Doctors weigh in on TikTok trend of face tapping for wrinkles
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, an obstetrician and gynecologist in New York City, said taping your face at night won’t help wrinkles disappear
The latest TikTok beauty hack to go viral involves taping your face to smooth out wrinkles.
Viewed millions of times on the platform, it involves taping wrinkles to straighten them and keep muscles in place. The tape stays on for hours, usually while a person sleeps.
Proponents say it smoothed out their wrinkles and made their skin look younger.
But doctors warn that while it may give immediate results, the wrinkles will return within a few minutes β or, at best, a few hours.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a New Jersey physician and chief medical correspondent for ABC News, said the method has a “very superficial, very temporary” effect.
She said it was “very unlikely that nightly taping would do anything significant” for deeper wrinkles.
The hack resurfaced on TikTok this year, with users posting images of themselves putting tape on their cheeks, forehead (left) and even around their mouth (right) to prevent wrinkles. Dr. Ashton said this likely has a “superficial” effect on wrinkles
The medic, who works as an obstetrician and gynecologist at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, also warned of side effects.
She said people can have allergic reactions to the tape, which can make their face swollen and red, while peeling it off can remove the top layer of skin, which can damage and infect the underlying cells.
Scroll through TikTok for a few minutes and you’ll probably be hit with a video of someone – normally a woman – tapeping their face before going to bed.
Users are shown using adhesive tape, plasters and specialized medical tapes to tighten the skin around their forehead, cheeks and mouth.
The hack has made a recent comeback on TikTok, having first surfaced on the social media site last year.
But the method is actually nothing new and dates back to 1889 when a famous brand of face tape called Frownies first hit the market.
It was invented by Margaret Krosesen of Dayton, Ohio, for her daughter Alice, a concert pianist, who had developed unsightly wrinkles and frown lines.
It’s one of Hollywood’s oldest “secrets” that claims to age skin.
Celebrities such as actress and supermodel Raquel Welch and Kardashian’s mother Kris Jenner admit to applying the tape every night to maintain younger-looking skin.
But doctors say that despite ShowBiz World’s approval, there’s little evidence that the hack actually works.
Dr Ashton, who works as a gynecologist and obstetrician, explained Good morning America: ‘Very superficially and very temporarily it can smooth out those superficial wrinkles.
“It depends on the person’s age, how much skin damage there is, how much elasticity or collagen there is in their skin, how much volume they’ve lost with age.”
βAll of those things can contribute to the appearance of wrinkles.
‘[But] it’s possible that when you remove the tape, those wrinkles can re-form in minutes to hours. So it will be a very temporary effect.’
When asked about deeper wrinkles, she said, “You have to ask yourself if you’re dealing with fine wrinkles and lines or deep wrinkles.
“It is very unlikely that you will tape your face for several hours at night with anything significant for deeper wrinkles.”
Dr. Roberta del Campo, a dermatologist in Florida, has previously warned that the method could actually give someone deeper lines.
She said HuffPost that if one were to try the hack, facial muscles could overcompensate in the long run by strengthening themselves. This could eventually lead to deeper lines down the line, she said, because of more powerful contractions.
She’s also tried the hack herself and said it led to a “smoothing effect” on her forehead in the morning.
Wrinkles tend to form in areas where there is constant repetitive motion, such as around the eyes or mouth.
They start as fine lines that look like small folds on the skin.
But over time, it can progress to deep fissures and grooves across the skin’s surface.
As a result, face taping is just one of many hacks to combat wrinkles on your face. Others include micro-needling, getting fillers, and even taking certain medications.
Pictured above is a woman who tapes her face to prevent wrinkles. Dr. Ashton also warned about the side effects, including a possible allergic reaction or removal of the top layer of skin. There is no evidence that any of this happened to the woman pictured above
Dr. Ashton cautioned that while the tape method doesn’t work, someone who does it regularly runs the risk of side effects.
Some users get allergic reactions to their tape, she said, which can make their faces puffy, swollen and red in color.
There is also a risk that the tape could remove the top layer of skin, the epidermis, leaving a person susceptible to infection and damage to the layers of skin below.
She said: ‘We see allergic reactions to tape on the skin all the time during surgeries.
“I’d suggest if you’re going to try this, try it on a part of your body that the whole world doesn’t see, just in case you have an allergic reaction.”
βIn some cases, there may be tape burns. You can even remove the superficial level of the epidermis, which of course would be a big deal.
She said women could use botox instead of tape, which she described as the “gold standard” for wrinkle prevention.