Face ageing is often associated with wrinkles, sagging and skin pigmentation.  We tend to think of our facial skin as a corset that holds the face together and that as long as the skin is tight and taught, the face will retain youthful features.

But what if it's the other way around? What if the underlying features cause the skin to sag and hand loosely on the face?

With no scientific studies proving that we gain extra skin surface or volume as we age, the idea of skin tightening should be put under a sceptical lens. 

If one forcibly contracts their face muscles, they will observe jowling, nasolabial folds forming, lips becoming thin and long, eye-bags becoming pronounced, etc. This happens because when muscles are contracted, their surface decreases and the skin stretched over them bunches and sags, producing the visual effect of an aged face.

Do muscles sag or harden?

Scientists have long observed that as we age, our muscles become weaker and perpetually shortened [1]. Even when the muscle is at slack, the muscle fibres don't fully retract into a fully elongated position, resulting in progressive changes to other tissues connected to the muscles. 

A French aesthetic surgeon and researcher Dr Claude deLouarn was so intrigued by this process that he commissioned a series of MRI scans documenting the muscles of youthful and aged faces [2]. He discovered that in young faces the muscles are long and arch forward, but in mature faces the muscles are shortened and flat.

It's worth noting that the contracting muscle has displaced the fat underneath it.

 Another scientist interested in facial muscles Dr Joel E Pessa noticed that elderly suffering from Bell's palsy (a partial face paralysis) develop a noticeable facial asymmetry, with many signs of ageing being alleviated. Hoverer young people struck with partial facial paralysis retained much of their original facial symmetry. This led Dr Pessa to conclude that the facial muscles of the mature face are permanently contracted and shortened [4].

To try and alleviate these issues Pessa and deLauarn have experimented with injecting filler substances underneath the muscles to force a stretch. Another avenue they explored included resecting the muscle - by cutting the muscle they'd force it to become perpetually unable to contract. The aesthetic results of such interventions lead to younger looking faces, but come at the cost of face mobility:

The photos above showcase the results of muscle resection [4]. In the photograph [A] jowling and bunching of the skin can be observed. In photo [B] the patient demonstrated her ability to pull her lip corners down. Photo [C] showcases the face after the muscle has been permanently damaged - the jawline is smooth and youthful. But as visible on photo [D] the patient is no longer able to pull her lip corners down. It has not been revealed if the intervention led to any long term damage to the patient's ability to speak or chew.

Why do the face muscles change over time?

We can observe the muscles become over-contracted and shortened with age, but we don't know why this happens. At the most basic level, we know the titin protein of the muscle fibre becomes shortened in aged muscles. Some speculation exists that this is related to varying levels of Ca+ ions or collagen protein presence in the muscles. Others point to muscles forming sticky adhesions that limit their movement or decreasing levels of acetylocholine, but those theories are not yet sufficiently backed by scientific observation.

We also don't know what is the best way to counteract the over-contraction process. Injectable Botox brings only temporary respite at the cost of facial movement. Neuropeptides Acetylhexapeptide-3 and -8 offer temporary softening of muscular contraction and can be delivered via cosmetic concoctions [5]. Other known neuropeptides include Pentapeptide-18 and SYN-ake (snake venom analog). DMAE used to be a cosmetic darling that helped to improve face muscle tone, but fell out of favour with the consumers. Stevia extract and glaucine are known to have muscle relaxing properties, but are extremely rare cosmetic ingredients.

Facial massages and stretches appear to be viable methods of facial muscle care. Simply touching the face can produce a muscle softening and relaxing effect and through the centuries our ancestors have experimented with various forms of facial massages and exercises. Currently we observe an explosion of popularity of facial massage services, with gua sha and jade rollers being offered in mainstream cosmetic stores, and aesthetic salons offering fascia, korugi, kolgi, Kobido and other massage systems.

Pursuing the ageless formula

As long as we cling to traditional ideas of "ageing=wrinkles" we are bound to achieve only mediocre results. A truly ageless face retains health and prime condition of all of its tissues - muscles, fat, capillaries, bone and skin. At CUKIER Concept we explore those issues and share ideas on how to keep the face looking ageless.

 

 Read more:

• 22 Sings of facial ageing (wrinkles are not on the list)

Sources:

1. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00266-006-0024-9

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7385684/

3.

4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00266-006-0025-8

5.