Shirshasana benefits for skin include improved blood circulation, detoxing, and firming facial muscles. It is an effective way to drastically improve the overall appearance of your skin. Practicing this move a few times a day will get your skin rid of pimple, acne, wrinkles, and dullness (1).
Before we get into Shirshasana benefits for skin, let’s take a brief look at the history of this yoga pose. Shirshasana is actually “said to be the king of all asanas. It needs to be done when your upper body is strong enough to hold the body weight. Therefore, you need to practice a whole lot of other asanas to build the strength required to do the Sirsasana” (Mehdi, 2017).
While yoga is still sometimes regarded as a holistic approach to achieving a healthier mind and body, it actually does more than that. Making it a part of your beauty regimen can help you achieve a healthier and glowing complexion, as well as prevent breakouts.
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You may have heard of something called facial yoga. Much like how we turn to yoga to tone our bodies, Shirshasana benefits for skin helps prevent skin from drooping and sagging, keeping our face looking tight and tone as well. Yoga exercises can help strengthen the muscles in your face and improve blood flow, restoring a youthful look to your face (2).
Skin, especially on the face, is often the very first thing we notice. Because of this, it becomes natural for us to want our skin to look healthy and smooth. Unfortunately, with bad food choices and poor stress management, achieving healthy skin can be quite difficult.
With regular Shirshasana practice, however, you’ll get lots of skin benefits that can take you one step closer to getting the skin you’ve always wanted.
17 Shirshasana Benefits For Skin
1. A Stunning Complexion
One of Shirshasana benefits for skin is a stunning complexion. Your facial complexions can be greatly benefitted by engaging in this pose regularly.
“Pimples and wrinkles” on our skin “are often caused by” the “inadequate removal of waste materials and insufficient nourishment from the blood” (Valluri, 2017). To combat this Shirshasana essentially guides oxygen-rich blood towards the skin on our faces, thereby improving your facial complexion (3).
Shirshasana works to improve digestion and circulation. When your body has better blood flow, it naturally produces glowing skin. Glowing skin comes with a digestion system that is working properly.
2. A Natural Face Lift
Skin loses its elasticity easily, so it is also helpful to do Shirshasana which will strengthen and tone the muscles in your face. Shirshasana is extremely effective in increasing blood circulation throughout your entire body – especially the face and brain – thus stimulating the skin (4).
When one performs Shirshasana, their head is now closer to the ground as they are now standing upside down. By doing this, they are reversing the flow of gravity. Our bodies are accustomed to the flow of gravity going from bottom to top, but this pose reverses just that. Therefore, “by reversing the flow of gravity,” this wondrous pose actually acts as a facelift” for us humans because it causes our “skin” to “hang in the opposite direction” (Mitchell, 2017).
3. Prevents Hair Fall, Baldness, and Gray Hairs
Shirshasana is ideal for helping to “prevent hair fall, baldness and greying of hair” (Admin, 2015). Why so, you ask? Well, it helps to “supply enriched blood and nutrients to the scalp region” (Admin, 2015). Losing hair, having grey hair, and suffering from baldness. These are all “often caused” by the scalp suffering from “bad blood circulation” (Admin, 2015).
This pose comes to the rescue of those who suffer from those above-mentioned issues. “Shirshasana doesn’t only direct enriched blood to the brain, it also sends it to the scalp.” As a result, grey hair gets restored to its “original color”, and people will notice their hair growing very long quickly by consistently including Shirshasana in their everyday routine (Admin, 2015).
4. It Reduces the Inflammation
Acne is considered an inflammation of the skin caused by a lot of factors including stress, food, and the environment. People going through puberty and adulthood experience it. Shirshasana can help reduce this inflammation. Other than improving your overall immune system function, it makes you physically and mentally stronger, too.
There’s a link between stress and hormonal acne: When anxiety levels spike, your body responds by producing an excessive amount of the hormone androgen, which stimulates the oil glands. Shirshasana can ultimately reduce stress levels, while the meditative aspect and slow, mindful flows of the practice can “ease any inflammation.”(5) Relax the mind, relax the body, relax all the hormones floating around just waiting to wreak havoc on your skin.
