It’s ELECTRIC! Boogiewoogiewoogie.

I turned 36 this year, and I feel like the warranty ran out on my face. Gravity is definitely beginning to take it’s toll, and while I’ve done the best I could with my lifestyle choices and staying out of the sun, I guess a little sagging and fine lines are inevitable. Sigh*

I don’t know why this particular birthday hit me harder than any other, but it did. Maybe it’s because I spent the first six months of the year in physical therapy? Maybe it’s because those months spent with the physical therapist were not spent at the gym? Or making healthy dinners at home? Maybe it’s just because that’s the way it goes. I don’t know. But I feel like 36 hit me like a ton of bricks. In my face.

I read about NuFACE in a recent issue of Elle. Basically, it’s electrical stimulation for your face. I had e-stim once or twice a week during all those months of physical therapy to help relieve the pain and muscle spasms. E-stim also helps repair ligaments and muscles. The beginning of the article is about using electrical stimulation in conjunction with Botox, because apparently too much Botox makes your face go flat, and the e-stim helps diminish the loss of muscle tone. But it's good for the non-Botoxed among us too. Studies show that e-stim increases collagen and elastin and tones the muscle fibers. I’m not going to get into glycosaminoglycans and all the other real sciencey stuff, but you can read the article here.

Electric facials are pretty common these days, and one facialist to the rich and famous got tired of lugging around a giant microcurrent machine and invented a smaller hand-held model for her own use, and for home use. That was Carol Cole and the product is NuFACE. It emits the same level of current as the larger professional machines. Suzanne Somers also came up with the (I’m not even kidding) “FaceMaster,” but NuFACE is the only one with FDA approval. NuFACE facials are offered in salons all around the country, though the one they mention in the article, administered poolside at the Four Seasons Maui, sounds like the best one. I bet that’s the best place for anything.

They say NuFACE really works, and it SEEMS like it would work, even if it’s only temporary. Having had more than my share of e-stim over the years for assorted back problems, I know that it doesn’t hurt either. In fact, just the opposite: It feels AWESOME. I would love to try this thing, but the $250 price tag would keep me from buying any new products to write about here for a few months. I just can’t do that to you. You would miss me too much. Right? RIGHT?!?

Of the people who HAVE tried it, the reviews on the NuFACE website are all good, of course. The ones on Amazon are pretty great too, though there are a few negatives, which is typical. Some people didn’t get results, but the ones that did agree that you need to use this for a few minutes every day. The results build up gradually, and if you stop using it, you stop getting the results and your face starts to sag again. Kind of like shaving your legs or dying your hair, I guess. Maintenance.

I think it’s great that there are more and more advances in non-invasive anti-aging technology. Especially since we see so many unfortunate victims of the invasive stuff creeping around in their stilettos with cat eyes, duck lips, and weird cheeks. I want to age gracefully, but very verrrrry sloooooowwwly.