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"Stick it to me, baby"
She's already a certified cosmetics junkie. Now our beauty diva Jacqui Stafford goes for a different type of fix: an acupuncture face-lift.

I'm having a holistic moment. Too much Enya or something, but I'm going all-spiritual. I hear about an acupuncture facelift. "Sign me up," I say, tossing out the firming face cream I needed a mortgage to buy.
I head to Manhattan's Sea Change Healing Center. It's one of those tranquil, melt-away-worries, oasis like sanctuaries that makes you feel like you should be wearing open-toe sandals and clutching a crystal. My timing is impeccable - I'm here the day of the most hideous storm in the history of the world, so I'm in more need of a stuff drink than a couple of needles.
The idiot's guide (the only way I can comprehend) to acupuncture: It's based on a centuries-old Far Eastern technique that releases the blockages of Qi (energy flow) by poking needles into various pressure points found along meridians (or channels) throughout the body. What's the point of all these points? Unblocking the Qi makes you makes you look and feel fabulous. Good enough for me.
For the facelift, a lot of needles will be inserted into my forehead. This is apparently going to balance me internally and rejuvenate my face. "Right," I say still no quite sure how needles in my forehead will bequeath me with cheekbones I can cut my teeth on.
I meet Siu Ping Negrin, a National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine certified and New York - licensed acupuncturist (phew!), who takes down my full medical history and positively oozes one of those doctor-who's-going-to-sort-out-all-my-woes kinds of auras. I can just feel the she's going to make me look about 12.
I lie down, and she starts by gently inserting needles into my pressure points, which for me, happen to be around my ankles and wrists. I'm confused, unaware that my ankles need a facelift. "Based on my assessment of each person's constitution, I'm putting them in the pressure points that correspond with the organs of the body," Negrin tells me. "Let me give you an example," she says, noting the glazed expression. "The spleen, in Chinese medicine, holds thing in and up. If someone's face is sagging, it may lead me to think that the spleen is in disharmony. What I would do is place needles on pressure points to tonify their spleen, and therefore make it function better."
Strangely enough, as she's telling me all this, there's a distinct tingling in my wrist where she's placed a needle. "Oh, that's just the Qi grabbing," she says matter-of-factly.
It's all rather odd. I'm having visions of some maniac running around my veins, unclogging my rivers of energy.
Next, she inserts about 20 really tiny needles along my wrinkles lines all over my forehead, then adds six regular acupuncture needles at the regular acupuncture needles at the start and end of each wrinkle (I need 26? I'm devastated.) I'm expecting it to hurt. I wince as she approaches with each needle, but I don't feel a thing. I'm one of those no-pain-no-gain kind of chicks, so I'm intrigued. "Can I see?" I reach for a mirror. The view is somewhat startling - a Halloween cast extra stares back.
Negrin leaves the room so I can relax. I lie there, stifling a giggle and feeling faintly ridiculous at the thought of needless in my ankles, wrists, and forehead in the name of vanity. And yet the whole experience is so unbelievable calming, it's almost as if I'm forced to go with the flow (excuse the pun).
After 10 minutes, she removes each needle, and I reach for the mirror. Is there a huge difference? (No patience, of course - demand results immediately.) Well, surprisingly, perennial skeptic though I am, I have to admit that I do look remarkably refreshed. My face feels firmer, more supple, my complexion brighter, alert, as if I've had an extremely good night's sleep. I look…will…yet, I have to say it…lifted.
"After the 5th of 6th treatment once a week, you'll see even more a difference," says Negrin. "Then you'll just need maintenance every few months or so. It's great at keeping you skin young and healthy, because it deals with disharmonies elsewhere in you body. I'm really treated your entire health, not just your face."
The whole concept for lifting is making me excited. I can see the need for the gym disappearing in a sea of needles. A final question. "Got any extra large ones for my boobs?"

Acupuncture Face Lift at the Sea
Change Healing Center
www.seachangehealing.com
31 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10010: 212-889 7300
$195 for 60 minutes
$975 for series of 6 treatments