| Author | Message | ||
     Amy K New member Username: Amybird888 Post Number: 1 Registered: 08-2008 |
hello there; new member here - though i've been referring to this site since january this year. in fact i happened upon it because i was trying to find out what was involved in some sort of eyelid lifting surgery. it hadn't even occurred to me that facial muscles could be trained just like any other body part, let alone that they could be used to change one's face and literally provide d.i.y. surgery. needless to say, my initial avenue of enquiry was closed off immediately. i'm 27 now, and since the age of 16 my eyelids, or rather the skin above them had been descending. also, despite being slim, and even anorexic during my teens, i've always had a rounded face, with a frustrating lack of jawline or any real detail. i always thought a characaturist would have a hard time with me. so dieting to make my face leaner hasn't been an option, partly because i'm slim already and also because it seems to make no difference anyway. i always thought that some people, for example many celebrities of course because they are who we all see, had faces which when relaxed had more strength and expression than i could ever muster up with all my concentration, whilst my own face has been suffering increasingly from a general disappearing syndrome. in photos, it seemed that my eyes just weren't even there, even with a lot of makeup. the fact that from the neck down, e.g. tall slim and leggy, i've not had too much too complain about has highlighted my lack of face even more. i began taking very honest front-view photos of my face to try and understand it, and figure out what i look like and where the problem was. the eyelid drooping might have been ok if it was at least symmetrical but the right one was always lower. and something else i'd never even noticed, a completely asymmetrical jawline, with it being relatively straight on the right, but rounded on the left (which i now presume to be simply from chewing in the same direction my whole life). the main things i wanted were: visible eye sockets; a jawline defined by bone rather than flesh; symmetry. i've been using a combination of your and carole maggio's face exercises since january this year. and how i wish someone had started me on them 10 years ago! although my mission is by no means 'finished', the revelation that my goals are actually realistic and achievable is such a relief. my jawline is evening out and sharpening up slowly. i'm sure it's never going to be enormously striking because i just don't have a particularly big or naturally jutting bone there in the first place, but at least i can make the best of what i have. also, much to my delight, since i really hadn't a clue this was something one could fix without surgery, my eyelids/brows are lifting, and my eye sockets are deepening. i'm currently at a point where upon waking in the morning my brow and eyelids - or rather, my scalp - have all relaxed back down, but after my morning exercises, and some time after that everything starts to lift again. on a good day, from about mid-afternoon onwards i may have almost symmetrically revealed eye sockets. but that's still quite rare at present. this brings me to my query.i know you've said elsewhere in the forum that asymmetrical muscle response, particularly in the scalp area, is natural and common, and will even out with time, but i wonder if you could offer any further explanations. the scalp exercises haven't been a problem for me; i've been able to wiggle my ears since i was a child. as far as i can tell from looking and feeling my scalp when it moves, my left and right muscles are pretty equal in their strength etc. yet a lot of the time it's as though something it missing on the right side (even though i'm right handed too.... ?)if i hold my occipitals contracted, the left portion of my forehead/brow lifts and tightens right up, fully lifting the flesh over my eyelid, whilst nothing seems to happen on the right, except eventually after great effort and usually many hours of sustaining contractions and tension etc. it's becoming a problem at times. i feel very self-conscious when out and about, that my eyes are in fact now even more asymmetrical then when they were all droopy. i'm sure you'll say this will remedy itself eventually, and i'm sure you're right - especially when i think what progress my face has made already this year. i guess it's more that i'd like an explanation really. like i said, the left and right muscles seem equal in strength and motion, plus i'm right handed, yet it's the right side that's holding everything up now. or down - heh. oh dear i've typed an awful lot. sorry about that! still, any thoughts? | ||
| C M New member Username: Ceeme Post Number: 74 Registered: 06-2007 |
Hi Amy: Welcome to Shape Your Face. I am so pleased with your determination. So many people give up too quickly but you didn't and I am so sure you'll reap the fruits what you seek, whose blooms are already peeking.  