First and foremost it’s never too early to start factoring your neck into your skincare routine. This is especially important for gua sha because your body’s lymphatic flow begins at the base of your skull before moving down to the jugular area in your neck. Jill Munson, founder of the gua sha company Wildling, told The Zoe Report that, “The collarbone area is the ‘master drain’ where lymphatic congestion from the face and head enters the blood system.” This means that any gua sha drainage you hope to achieve in your face is significantly less effective if you don’t include your neck in the process. Some schools of thought even believe that you should start with your neck in order to help with circulation before starting on your face.
Since there are so many lymph nodes in your neck area, specifically around your jaw and ears, your neck functions like a flow through to the rest of your body. In order to ensure your facial lymphatic drainage reaches your kidneys for filtration, it needs to be effectively drained through that flow aka your neck. Recommendations for how frequently you should utilize gua sha can vary from once a day to once a week, so finding what works best for your particular schedule (and body) is ultimately the best approach.
