There are a number of muscles that control the position of your eyebrows. When you make expressions like smiling or frowning, the muscles contract and the eyebrows move. These movements are important for facial communication and are part of our everyday activities.
When you’re in a state of stress, the facial muscles around your eyes can become overactive, Hayashi says. This can cause tension in your forehead, cheeks, and jaw.
To release this stress, try these easy pandiculations for your face, designed to loosen your muscles and help you relax.
Start with your middle fingers and gently tap the eyebrow area from one corner to the other. Do this six times in a row to warm up and relax the eye area.
Alternatively, you can gently massage the skin between your eyebrows with your index and middle fingers in little circles. This is a great way to soften the skin and reduce fine lines.
The frontalis muscle is responsible for raising your eyebrows. When this muscle is overworked and not relaxed it causes horizontal wrinkles on the upper forehead when you raise your eyebrows.
When this muscle is relaxed with Botox, it can also be made easier to raise your eyebrows. Some patients can get a heavy feeling in their forehead when they get too much Botox. This can be very uncomfortable and one patient described it as feeling like an elephant was sitting on her forehead.