It's funny you mention having drooping eyelids at your age. I had them at 20 but not wrinkly. You just couldn't see my eyelids. But I didn't know there was anything abnormal or unusual about that. I didn't even know there was such a thing as eyelid surgery until I was in my thirties! But I did start face exercises at twenty. I cannot tell you at which point my eyelids got toned so that they were no longer drooping as I wasn't paying attention--since I didn't know there was such a thing to aim for--but if you saw me now, now you'd never know I ever had drooping eyelids. I didn't even realize it myself at first that my eyes ever looked any different than they do today. Until one day when reading about face exercises, I discovered that this is something people strive for and that exercise can achieve it. That got me wondering if my look was from genetics or exercise. On looking at my family members, they all have "hidden eyelids". So I started to look through my photos going back in years. To my surprise, as clear as night is from day, my eyelids before face exercise were indeed different and very much like those of my family: the eyelids were not visible! Who knew?! So slowly but surely, you too will get there. Anyway, about unevenness on our faces balancing out eventually when you just do the exercises on either side equally, I'm not sure why or how that happens. Maybe the muscles get toned up to an "ultimate point" and so cannot get any tighter on the strong side but just maintain that firmness until the weak side eventually also reaches that peak point, by which time both sides match? I dunno. *shrug* Hopefully Tom can enlighten us on the "science" behind that. One thing I do know is we tend to be our own worst critics and we might be the only people that notice the asymmetry on ourselves, probably because we also feel it. So focus on what you know is soon to be--not what is now--and start to walk tall as if it already is, and one day you'll wake up and wonder how long it has been since you arrived at your dream. Remember the watched pot that never boils? Just just plug on...and be diligent w/o looking for results. Payday eventually comes. And what a joy when it creeps up on you unexpectedly. In my profile (if you click on my name), I have a photo of the late Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopez of the group TLC. I find her very beautiful and she's got an asymmetry in her eyes. In fact, she got that nickname when a guy told her he was attracted to her left eye. It's not always easy to see the asymmetry in her eyes (I know I would never have noticed it had I not wondered why the nickname or read the story behind it--which further proves that outsiders don't always see "flaws" we might be aware of). Anyway here are a few photos of her in which you might see the difference in her eyes. I think it is rather cute. Gives her a uniqueness and character, don't you think? http://personalpages.tds.net/~mtcchief/left-eye_2.jpg http://www.fanunity.com/lisa-lopes/images/lisa-lopes.jpg http://www.daveyd.com/lisa_lefteye_lopez.jpg | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 83 Registered: 05-2006 |
Amy K: "since the age of 16 my eyelids, or rather the skin above them had been descending." Facial exercise programs do not produce miracles except for one area of the face - hooded eyelids. I've seen the scalp exercise, exercise number five on my website, diminish and even eliminate these folds of skin over the upper eyelid in a relative short period of time. For other facial improvements it takes a lot longer. It's strange, though, that the scalp exercise can work its magic on hooded eyelids because the exercise does not really target the extremely small palpebral muscles. "my own face has been suffering increasingly from a general disappearing syndrome." Your face may be disappearing but your writing skill, your gift for description, is highly visible. "the main things i wanted were: visible eye sockets; a jawline defined by bone rather than flesh; symmetry." These facial characteristics look good in both men and women. Look at the faces of two of your fellow Scandinavians, Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman. Their faces have these qualities. "if i hold my occipitals contracted, the left portion of my forehead/brow lifts and tightens right up, fully lifting the flesh over my eyelid, whilst nothing seems to happen on the right..." As far as you can determine, your occipitalis muscles, both the right and left slips, are contracting with equal force, yet the left side of your forehead pulls up while the right side does not. Study the anatomical drawing of the rear view of the head on exercise number five I can't give you an answer for why this is happening. Both parts of the occipitalis muscle are attached to the flat tendinous membrane, the galea. When the galea is stretched backward with the contraction of the occipitalis, the entire forehead should symmetrically pull up and back, smoothing out the forehead. I don't even have a hint why this does not happen with you. Perhaps there is some lack of symmetry in your galea. | ||
| Thomas Hagerty Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 84 Registered: 05-2006 |
"visible eye sockets; a jawline defined by bone rather than flesh; symmetry." So how does Greta Garbo fit in with your ideal?  | ||
| Amy K New member Username: Amybird888 Post Number: 3 Registered: 08-2008 |
hmm, and oh dear, and eek... 'Your face may be disappearing but your writing skill, your gift for description, is highly visible.' 'Look at the faces of two of your fellow Scandinavians, Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman.' i think maybe my location has been a little misinformative. nevermind, i'm well accustomed to saying "i'm sorry, i'm not norwegian; i'm english" - though usually in norwegian. i've been living in norway with my norwegian husband since dec. 2006. perhaps if my norwegian was even a tenth of my english standard i'd be worthy of compliment...oh well, it was nice anyway. this is probably quite close to the english standard of most 'nordmenn' - it's just the brits who are hopeless at everyone else's language. blah :P as regards the main body of the post - guess i'll just keep squeezing away with the old occipitals. logically it has to even out sooner or later. maybe by the end of the year. fingers (and ears!) crossed. |
