“What’s wrong? You look angry”

Hi Dr. Yang,

I am a 22 year old female and i have a furrowing brow as well. My brow gives my face the appearance as if I’m angry all the time and I feel like it makes me look masculine. For years people have been asking me, “what’s wrong? you look angry,” and all i can say is, “what? i feel the complete opposite!”

I’m a fairly happy person and I’ve always tried to maintain a positive attitude about my looks, but just recently someone again told me i looked mad. I am a complete girly girl and i hate not having my looks reflect that. I was researching online as well, and the only thing that i found was the female feminizing surgery and “brow bossing”, which seems dangerous to me. Are botox and surgery really the only options?

I’m only 22, but my eyes look like I’m 50.

So to avoid looking “angry” all the time, i constantly have to open my eyes very wide like this. It’s tiring and uncomfortable. I also do it so my eyes don’t appear saggy.

Sugarglider

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Hi Sugarglider,

I see a vertical line just above the middle border of your eyebrows. You don’t have any “Elevens” or vertical lines between your eyebrows which is the typical expression of an angry person. When we inject botox, in addition to injecting between the eyebrows, we will also ask you to frown or look angry in order to find the “tail end” of the frowning muscle which is located towards the middle third of the eyebrow. This can create a vertical line above the eyebrow, which contributes to the “angry look.”

I would not call what you have as brow bossing. When looking at your profile view your forehead is flat and does not have a “caveman” type of ridge on your eyebrow area. The vertical furrow is apparent above the eyebrow on the profile view also.

Although you may not feel that you are intentionally frowning or feeling angry, some people have very active muscles in this area. When I walk down the streets of Manhattan, I see many young women who are frowning while walking, yet it is not sunny and they aren’t talking to someone on the phone. There is a reason why Botox is so popular, because everyone frowns a little bit through out the day. Some people don’t even realize that they are doing it, and find that when the Botox is in effect they don’t have as many headaches. This may indicate that they were subconciously activating this muscle.

I can’t comment on your front photos with your eyes slightly closed. If you are able to fully open your eyes, then droopy eyelids or ptosis is unlikely. There are some medical conditions which can result in tired and droopy eyelids as the day progresses. I suggest you see an ophthalmologist to explain these symptoms. Most likely its nothing, and you may not be as tired an droopy as you say, but if you truly can’t open your eyelids by the end of the day, you really should get checked out.

As far as your comments about sagging eyelids, your eyelids look normal for your facial features. You don’t have the deep set eyes that many Italian women have. Certain ethnicities naturally have “puffier” eyelids, with very little eyelid showing. This is also a sign of youth. Just because you don’t have much if any eyelid showing does not mean that you look 50. You look very young, and I doubt that people will mistake you for a 50 year old.

Take a look at Cindy Crawford as a child, teenager and young adult. She is typically known for her deep set eyes.

http://www.childhoodcelebs.com/supermod … ord-again/

http://www.people.com/people/gallery/0, … _4,00.html

I think people look at magazines and the media in general, get brainwahsed to feel that they should look as good as the celebrities and may even think that the celebrities look that good all of the time. This brainwashing is what sells products and why they can make additional money in endorsing these products. Take a look at this link to see the less glamorous side: http://www.anvari.org/cols/Stars_without_Make_Up.html

I would not recommend any surgery for you. I think your eyes look very attractive, and appropriate for your face.

What if Claudia Schiffer did not feel comfortable about her eyes, and did not see the beauty that she has naturally. Her facial and eyelid structure and anatomy is very different from Cindy Crawford, and trying to create more eyelid show for Claudia, will only make her look like she had surgery.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 2337678412 .

If you feel a need to compare yourself to celebrities, instead you can look for celebrities who have more similar facial features and hopefully you will appreciate what you already have.

For example:

http://www.zimbio.com/Blake+Lively/arti … +Yesterday

Blake Lively doesn’t have much eyelid showing either, and she doesn’t look 50. She just looks great.

It’s possible that as you get older, you may actually have more eyelid showing similar to what happened to Cindy Crawford. Why have surgery for something that will happen naturally as you mature.

Best,

Dr. Yang