The Shape of Your Face

Promising a natural path to lifted features and ageless skin, facial exercises have taken over social media. But does it really work?

- BY TANISH

The appeal of face yoga was personal for 52-year-old Anita Mathur, a homemaker from Lucknow. "Whenever I went to the local salon, I would get to hear that my skin was sagging," she recalls. While scrolling through Facebook one day, Mathur discovered some facial exercise videos on YouTube. "I started doing it for 10 to 15 minutes every day, trying each week to assess any changes—the skin tightening I hoped for, the glow it promised. But it never came."

After several months with no noticeable improvement—and with the skin under her eyes and on her forehead continuing to sag—Mathur gave up. "When I think of myself doing those silly pinching and stretching movements, I feel like a clown," she says.

Marketed as a non-invasive alternative to needles and scalpels, "face yoga" has been championed by influencers for its supposed ability to sculpt cheekbones, smooth wrinkles, and defy gravity, one exaggerated expression at a time. But as dermatological science continues to deepen our understanding of how and why the face ages, a growing chorus of experts is urging scepticism. The simple truth: not all movement is rejuvenating, and some may be quietly undermining the very youthfulness they promise to preserve.

Necessarily Not Effective