You get home after a long day at work, and all you want to do is sit back and pinch the skin on your face and neck, and yank on it as hard as you can until it’s time to go to bed. But new evidence suggests that all this so-called “harmless” grabbing and pulling could actually be sabotaging your efforts at fresh, youthful skin. Wait…what?!?
In a recent Princeton study, women who spent less than an hour per day grabbing the skin on their faces and steadily yanking downward, retained better skin elasticity than women who spent four or more hours a day doing the same.
If you just froze mid-tug, you’re not alone! It seems counterintuitive, but when the “Tug On Your Face – Yes, Like That, But Even Harder” method was introduced as a safe alternative to snacking, it seemed like a godsend.
Face-yanking and American culture go hand-in-hand-on-face. We’re all familiar with that iconic image of Audrey Hepburn behind the scenes of Breakfast At Tiffany’s, grasping the skin at her throat with both hands and stretching it nearly to her sternum. While American audiences swooned at her glamour and refinement, we now know that Hepburn could have actually been harming her famously luminous skin!
According to researcher Diane Fleishman who led the Princeton study, the group who spent less time pulling on their faces also experienced less inflammation, acne and capillary damage. Yikes – not a great sign!
So, is there any good news? Sort of. For starters, if you quit pulling on that facial skin, or even cut back, you can save a boatload on anti-aging products. According to dermatologist Leilani Benjamin, “There is no Botox, peel, or eye cream I’ve seen that boasts the age-defying properties of simply not pulling on your face. This is real breakthrough in skincare.”
And your skin will reap the benefits sooner than you think: After just an hour, inflammation is reduced. After a week, the insatiable cravings to pull hard on something – anything, as long as it’s part of your face – subsides. And after years, your skin will be as radiant and soft as someone who’s never indulged at all – although how any woman could go her whole life without the satisfaction of performing that reassuring pull is beyond us!
