By Laura Gordon
Do you ever wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and see “puffy face” staring back at you?
For excessive puffiness you will need to see your doctor if it’s due to allergic reaction to allergens or diseases such as sinusitis, tooth abscesses, kidney disease, hypothyroidism, Cushing’s or conjunctivitis, to name a few. For mild morning puffiness what you have is “stuck” lymph. Some reasons for puffiness might be nasal congestion, too much wine the night before, or a lack of sleep. Basically it’s an excess of fluid caught between the skin and the muscle tissue.
Over the course of the day it will begin to drain away, but if you want to help it disappear before your very eyes, and the puffy bag under them, here’s a handy technique to use: Facial Lymphatic Drainage.
Facial Lymphatic Drainage is a relaxing treatment that gently moves the excess facial fluid into larger duct systems (aka nodes) that quietly and quickly moves it out of the body.
- To begin place your fore fingers at the base on each side of your neck and gently move with a light touch in a circular motion. You want to move the skin under your fingers down, lateral, superior and medial. This stimulates and prepares the lymph nodes at the base of the neck to receive the lymph you are about to send its way!
- Next place your fingers under your chin just inside the jaw line and again perform light circular movement. This time the fingers are sweeping the tissue away from the center of the jaw toward the neck.
Remember, lymph channels are very close to the surface of the skin and it flows only one way so we want to use a gentle, light touch that moves the lymph to each side of the face and down to the neck.
The map to the left shows you the general direction you will use to move the lymph with your fingers. Note: start at the base and work up.
- From under the chin move to the space between the lower lip and the chin. Lightly move the skin under your fingers in a downward motion, release and begin in the starting position. Three times for all of these movements is sufficient.
- Go up the face to the cheek area repeating the technique, then under the eyes, along the temples, and over the eye brows. Remember to work laterally.
All in all facial lymphatic drainage should only take about 3 to 5 minutes.
Use this technique on yourself and let me know your results. Remember your touch should only move the suffice skin and a few layers of tissue underneath. Keep it light, move in one direction, and aim toward the neck!
Bonus for those who suffer from acne: doing this technique once a week will decrease the break outs.
I do not have puffiness in my face therefore this technique has little or no effect on me. Thanks for the advice I will pass it on to my wife so she can use it.
Well this is one I don’t have very often, anymore. I do however, have clients that will love being taught this technique, so as they do not have to deal with it leaving on it’s own through out the day. As for the acne part of it that will be wonderful to pass on to the teens and young adults that are interested in keeping their face area in fine shape.
I have been trying this method for only a couple of weeks now, after I had found it on the internet. I have seen a slight change but not a drastic one. I am still looking for other ways but not lucky enough. So for now i am doing this each morning instead of the last two weeks. Maybe twice a week. So starting this monday through the next two weeks each morning to see if I can see any real results.
I have used this technique before especially during the nights I don’t get to much sleep. So many women go through so many days with the “puffy eye syndrome” and have no idea how to get rid of this unsightful problem. While in Cosmetology I used this technique on one of my fellow classmates and she had this same problem every morning before we started this treatment and to this day we both go through the movements and keep our drainage down on those long nights of no sleep.
I love this one, I have notice a little bit of the puffiness gone. It feels wonderful though and relaxing I will absolutely use this with my clients.
I usually don’t have a lot of eyes puffyness, but I tried this anyway. I was suprised at how I could still tell the difference after I did this. I will have to remember this, especially when I might have some sinus congestion due to allergies.
Great info! I will try it in the morning and pass along to friends and family. Again, amazing what taking a little time for yourself will accomplish. Thanks!
Thank you for suggesting this technique. I tried it last weekend & I can actually say that it works. I just tried it and I loved it. ;-D
I have dark circles and some puffiness, but mainly dark circles under my eyes.I usually do a technique kind of like this to help with my dark circles, I start at the neck and brush upwards to get better circulation to my face. I also use my index fingers underneath my circles on my eyes and lightly brush upward, I have tried it this way and it seems to have the same feeling afterward that I get from the routine I do.
I get this pretty bad some mornings and I tried this and found it so relaxing I wanted to go back to bed. I would rather have someone do this technique to me at night so I could fall asleep.
I don’t have eye puffiness, but I do have really bad allergies. I tried this today and it seemed to help drain my sinuses better. This is definitely something I’ll share with my clients who have allergy problems too. Thank you!
I don’t have puffy eyes, but I still did the exercise and it was relaxing.I will remember this one though, for the break outs! This is one that I will recommend to my friends.Thanks!
I love this technique and use it every morning, and didn’t even know it. I just know it feels wonderful. I wake up every morning with puffy eyes from sinus pressure.
I have been doing this technique for a couple of years. I learned it through a massage therapist and it works so well I shared it with my mother who has had issues with this problem, she loves it and has helped her tremendously.
I don’t necessarily have puffy eyes ever, but I did try in anyways, and it felt pretty good. I do have a sister that gets puffy eyes a lot, so I will have her try it and see if it works for her.
I am trying this on my wife. I do not normally wake up with any puffiness. I will see what the results are after a few days, because I did not see any immediate results. She did think it felt good though.
I do this once in the mornings & I love it because it makes my whole face wake up every morning. Especially under the eyes!!!!! I feel so relaxed on the face it’s not even funny. HaHa
This is a good technique. When in lymph drainage class this helped me. i Would like to further my education in lymph. I believe that it is a big help.
I think this technique is great i hate waking up with the puffyness under my eyes, and I shared this with my mom too who is an allergy sufferer as well as someone who I’ve seen spend years putting the frozen vegetables on her face, she loved it as much as I did and we both saw results. great trick!
Luckily I have never suffered from morning puffiness. I tried this technique on my husband as well as myself. I didn’t notice any difference, but it did feel good. I wish there was a video, I would have liked to see the technique preformed by someone else first. It sounds like it might help reduce acne breakouts, which is always a good thing. This technique could be helpful with meeting clients needs.
I had a friend in high school who used to wake up every morning with her eyes really puffy. I wish I had known this treatment back then! I dont usually notice any puffiness but if I do I will try this.
I have never noticed eye puffiness on me but my boyfriend on the other hand all the time so I will try this technique on him this weekend and I can’t wait to see the results. Thanks!
I tried the technique a couple of times this week.Not only did it help it was very relaxing.
I’m not ususaly prone to puffiness in the morning, but i have been using this on my fiancee’. So far she seems to think that it does help. Thanks for the advice!
I don’t get puffy eyes very much, but when I do I know what to do to help relieve them. However, I did do it to my boyfriend as practice & he really enjoyed it.
I very rarely have puffiness, Scott however does and I tried it on him and it seemed to work. I will also tell my other friends about this.
I don’t usually have puffiness when I wake up, it didn’t do much to my face but it did feel good. It did however make my boyfriends face look a lot thinner. it is a very relaxing treatment.
I don’t usually have a puffy face in the morning. But I would use this if I ever do have a puffy face.
This time of year puffiness is the bane of my existence. I did the technique as I read it this afternoon, it felt fantastic. I think I’ll try it again when I get off of the massage table tonight.
I usually don’t wake up with puffy face, unless I did have a bit to much to drink. I will so do this treatment this weekend as I will be on vacaction and I will probably wake up with puffy face. Thank you for the advice and i will pass it along to my family and friends.
This is very helpful for me, I have many allergy problems, and very often have a puffy face or neck. I will definitely try this the next time I have problems Thank You!