Dozens of Women Injured by New Device Promising to 'Get Rid of Cellulite'

A device called the FasciaBlaster designed to 'get rid of cellulite' created by a self-identified [...]

A device called the FasciaBlaster designed to "get rid of cellulite" created by a self-identified scientist is going viral on Facebook, but women are coming forward with allegations of serious injury after using it.

The tool, a plastic stick with four octopus-like massaging claws, has racked up almost 300,000 followers on Facebook and has received airtime from shows like Extra and the Today show. Its inventor, Ashley Black, says it breaks up fat cells to "get rid of cellulite."

fascia-blaster
(Photo: YouTube / Ashley Black Guru)

However, BuzzFeed News reports that dozens of women have come forward, filing compaints with the FDA and on the FasciaBlaster's Facebook page that the tool has caused them injury, from severe bruising, to inflammation, to weight gain, to sagging skin, to more cellulite, to nausea, to changes in menstruation.

BuzzFeed News even reports that doctors cannot confirm the scientific reasoning behind the product, calling Black's methods "loose science."

One woman, 49-year-old Julia Lefebvre, claims she still has bruises from the FasciaBlaster six months after she stopped using the product.

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"I was desperate," Lefebvre told BuzzFeed News. "Women are so self-conscious of their bodies it's almost instant gratification you get when you drag that claw across your skin and you get bruises. It's almost like feedback, but in our heads it's like why would women — extremely intelligent women — buy into this? I don't know how I bought into it."

The company's marketing materials say that the FasciaBlaster can "get rid of cellulite," "carve out" muscle, and "erase … pesky fat pockets" by massaging fascia, a real layer of tissue that connects muscle to skin and contributes to the appearance of cellulite.

fascia-blaster-ashley-black
(Photo: YouTube / Ashley Black Guru)

BuzzFeed News says that in order to use the $89 FasciaBlaster, women are instructed to warm up in a sauna, lather themselves in oil, and vigorously rub the tool along their bodies to "break up" fascia. Bruising is a sign of restoring "unhealthy fascia," Black claims.

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Doctors told BuzzFeed News that it's true that cellulite is caused by fat squeezing through fascia, but challenged many of Black's claims that the FasciaBlaster can "get rid" of cellulite and pop fat cells, and that bruising is a result of breaking up a "fascial adhesion." One doctor told BuzzFeed News these claims are based on "loose science."

The company argues that no legal steps have been taken by complaintants, and that it takes its customers' health seriously.

"We take the safety and welfare of our users very seriously," the company said in a statement. "Our practice is to have an independent third party physician investigate, but none of our users have provided any medical documentation of serious injury."

Photo Credit: Instagram / @ashleyblackguru

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