Beauty tips and tricks have been around for centuries. From weird skin treatments to an endless beauty routine, people are constantly looking for a miracle product that will enhance their beauty as long as they can, without knowing that some of those products have actually been used for generations and they just happened to be back on trend for now. Such is the case of jade rollers and gua-sha stones, whose history goes back to the 17th century and has a deeper meaning than the actual Instagram beauty trend.
Jade Roller´s Origin
For years, different cultures have considered jade as a very useful, meaningful, and valuable stone that only wealthy people could own. Mayans and Egyptians used it as a massage tool due to its cooling properties so that they could release muscle tension, and the Chinese royalty adopted it as part of their beauty routines.
Moreover, we must turn our attention mostly to this last culture and the Qing Dynasty to understand where the great fascination for this artifact came from.
It is thought that thanks to Empress Dowager Cixi´s love for jade, this “Stone of Heaven“ got a beauty purpose that was supposed to help her with skin reaffirming and anti-aging. Since then, jade and other crystals have been molded into different shapes and sizes so that people could acquire these rollers and treat their skin just as they thought would make them look rejuvenated.
Gua-sha history
Later on, Chinese medicine came up with another tool also made of different crystals. This artifact also has rounded edges but instead of being rolled all over the skin, it needs to be rubbed as if people were to scrape something off.
As we can see, the word “gua-sha“ is formed by two syllables that together unveil its purpose. Gua refers to scraping with a specific tool, and sha alludes to the redness of the skin.
Traditional Chinese medicine implemented this technique in order to help with muscle or joint pain, tightnes, and even blood flow so it was considered that gua-sha had the benefit of connecting mind, body, and soul to achieve wellness.
Overall function
Both of these beauty tools were such a luxury at the time especially for the fact that they were mostly made out of precious stones, but the great benefits that they allegedly achieved on people’s face complexion made them completely worth the expense and even come back to its peak almost 4 centuries later.
Jade rollers and gua-shas have been so popular and their use has gone through entire generations, that the market expanded its design range and now we can also find rose quartz rollers or even wooden gua-shas that serve the same purpose, and basically anyone could buy them.
People definitely take beauty very seriously and even though the effectiveness of these tools has been very questioned recently, rollers and gua-shas have a very pleasant sensation on the skin that all of us love to include in our beauty routines as frequently as possible.
Photos from Pexels
