How ancestral beauty rituals are making a comeback in our modern routines

Half the kit bags on set now contain a gua sha stone, and at least one model a month tells me about the rice water rinse her grandmother swore by. I have spent a while working out which of these old rituals actually holds up under a bright light and a camera, and which ones I have quietly stopped suggesting.

The oils that earned their reputation

The strongest evidence in this whole revival sits with hair oiling, which is the least glamorous part of it. Rele and Mohile, publishing in the Journal of Cosmetic Science in 2003, compared coconut, mineral and sunflower oils on hair and found only coconut oil significantly reduced protein loss, applied either before or after washing. Its lauric acid has the shape and affinity to get inside the shaft rather than sit on it.

That is exactly what generations of women in India, the Caribbean and West Africa did without a journal to tell them. Argan oil, the other star of the natural aisle, has far less published work behind it and behaves like a good finishing oil rather than a repair treatment. I use it on ends before a shoot and expect shine, not structure.

Facial massage, jade rollers and what gua sha really does

Facial massage has genuine roots in Chinese and Japanese practice, and the most cited study behind it is smaller than the marketing suggests. Nielsen and colleagues, in Explore in 2007, used laser Doppler imaging on 11 subjects and recorded a fourfold increase in surface microcirculation in the first seven and a half minutes after gua sha, still elevated across the 25 minutes measured.

Two caveats worth holding onto. That study treated backs for muscle pain, not faces for puffiness, and eleven people is a pilot. What I can say from my own chair is that five minutes of upward massage before base makeup changes how foundation sits, mostly because the skin is warmer and slightly less puffy. Whether that counts as detoxification is a different question, and no, lymphatic drainage does not remove toxins.

Rice water: real effect, wrong promise

Rice water is the ritual that travelled fastest on social media, usually attached to the Yao women of Huangluo in Guangxi and their floor-length hair. The lab work behind it is real: Inamasu and colleagues, in the International Journal of Cosmetic Science in 2010, found that inositol from rice rinse water penetrates damaged hair, reduces surface friction and stays put after rinsing.

What that study did not test is growth. Smoother, less breakable hair looks longer over months because less of it snaps off, which is a different mechanism from anything happening at the follicle. If you try it, keep the rinse brief and stop if your hair starts feeling straw-like, which is the usual sign of too much protein for your hair type.

Turmeric deserves more caution than it gets

Turmeric has centuries of use in Indian skincare and a respectable early evidence base. The systematic review by Vaughn, Branum and Sivamani in Phytotherapy Research in 2016 pulled together 18 clinical studies, of which 10 showed statistically significant improvement in conditions including facial photoageing, while the authors were careful to call this early evidence rather than proof.

The part that rarely makes the reel is the allergy record. Allergic contact dermatitis to turmeric is documented in the dermatology literature, including the kumkum and nuptial-thread cases described in Indian journals, and it stains skin yellow for several days on the way out. Patch test a small area on your inner arm and wait 48 hours before putting a paste anywhere near your jawline the week of an event.

What the old rituals are worth, ranked honestly

Where the wellness story gets ahead of the facts

Two claims travel with these rituals that I would push back on. The first is that natural means gentle. Neither “natural” nor “organic” is legally defined in UK or EU cosmetics rules, and only a certification such as COSMOS puts numbers behind the word. Plants are also among the most common triggers of contact allergy, which is the whole reason the EU expanded its list of labelled fragrance allergens from 26 to more than 80 under Regulation 2023/1545, mandatory for products placed on the EU market since 31 July 2026. Great Britain has stayed at 26, so a British label tells you less than a European one.

The second is the history. Distilled essential oils are a relatively modern technology dressed up as ancient practice, and cold-pressed citrus oils in particular are phototoxic, which is why the fragrance industry caps bergapten at 15 parts per million in anything worn on sun-exposed skin. If you are building a routine around them, my guide to using essential oils safely in a beauty routine covers the dilutions.

How I would actually borrow from all this

Pick one ritual, not five. Oil your lengths on a Sunday afternoon if your hair is bleached or heat-damaged, or give yourself five minutes of facial massage before makeup on the days you have them. Both are pleasant, cheap and reversible, which is more than most of the beauty industry can offer.

The bit of the revival I genuinely like has nothing to do with ingredients. These practices are slow, they involve your hands, and they treat looking after yourself as something that takes time rather than something you buy. That part deserves the comeback.

Updated 11 August 2026. General wellbeing and beauty information, not medical advice. If you have eczema, rosacea or a known plant allergy, speak to a GP or dermatologist before applying food ingredients to your skin.

Sources: Rele AS, Mohile RB, Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2003; Nielsen A et al., Explore, 2007; Inamasu S et al., International Journal of Cosmetic Science, 2010; Vaughn AR, Branum A, Sivamani RK, Phytotherapy Research, 2016; CTPA and ASA guidance on natural and organic claims; Regulation (EU) 2023/1545 on fragrance allergen labelling; IFRA standard on bergapten.