Lines and puffiness between eyebrows

[faraway]

My main concern is the area between my eyes and above the eye brows in my forehead. I'm attaching a photo where you can see that I not only have a crease between my eyes but also a quite "puffy" area above my eye brows. If you have some tips or advice on how to tone up this area it would be highly appreciated!

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Best regards and happy new year!

[Tom Hagerty]

Your photos show an extreme example of “poor facial posture.” The key to your poor facial posture is the continual contraction, the knitting up, of your procerus muscles – the frowning muscles.

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When you do the scalp exercise properly, the tension of this muscle between the eyebrows will be relaxed. By doing the scalp exercise “properly,” I mean the alternating contraction of both the frontalis and occipitalis muscles. It is difficult to gain control of those muscles at the back of your head though. In most people, the occipitalis muscles are atrophied. It takes time and concentration to bring them back to life. But in your case, especially, this effort will not be wasted. When these “occips” are exercised they become super-strong. They will exert a continual pull, smoothing out your forehead. The problem is that this will take a long time to accomplish – perhaps a year.

What makes your case extreme is that there is a puffiness adjacent to the procerus muscles. I think the scalp exercise will reduce this puffiness along with reducing the tension on the procerus muscles. At first though you might notice a deepening of the lines in your forehead. Don’t be concerned about this. As the balance between the frontalis and occipitalis muscles increases, these lines will become less evident.

Two suggestions: (1) When you gain control of the occipitalis muscles, hold the contraction of this muscle for a second or more when doing the exercise. Never hold the contraction of the frontalis muscle though. (2) Never contract the procerus muscles when you are doing the scalp exercise. You want to keep the procerus muscles relaxed so that they will become less active.

When you gain control of the scalp muscles and exercise them everyday, you will notice that the tension in the procerus muscles and other small muscles that cause your brows to contually knit will relax. In other words, the constant contraction of these muscles will end. Take a look at this photo of a public figure. You will notice that his brow muscles are in "contracture" - the medical term for this state of continual tension and contraction.

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Many people have written to me that their tension headaches disappear after they have done the scalp exercise for several months. This is plausible because tight scalp muscles cause a continual pressure on the cranium. This condition probably doesn't pertain to you, but it is something to think about.

You not only have deep lines between your eyebrows, you have a puffiness adjacent to those lines. It is possible that there could be some lymphatic drainage problem in the area. The scalp exercise speeds up lymphatic drainage and therefore could reduce the buildup of lymph fluid in the area. After doing the exercise you might actually see a lessening of the puffiness at the front of your forehead.

[faraway]

Do you think it´s a good idea to combine facial exercises with facial massage? Such as this one for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ANcs7oh9s. I´m thinking that facial massage perhaps further will reduce eventual lymphatic drainage problems.

[Nonie]

My main concern is the area between my eyes and above the eye brows in my forehead. I'm attaching a photo where you can see that I not only have a crease between my eyes but also a quite "puffy" area above my eye brows. If you have some tips or advice on how to tone up this area it would be highly appreciated!

Happy New Year Faraway and everyone else!

As Tom has so well explained, your forehead is overbuilt from being overworked at the expense of all other muscles on your face, thus creating the imbalance that you now see as puffiness and lines. You didn't say whether you have been doing any other face exercise program before now? If so, may I ask which one? And was it a complete program or did you just do exercises targeted at smoothing out the forehead? If just targeted exercises, can you describe them or give a link to them?

Once you answer my questions, I will be back with my thoughts and suggestions.

Nonie

[faraway]

Thanks for your reply Nonie!

I have not been doing any other facial exercise program before. I used to frown (sad dog eyes) a lot when I was younger though, but I started to become more aware of my facial expressions a few years ago when I noticed that crease between my eyes building up as well as the line in my forehead. Over the past two years or so I´ve been trying to avoid using the procerus, corrugator and frontalis muscles, thinking that this perhaps would smoothen out my forehead.

Faraway

[Tom Hagerty]

faraway, I watched the video you linked to. The self-massage technique looked relaxing and charming. I also looked at the chapter on facial massage in Clare Maxwell-Hudson's The Complete Book of Massage. There is no doubt that a good facial massage will bring benefits to you. But is facial massage the most effective form of facial rejuvenation?

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Facial massage is a passive movement of the skin of the face over the underlying muscles; facial exercise is an active contraction of the facial muscles that will tone up these muscles and give the overlying skin some benefit too. I am sure that most people would prefer a relaxing massage to the more vigorous facial exercise. I'll leave that choice to you.

If you opt for the facial exercise option, you have to be careful about which program you choose. I have not seen this, but Nonie may tell you about programs that can damage the face.

[faraway]

If you opt for the facial exercise option, you have to be careful about which program you choose. I have not seen this, but Nonie may tell you about programs that can damage the face.

My plan is to follow your facial exercise program, perhaps with some adjustments to target my problem areas. Then in addition I might do some facial massage too. I guess it can't harm.

[Nonie]

If you opt for the facial exercise option, you have to be careful about which program you choose. I have not seen this, but Nonie may tell you about programs that can damage the face.

My plan is to follow your facial exercise program, perhaps with some adjustments to target my problem areas. Then in addition I might do some facial massage too. I guess it can't harm.

