That's a Lot of Needles in Your Face

New York Times

07-08-2025

Amy Abrams, who owns and operates the Manhattan Vintage Show, has been getting regular cosmetic acupuncture facials for five years.
'I've been going every four to six weeks,' she said, a routine she sees as part of a 'self-care commitment' to looking and feeling her best. Lanshin, a beauty spa in Brooklyn that draws from traditional Chinese medicine practices, is her go-to, but recently, Ms. Abrams, 52, found appointments with her acupuncturist difficult to come by.
'She didn't have anything for six weeks,' Ms. Abrams said. 'I mean, that's great for her, but wow.'
When it comes to achieving youthful-looking, rejuvenated skin, do all roads eventually lead to needles? It seems so, given the multitude of ways to poke one's face, from Botox injections and plumping fillers to microneedling facials and even P.R.P. (platelet-rich plasma) and salmon sperm DNA injections, all sought out for the promise of a glowier, more supple visage. Pity the needle-phobic!
Cosmetic acupuncture (a.k.a. facial acupuncture), the injection-free outlier of the bunch, uses needles approximately one-fifth the diameter of typical hypodermic needles and is said to increase circulation, boost collagen production and improve skin tone. Long-favored by wellness moguls like Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow, it has grown in popularity as more people turn to holistic skin care methods. In an interview in May, Sarita Choudhury, who stars in 'And Just Like That …,' said she indulged in weekly sessions with her acupuncturist.
As one of the Western Hemisphere's more widely known forms of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture's stateside popularity reaches back to the 1970s when an American journalist trailing President Richard M. Nixon's 1971 delegation to Beijing reported on having received the treatment there.
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