5. Offers Natural Blush To Face
Yes, you heard right folks. You can throw away that blush from your makeup drawer because this pose works way better, and is healthier, for your skin. This is a yoga pose that “brings your head under your heart” (Fogarty, 2015). The important thing to realize is that “poses like Handstands, Shoulder Stands, and Supported Headstand” are all ideal for getting “the blood pumping, increasing circulation, and stimulating all of the body — rosy cheeks and bright eyes included” (Fogarty, 2015).
6. Stops Varicose Veins From Forming
If anyone of you suffers from varicose veins, you know that while they might not be painful, you just can’t help wishing they’d disappear from your skin. Well, folks, I come bearing excellent news. Yes, that’s right. Shirshasana actually helps “prevent varicose veins” (YogaTrainingNepal, n.d.). How does you do this exactly? Well, all you do is simply “drain out edema fluid in the feet and improve blood circulation” by practicing the Sirsasana pose, which in turn will” greatly “reduce the chances of developing varicose veins” (YogaTrainingNepal, n.d.).
7. Increases Circulation
This pose allows us to increase our oxygen intake, therefore eliminating free radicals from the body (Alchemy Holistics, 2017). When you flip over, you will be sending extra oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the head, and that means more will be getting to your skin. Going upside-down will squeeze your little adrenal glands, which are responsible for the production of those so-called stress hormones. The cleaner your adrenal glands are, the more optimal they will function and the better your skin will look too.
Other Notable Shirshasana Benefits For Skin:
8. Balances hormones – Our hormones drive how we look, think and feel. When our hormones are out of balance we can experience dry skin and brittle or thinning hair, and sex hormone imbalances can lead to breakouts and acne.
9. Can tone your face – Designed to combat aging, this exercise can help smooth lines, lift the skin around the eyes, tone cheeks and tighten necks.
10. Helps you feel emotionally balanced – when you are emotionally balanced the results can take place on your skin as well.
11. Increases energy – dry dull skin can also be caused by a lack of energy. Shirshasana can increase your energy and brighten your skin.
12. Lowers stress – Much of acne and skin problems come from stress. You can improve this with Shirshasana,
13. Anxiety relief – Similar to above when you experience less anxiety the results can improve your skin complexion.
14. Treat thyroid function – When thyroid function is altered, the skin can’t do its job. It can become dry, cold and pale. When functioning properly your skin looks nourished and fresh.
15. Increases focus – one of the major benefits of mindfulness and increased focus is clear skin. This is likely due to a reduction in stress hormones mentioned above.
16. Improves digestion – When the digestive system struggles to eliminate toxins effectively, it will partner up with other organs and eliminate toxins that way. Since your skin is your body’s largest organ, it’s no surprise that acne, rosacea, and dermatitis crop up when something’s off internally.
17. Stimulates the lymphatic system – When the lymph nodes become inflamed and it becomes increasingly difficult for the lymphatic system to push waste out of the body, leading to noticeable changes in the skin. Shirshasana helps stimulate the lymph system and improves your skin’s appearance.
Sirsasana is definitely not a pose I would recommend you get into on your first day of learning and practicing yoga. But it is worth learning and mastering.
Shirshasana benefits for skin give you a healthy mind and body and in turn, make your skin glow. Together with a healthy mind and diet, yoga can naturally produce glowing skin making one look younger, healthier, and more beautiful. Our skin is the largest organ in our body, anything that’s good for the body is good for the skin.
Do Shirshasana twice a day, every day (even if it’s just for 5 minutes). The more you do, the more you will radiate from within.
It’s clear that substantial evidence exists suggesting that Shirshasana can benefit your skin by increasing blood flow, regulating glucose, and aiding in digestion. Not to mention that yoga has numerous other health benefits, including improved strength and flexibility and lowered stress levels.