenerating tissue. Black’s system has accrued both avid followers and vocal detractors who maintain that working the tissue should not be this aggressive. Myofascial release is a technique that facialists like Carbonari, Carrillo, and Lord Gavin have centered in their treatments. “It’s a hands-on therapeutic approach that uses slow, sustained pressure to release tension and restrictions within the fascia, restoring softness and elasticity, and improving mobility and circulation,” says Lord Gavin McLeod-Valentine, a celebrity facial masseur and global brand ambassador for Augustinus Bader. Done correctly, myofascial release works with the tissue, but doesn’t force it. “The goal isn’t to push harder, but to create space,” says Carrillo, adding that when fascia is shaped properly it can affect posture and, in the face, address heaviness and create balance. While there is some overlap with gua sha and face yoga, both of which are also frequently name-checked on social media nowadays, the intention of fascial work is slightly different. Face yoga builds and strengthens and relies on repeated muscular contractions (which can, says McLeod-Valentine, sometimes end up reinforcing dynamic lines) and gua sha stimulates lymphatic flow and drains. “Skilled fascial manipulation uses slow, sustained, precise pressure to restore glide between tissue layers, rebalance tension patterns, and re-establish structural lift and symmetry,” says McLeod-Valentine. “It’s transformative.”
Zinn’s eponymous method is focused on helping bodies in midlife move with more ease and resilience. It was developed after twenty-plus years of working with professional athletes, mapping out and activating the web of fascia with simple exercises and rituals. These include daily gentle ribcage breathing and slow joint circles for the neck, hip and shoulders and a few minutes of foam-rolling or ball work. While former professional dancer Bonnie Crotzer’s signature Fascia Flossing practice leans into an instinctual and involuntary function shared by humans and animals called pandiculation. It’s that wiggling and tugging and stretching that people often do upon waking up — and that we often watch our pets do intermittently throughout the day. “It creates a contraction or engagement through the fascial matrix that stimulates architectural change, reduces tension, and also sends a signal to the nervous system that all is safe,” says Crotzer, who frequently teaches Fascia Flossing at SkyTing in New York.
Age, genetics, and lifestyle can all play a role in the health of our fascia. And there is a marked difference, experts say, between healthy and unhealthy versions. The former is hydrated and elastic and springy with a gel-like glide — it has, says Crotzer, a goosh to it — while the latter tends to be dense, rigid, even sticky. “On the face, restricted fascia manifests as asymmetry, deep lines that won’t release, reduced facial mobility, or a heavy, tired appearance,” says Carbonari. Modern lifestyles aren’t doing our fascia any favors either. More sitting, less varied movement, and hours spent hunched over our computers and phones, has, says Zinn, led to shallow breathing, constant jaw tension, and bodies that feel consistently braced rather than fluid, a perfect storm for fascia, which thrives on variety and multi-directional movement. Carbonari can tell within moments of touching a client’s face how much time they spend attached to their devices. Dehydration, inflammatory diets, and sleep deprivation also don’t help, but, most of all, stress. “We live in a state of chronic low-grade stress that previous generations didn’t experience; we’re constantly ‘on,’” says Carbonari. “Chronic stress means chronic fascial contractions. Your fascia is literally holding your anxiety.”
What Fascia Movement Can’t Do
But while fascia work can come with big promises, it’s important to remember what it can do and what it can’t. “The idea that fascial face massage can replace skincare actives, Botox or fillers is ridiculous,” says McLeod-Valentine, adding that while it softens the appearance of lines and helps the face function and age more optimally, it cannot stop neuromuscular contractions or replace lost volume. David Kim, MD, a New York-based dermatologist and the founder of Soho Dermatology, agrees: “Fascia work helps sharpen the face and body, but it can’t replace Botox and filler, which simply serve a different purpose.” For freezing or filling, if that’s what you’re after, fascial work isn’t it, no matter what that TikTok video claims. What fascial work can do, most experts agree, is complement or delay those injectables. “When the face is functioning well, people tend to need less overall, and whatever they choose to do works better,” says Carrillo.
How to Get the Best Results
Much like with most beauty and health rituals, consistency is key. And, says Carrillo, it matters more than intensity. “People usually feel a shift right away, a lightness or openness, but visual changes build over time as the tissue learns a new baseline,” he says. Beyond the promise of eventual visible results, what makes DIY fascial work easy to adopt is that it’s relatively simple and, more importantly, it feels really good. Try Carbonari’s favorite temporal release on your next work break and you will experience what can only be referred to as an immediate face melt: Place fingers on temples; apply gentle, sustained pressure while slowly opening and closing the jaw; and hold for 60-90 seconds. Fascial exercises may serve a different purpose than topical skincare actives or neurotoxins and fillers, but they are just as, if not more, vital for skin health. “I think it’s the key to the fountain of youth,” adds Crotzer. Something that the beauty industry, which thrives on marketing and selling us what it claims we collectively need, may not be so thrilled about. As for the conversation around longevity, fascial work fits in quite neatly, taking a long-game approach to the health of our skin and body. “It supports our ability to move with ease over time and determines how long you stay mobile, upright, and resilient,” says Zinn. Maybe what Anastasia is espousing isn’t so far-fetched after all?
