We’ve briefly discussed facial exercises and how they may be able to keep age at bay by helping to tone the underlying facial muscles that keep us looking young and sculpted, but I wanted to touch on it again after a comment from a woman who reviewed a glycolic acid peel I just purchased.  She said that she was in her later years and that she has kept her face looking younger and more wrinkle free by doing facial exercises. 

I think it’s fascinating that exercising your facial muscles can keep your face in shape, much like exercising the body keeps the body in tip top shape and prevents aging and certain illnesses and conditions that go with aging.  You can do so much with anti aging and wrinkle creams, and of course I advocate putting only the best products on your face to keep the overlying skin youthful, vibrant and toned, but what about the underlying structure that supports the firmness and lift of your face as you age?

It can definitely help with things like facial drooping (thanks to gravity), jowls, the development of that under the chin flap affectionately referred to as a “waddle” (thanks Ally McBeal for popularizing that one), and other sagging and drooping of the face and eyelids that contributes to that look of aging that we sometimes can’t even put our finger on.

Not only are there certain exercises that can help tone those facial muscles and prevent sagging, bagging and droopage, but there are even devices out there that claim to help tone the underlying muscles and top layer skin and dermis, which only require that you move them over your face, much like a hand help device. 

With the facial exercises, you just have to be careful to read reviews on the books you get, because some of them have been reported to create new wrinkles because they are so intense and held for so long that they create new opportunities for wrinkles.  If you think about it, that’s how wrinkles are created, they are areas of our face that repeatedly get scrunched, pulled and manipulated into the same position, and that is how these depressions and creases become permanent when our skin loses that youthful elasticity.