In the age of #notox, can cosmetic acupuncture be the new Botox?

NEW YORK – Ms Amy Abrams, who owns and operates New York City’s Manhattan Vintage Show, has been getting regular cosmetic acupuncture facials for five years.

“I’ve been going every four to six weeks,” she said of the routine she sees as part of a “self-care commitment” to looking and feeling her best. Lanshin, a beauty spa in Brooklyn, New York City, that draws from traditional Chinese medicine practices, is her go-to.

But recently, the 52-year-old has found appointments with her acupuncturist difficult to come by.

“She didn’t have anything for six weeks,” Ms Abrams said. “I mean, that’s great for her, but wow.”

When it comes to achieving youthful-looking, rejuvenated skin, do all roads eventually lead to needles? It seems so, given the multitude of ways to poke one’s face, from Botox injections and plumping fillers to microneedling facials and PRP (platelet-rich plasma) and salmon sperm DNA injections, all sought for the promise of a more glowy, supple visage.

Cosmetic acupuncture, or facial acupuncture, the injection-free outlier of the bunch, uses needles about one-fifth the diameter of typical hypodermic needles. It is said to increase circulation and collagen production, and improve skin tone.

Long favoured by American celebrities-turned-wellness moguls such as Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow, it has grown in popularity as more people turn to holistic skincare methods.

As one of the Western Hemisphere’s more widely known forms of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture’s stateside popularity reaches back to the 1970s, when an American journalist trailing President Richard Nixon’s 1971 delegation to Beijing reported on having received the treatment there.

In the ensuing decades, acupuncture coursed through the channels of medicine from alternative to the mainstream, seemingly effective for all manner of ills and conditions, including migraines, digestive issues, infertility and insomnia, as well as general pain management.

American Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and National Basketball Association star LeBron James incorporated acupuncture into their injury recovery protocols. Paltrow’s wellness and lifestyle website Goop has referred to the treatment in more than 60 articles.

Little wonder that as popular interest and curiosity have spread, some people are looking to acupuncture for facial rejuvenation.

Interest in cosmetic acupuncture also aligns with the nascent #notox movement, which rejects Botox in favour of natural alternatives promising similar results – especially among Gen Z consumers.

Online, Google searches for “cosmetic acupuncture” have increased by 248 per cent in the past two years. As at January, the average number of views for notox-related content on TikTok had increased 223 per cent in the past year, according to the trend forecasting agency Trendalytics.

Part of cosmetic acupuncture’s outlier status lies in its holistic nature. Typically, treatments target points on the body, as well as on the face, to address issues such as poor sleep and digestion, stress and pre-menstrual syndrome – culprits that can factor into the skin’s appearance.

“Its greatest benefit is that it’s not just skin deep,” said Ms Stefanie DiLibero of Gotham Wellness in Manhattan, New York City. There, clients undergo a full health intake before their multi-step treatments, which include full-body acupuncture, micro-current stimulation and manual lymphatic drainage.

Ms DiLibero said 90 per cent of her patients came for cosmetic acupuncture, but welcomed the all-in-one perks.

Still, there is a strong emphasis on “cosmetic”, as many salons build in treatments one would see on an aesthetician’s menu: lymphatic drainage massages, hydrating face masks and red light therapy to stimulate collagen production.

At Ora, a wellness spa with two locations in Manhattan, founder Kim Ross said that even teenagers with complexion concerns such as acne came for its acupuncture facial, which also includes body acupuncture, gua sha and LED therapy.

Since Ora’s opening in 2021, the facial has become one of its most popular offerings.

Ms Claudia Baettig, an acupuncturist who works at Prosper LA in Los Angeles, is seeing women as young as their 20s come in for facial treatments. “A lot of their peers are already doing Botox and injectables, and they want something preventative,” she said. Or they want to avoid Botox altogether.

“I’m just so scared of getting filler and then regretting it,” said Ms Michelle Desouza, who lives in Brooklyn and is the founder of Same Skin, a culture and wellness community for women.

She scheduled her first cosmetic acupuncture session with Ms DiLibero at Gotham Wellness when she was just entering her 30s. She wanted to look rejuvenated, but “not look like everyone else”, she said, referring to the ubiquitous “Instagram face” – the neutered look sometimes facilitated by face-tuning filters and actual aesthetic treatments that, often as not, looks artificial intelligence-generated.

Ms Desouza, 36, said she was an exception among her friends, many of whom had gone the way of Botox.

While someone who has Botox done can still receive cosmetic acupuncture, Ms Baettig noted that it was like buying into “two opposing schools of thought”. Botox prevents muscle contraction, while acupuncture performs the opposite.

“We’re stimulating,” she said. “We want to increase circulation to the muscles.”

Does cosmetic acupuncture actually work? Success can be hard to measure because the objective is often subjective and varying. Ms Baettig said clients tended to have an instant glow after one session, but she warned them not to expect the same results as one would with injectables.

“But you do see a subtle reduction of fine lines and wrinkles,” she added. “You do see a brighter complexion, typically after six to 10 treatments.”

At Prosper LA, where a cosmetic acupuncture session costs US$195 (S$250) to US$225, and at other skincare salons, including Ora, where the signature facial is US$475, a series of treatments could easily put one in the same beauty budget range as injectables.

But potential holistic benefits like serenity and a relaxed mood are foreign to most serums, peels and Botox sessions.

“It’s a way to centre and calm myself,” said Ms Abrams, whose acupuncturist did manage to see her for a treatment without the six-week wait. NYTIMES