One of the best side-effects of being a beauty writer is having friends and family ask me about products and treatments: Do they work? Are they worth it? What should I use? Lately, these talks always circle back to one thing, devices. Specifically, microcurrent devices à la NuFACE or ZIIP. The same questions are asked: Do they work? Are they worth it? But there also tend to be other questions, like how do they work? What are the risks? Even though I’ve owned a NuFACE for years, I really didn’t know the answers. Thus began my deep dive into the world of microcurrent. I got into it with dermatologists, estheticians, acupuncturists, and manufacturers. I consulted medical journals and ancient texts, and I even had a treatment done, all to bring you, me, and everyone we know the exhaustive guide on microcurrent.
A Little History
While these devices may seem trendy, one of the first known uses of electricity as bodily treatment goes as far back as the 1st century AD when Roman physician Scribonius Largus (beautiful name for a baby) suggested those suffering from gout or headaches should step on the electric ray fish. Over the next 2000ish years, electrotherapy remained a constantly evolving form of treatment for various ailments. In the 1980s, physicians began using microcurrent to treat patients with Bell’s Palsy, a neurological condition that causes facial paralysis. Soon after, in the ’90s, we began to see microcurrent devices used for aesthetic purposes in spas and dermatologist offices. Still, they didn’t become a household concept until they actually landed in our households with the creation of hand-held devices.
How do they Work?
Whether you’re at a spa with a large, plug-in device or at home with your PureLift, microcurrent devices work by emitting low-level electrical currents through your skin to your facial muscles. “There are as many shapes of microcurrent electrodes as there are machines,” explains esthetician Raquel Medina-Cleghorn, “but…
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