Intimate Womens Health
A Surprising Reason Why We Get Forehead Lines
We were surprised to learn recently that in Japan – the home of phytoceramides – most people up into in their seventies and eighties have naturally smooth, wrinkle-free foreheads.
Like us, you might think this is due to genetics; but when we looked into it, we discovered that those involved in the skin care industry point to a different reason: the fact that Japanese people don’t use their faces to convey their emotions and feelings in the way that people in the West tend to do.
It turns out that one of the main reasons we have lines and creases on our forehead by the time we hit our thirties and forties, is because of the facial expressions we habitually pull through our life.
Whether we wrinkle our forehead through anger, worry, concentration, even happiness – or simply in the way we tend to use our facial expressions to communicate (think of how you respond if a friend tells you some amazing news: eyes wide open, forehead raised and wrinkled) – those repeated actions will cause our forehead lines to become increasingly deeper as we age.
When we add in the loss of ceramides and collagen in our skin as we get older, which results in a loss of elasticity and the ability of the skin to revert to its natural, smooth state, then it’s only to be expected that those forehead lines become one of the key features of an aged face. It’s also one of the two main areas people target when looking to regain their youthful appearance (the other is the eyes).
Two Simple Exercises
As well as our daily phytoceramide pill, there are two really cool exercises we love doing. They are based on acupressure, and they help reduce forehead lines and wrinkles, assisting the phytoceramides in the work they are doing to help you drop that decade from your face.
Ideally, you should do these exercises at least once a day, for one to five minutes each exercise. You’ll also need to do them in front of a mirror, in order to make sure you are getting your fingers on exactly the right points.
Exercise One
Place the tip of each forefinger on the edge of your hairline, directly in line above the pupils of your eyes (the red points in the picture above). Now, pressing firmly but not too hard, make small inward circles, for at least one minute.
This acupressure exercise is great for toning up the muscles, skin and deep tissue of your forehead; and as an added bonus, being an acupressure point, it is also helpful for enhancing the function of your gall bladder and liver.
Exercise Two
Now move the tip of each forefinger directly downward, to a point in the middle between your hairline and the top of your eyebrows, still in line directly above the pupils of your eyes (these are the green points in the photo).
Make small inward circles again, for at least one minute. This exercises the lower brow muscles and tissue, and helps the flow of blood to your skin. It’s also great for getting rid of headaches and migraines.
So there we have them: two simple yet incredibly powerful exercises which we use because they work!
As you do the exercises, you should notice a tingly feeling in your forehead. This shows they are working and that the blood is flowing to plump out your skin tissues.
TOP TIP: We have found that putting some Vitamin-C or coconut-based skin cream or moisturizer on our fingertips as we do these exercises makes it a double whammy.