Hi Faraway:

I will get back to my promise tomorrow. I just wanted to warn you about "some adjustments" that you may make to target your problem areas. My suggestion would be to discuss those adjustments with Tom to make sure that they complement the other exercises in his program. If there's one mistake I see people make, it is guessing what it is they need to do to "adjust" a program to suit their faces. I am yet to see proof that it ever works. I will show you what I mean when I get to responding to your post from yesterday. The way I see it, most face exercise authors choose the exercises they choose to include in their program because they have determined that they are the BEST combination that TOGETHER give good results. So if I were considering making an adjustment, I would not do it without first making sure that the logic behind why the exercise was to be done the author's way is negotiable and won't undo the work of another exercise. I have been doing face exercises since the start of the 90's and even I would not try anything without first checking with the author of the program I follow if he or she thinks the addition is OK and complementary to what I am already doing.

Just my two cents.

Nonie

[Nonie]

Thanks for your reply Nonie!

I have not been doing any other facial exercise program before. I used to frown (sad dog eyes) a lot when I was younger though, but I started to become more aware of my facial expressions a few years ago when I noticed that crease between my eyes building up as well as the line in my forehead. Over the past two years or so I´ve been trying to avoid using the procerus, corrugator and frontalis muscles, thinking that this perhaps would smoothen out my forehead.

Faraway

OK, so yes, your habit of frowning is akin to doing bicep curls with increasing weights over a long period of time while not working any other part of your body, so that your arms bulk out while the rest of you remains scrawny. I do think doing Tom's program is a great choice for you. Why? For one, because there is no frowning involved at all. Secondly, you will be doing stuff that is opposite to what caused you the problem you have and thus be working toward undoing this "damage". His scalp exercises engages muscles of the forehead that you have neglected or used less at the expense of working the procerus. As you awaken and work those related muscles, they will start to get toned and strengthened so they can balance out the very strong procerus.

Contracting the procerus pulls eyebrows down and wrinkles the area between them. Contracting the frontalis raises the eyebrows up and does not bring them close together as happened in the previous contraction so there is no wrinkling between the eyebrows here. If you can imagine doing this latter movement often enough as you have done the former, then you can picture the frontalis getting as toned as your frontalis so that the muscle remain in partial contraction (definition of tone)...and in their opposite effect, counteract the downward pull keeping your eyebrows in their original position. Furthermore, the contraction of the occipitalis which the second part of Tom's scalp exercise has an outward pull (think of ears moving back) which logically would be working toward opening that area up. So again, imagine doing that so long and so much (like you did the frowning) till those muscles that lift up and pull outward are strong enough to match the frown muscles.

But this is not the only thing you can do. I do believe massage is important to relax muscles. Now I don't think it hurts you to do Tanaka massage, but I think with muscles as strong as yours, you might need a deeper massage to relax the area. On another discussion forum, there was an exercise that was suggested as an alternative to Botox. People get Botox to relax forehead muscles by paralysing them so that the contraction that creates that crease melts away. So an exercise that is deemed an alternative would have to be one that achieves the same results. And the lady demonstrating it does not have that furrow between the eyebrows so I kinda believe her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfar5dMAaxs

Last but not least, make sure you do Tom's complete program...not just the scalp exercise. All the muscles of the face and interconnected and so working one area at the expense of others will give an imbalance that isn't pretty. Also remember your problem didn't happen overnight so do not fret if it seems to take a long time to start seeing results. Trust that changes are taking place and keep at it. Remember a watched pot never boils. So the more you worry about it, the longer it will appear to take to get better. Also as you master the scalp exercise, you will start to appreciate how relaxing it is and if you catch yourself frowning, you can switch out of that bad habit by doing the scalp exercise. There is a post somewhere about facial posture and developing good habits. As you get better control of your face muscles, this "good facial posture" will start to become something you do as a norm. Be patient with yourself during the learning curve. Know that every effort you put into this is not wasted. The best part about it is, you are doing something about it NOW and it is an investment that will pay off for years to come.

My best,

Nonie

[faraway]

People get Botox to relax forehead muscles by paralysing them so that the contraction that creates that crease melts away. So an exercise that is deemed an alternative would have to be one that achieves the same results. And the lady demonstrating it does not have that furrow between the eyebrows so I kinda believe her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfar5dMAaxs

She says in the end of the video that she only been doing it for a couple of days though... Either way it makes sense to relax those muscles by deep massaging. But pulling and stretching the skin? Will that not damage the skin?

Regarding this tanaka massage, I agree with you that it looks kind of soft. But I was thinking that it perhaps is good to for draining the lymphatic fluid in your face.

Another thing I´ve been thinking of when it comes to my "poor facial posture" is the fact that I, in my entire life, have been sleeping on my stomach with one side of the face buried in the pillow. During sleep I guess that fluids are build up in the face. I´m thinking that this in combination with squeezing the face together might cause wrinkles and creases? Sleeping on my back could perhaps prevent the crease to become deeper and also reduce the amount of fluid that´s building up in the face during night?

Nevertheless, thanks a lot for your support. I´ll definitely commit myself to Tom's program once I get the DVD.

Regards,

Faraway