Facial yoga: The latest craze in India

NEW DELHI: It is less painful than plastic surgery and definitely cheaper than non-surgical injections that temporarily reduce or eliminate wrinkles -- but it can make you look young.

Yes, facial yoga -- which gives you the benefits of a face-lift without the danger and expense of surgery -- is the latest craze in India as a number of people, regardless of age, are enrolling themselves for training classes, particularly in the capital.

"This yoga for the face is a simple, non-invasive way to erase fine lines and wrinkles. It also reduces sagging skin and restores a radiant, youthful look to one's face and complexion," says Madhavi Padhy, a former stress management and yoga consultant with the United Nations in Vienna.

Padhy is one of the few teachers who conducts facial yoga classes in Delhi and Singapore. "The techniques are very easy to learn. These highly specialised exercises lift, firm and tone all 57 muscles of the face and neck, literally turning back the hands of time and restoring a firm, smooth, glowing facial appearance."

Among the facial exercises, eye socket massage is the most important one which even an office worker can practice taking a ten-minute break from his or her hectic schedule.

This exercise relieves tension and stress from areas around the eyes. It also relaxes the eyes and surrounding facial features.

"For practicing this yoga, you have to place both the index and middle fingers of your hands on either sides of your nose just below the bridge and then rub your fingers up to the bridge and along the eyebrows. This exercise needs to be repeated for at least three to five times and the massage is easy to practice," Padhy says.

Other exercises include cheek squeezing which helps in improving blood circulation in the cheeks by squeezing them and grabbing bits of flesh; optic nerve message; and technique to relieve tension in forehead and jaws.

"Facial muscles become weak and flabby just like other muscles and need regular workouts. I'm teaching my students to consciously release muscles rather than paralysing them, which is what non-surgical drugs made from a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium Botulinum do," she claims.

Delhi-based journalist Md Asad, a regular yoga student who stretches his face everyday, claims to have noticed remarkable changes. "This yoga reduces wrinkles and worry lines. I had developed stress lines on my face because of my high-demanding job," says the 35-year-old scribe.

In fact, facial yoga classes are becoming very popular among middle-aged women. "I have just enrolled myself in a facial yoga course in my locality. I am yet to see the results," says 55-year-old housewife Soma Chakraborty who is aspiring to achieve a youthful appearance especially after undergoing a weight-reduction programme.

"Facial stretches and yoga temporarily reduce the neurological impulses associated with stress and the grimaces that lead to the worry lines in your forehead," agrees Gautam Roy, another yoga teacher based in Kolkata, who's planning to introduce the special facial sessions soon.

However, not all are convinced. Kolkata-based cosmetic surgeon Dr SR Das Gupta simply disagrees with trainers of facial yoga. "If you have a wrinkle or a frown line, relaxation isn't going to erase that. If you make the muscles in your face bigger it will not make sagging
skin tougher or tighter, nor will it help remove fatty deposits. Only a face-lift can do that."

But, Delhi-based gynaecologist Dr Kiran Dua does not subscribe to Dr Gupta's views. "What I feel is which ever yoga, if it's toning up the body and improving blood circulation, go for it. Facial yoga will definitely do good, one remains fit and young."

Association of Plastic Surgeons of India Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Singh, however, feels that the claim of the advocates of facial yoga is neither fully wrong nor fully right. "That helps to some extent. Any sort of facial exercise can delay wrinkles but it can't cure fully. But, when the wrinkles are established, surgery becomes essential."