Pronounced “Gua-Sa”, it is an excellent tool to move stagnating, aching areas. You can do this at home and I frequently recommend people do. In fact, if you ever have that feeling you are coming down with a cold, you can gua sha the upper back and when you wake in the morning, you will not have a cold. We use this in our family on a regular basis.
Some basic tips:
- Put some light oil on the skin so the skin doesn’t pull. Any oil will do- coconut oil works beautifully but I’ve used skin lotions such as Nivea and olive oil which works just fine
- Use a Chinese soup spoon or even a jar lid for scraping
- Be careful over bony areas
- Gua Sha shouldn’t hurt- so if you are hurting the person, back off
- Don’t be afraid if it comes up super red- it can even come up purple which can be rather scary- some people will hardly get red at all
- Light bumps should appear- like little grains of sand- this is the ‘sha’
- When done, cover up! The area will be vulnerable to ‘wind’
- Marks take anywhere from a day to several days to resolve so don’t do this if you are planning on showing off the area being scraped!
- Do not do this if the recipient is a child or pregnant