In 2018 a group of scientists from Northwestern University conducted
a study on how face yoga exercises influenced the appearance of middle-aged women. The research involved a group of women aged between 40 and 65 who had two face-to-face training sessions with facial exercise experts. Training sessions with the instructor were followed by daily 30-minute exercise sessions performed at home for eight weeks. Between weeks 8 and 20, they did the exercises periodically for 30 minutes.
The participants of the study did 32 exercises targeted at different face areas (eyelids, cheeks, jawline, etc.) All the exercises were developed and approved by
Gary Sikorski, founder of the Happy Face Yoga studio.
Photos were used to measure change, and dermatologists assessed them with no knowledge of the participants and the essence of the study. At the beginning, middle, and end of the study, dermatologists rated 19 features on each face using a standardized facial aging scale.