What four weeks of face yoga did for me
It’s hard to live in a vain world, especially when you’d like to keep up with it but are also on a budget.
When I got assigned to do some research on face yoga, my first thought after reading up on it was, on a normal day, what activities do I do that involve using my facial muscles? That got me counting: sipping beverage, chewing, rolling my eyes, raising an eyebrow, squinting—basically nothing that really exercises them. So I took the Face Yoga Method test to find out which facial exercises could make my face look less aged.
Since we’re on a budget here, I used the test on the website simply to know which aspects of my lifestyle cause my facial skin to get saggy and lined. It turns out that doing things predominantly on one side, like sleeping on my right side (which makes laugh lines more defined), carrying my bag on my right shoulder, and making/receiving calls by putting the phone against my right cheek, has made my face asymmetrical through the years.
After taking the test, the website then provided me some “routines” to counter the particular effects that my lifestyle has on my facial muscles. There was also a video of Fumiko Takatsu, creator of Face Yoga Method, demonstrating some exercises to address my particular problems.
The results vary from person to person, by the way, and the recommended routine and exercises are based on them. The video of Takatsu provided is also just a preview; a more comprehensive routine will require payment, which I obviously passed on.
But since I got to see the root of my issues, I searched up on the face yoga poses/exercises that Takatsu suggested, in the hopes of making my cheeks become more taut and my laugh lines less noticeable:
Basically, all the poses are weird and funny-looking; I couldn’t help but giggle while doing some of them the first time. But once I got used to them, I got into the habit of doing face yoga in front of the mirror as I do my skincare routine, take a shower, and go on my way to work. If you’re going to try out face yoga, just make sure you’re alone while doing it, because I’m telling you: They don’t make you look cute.
For comparison, here are the before and after photos of my four-week face yoga “journey”:
You know what’s weird (aside from the fact that I’m making you stare at photos of my face)? My cheeks seem a little fuller in the “after” photo. In the “before” one, my face is a little longer, with flatter cheeks (which I prefer). I’m not sure if the fuller-looking cheeks are due to my diet, since I’m “exercising” them everyday. Honestly, I expected to get a leaner face, as if I had just availed an RF treatment, and so right now, I feel so betrayed! (I guess that’s what I get for not paying a centavo.)
But kidding aside, the laugh lines are gone, guys. Or at least they have diminished. You can’t see it well in the photos, but I literally just went up to the mirror to check if I still have prominent laugh lines even with a straight face—and I don’t.
Also, these photos have neither been ‘Shopped nor liquefied. Sure, I could have slimmed my face a little for vanity’s sake, but I wanted to see for myself—and you, Garage readers, as well—what face yoga has done for me.
You can enroll at the Face Yoga Method website to follow Takatsu’s complete tutorials if you’re a rich b*tch. Or you can just do it like how I did, be practical and resourceful, and have a younger-looking face in just a few weeks.
Header art by Pol Aries Zamora
