Dear LPG

I suspect this has happened to many men and women as we age, although more members of the fairer sex are likely to look at their reflections more often. And that is precisely what I am talking about.

Speaking from experience, and as a lady who still would only be seen out with a bit of make-up help, I take a daily and detailed look at my facial nooks and crannies as I add a bit of foundation and the all-important layer of mascara. However, I suspect it is easier to miss the details as your face ages if a quick look through half-damp, squinty eyes after washing it in the morning is your usual reflective habit.  But even if a quick daily glance is all you can manage, many of us older people would lie if we said that we dismissed the increasingly wrinkly details every morning.

I have the advantage that I cannot see a lot of ego-damaging detail once I take my glasses off to do something to my eyes.  My short-sightedness dictates that a lot of what is going on behind where the lenses should be is indecipherable while I paint. One could argue that this truth defeats the object of the half-hour of daily application, but the time I spend makes things look better than they are (albeit in my brain rather than in reality).  

Going under the knife to improve things might be a way forward. Still, even if I could afford to do that, the problems I have when it comes to baring my arm for a simple injection would make the thought of any procedure, let alone surgery that is not vital to my health, something to be avoided at all costs.

With all this in mind, I found myself on the internet recently looking for a few bits of advice that might help when it comes to greeting your reflection with a bit more positivity, regardless of whether you are trying to disguise the wrinkles with a bit of powder and paint or not. Apparently, it is all about massaging your lymphatic nodes… 

I have come up with face exercises, and there are many different ones online. Interestingly enough, from what I can see, there are as many men demonstrating them as women. Having found a few, I have asked LPG to link them at the bottom of my message.  

If nothing else, repeating them regularly will manifest benefits to others as they offer a definite bit of a daily workout for your fingers and hands.  What harm can it do, even if you only see a hint of improvement?    

PC Lewisham

PC shares her findings….

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