SCULPTURING YOUR FACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21987, 23 June 1933, Page 15

SCULPTURING YOUR FACE

Do you realise that you can sculpture your face? (says Dorothy Cocks in an exchange). Not with mallet and chisel, of course. But with your hands and your hair brush and your will to be good-look-’"flalf of Greta Garbo’s exciting beauty is in that sculptured quality of her face, in the pure, clear outline of her face as defined by her hair and jaw and chin line. Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford have taken on new compelling beauty since they have learned to emphasise the planes and contours of their faces emphasis of the hair line and the chin line. In our efforts to be as beautiful as we can, most of us concentrate on beautifying the complexion—on the texture and colouring of the face. And complexion is exceedingly important to good looks, no question about that. But there is another phase of beauty you must coin sider and develop, too. The beauty of the outline, the modelling of your face. This is the beauty that a sculptor sees. Working in clay or in cold, colourless marble, he has no means of depicting the warm pinkness df the complexion. But he finds another beauty in the outline of the face, the planes of the face, the curves of the hair line and jaw line, the mould of the mouth and the eye sockets. You can add greatly to your good looks by learning to bring out those aspects of your own face.

First of all, take a long critical look at the shape of your face. Sit before a mirror. Brush your hair straight back from your face to expose your hair line. Take a pencil and draw an imaginary line outlining the shape of your face, beginning at the point of your chin, up the outside of one cheek, meeting the hair line in front of the ear, then following the hair line up the temple, across the brow, down the other temple, down that cheek, back to the point of your chin. What shape is your face? A pure oval outline is considered the classic standard of beauty for a woman’s face. If your face is shaped like that — with no heaviness around your jaws to make the oval bulge here —no peaks of baldness at the corners of your temples to give the oval sharp points there—then you should wear your hair brushed softly back to reveal that clear symmetrical loveliness which your facial outline has. A heart-shaped face is also a mark of beauty in a woman. A hair line which points down in a “ widow’s peak,” combined with a rather pointed chin, cheeks narrow through the jaws but swelling smoothly across the cheek bones, make the outline of the face heart-shaped. If the gods have blessed you with that gift, you also should wear your hair brushed back to make that piquant facial outline apparent to everyone. It is your good point. Play it up. But most of us, facing a mirror, see a face of irregular shape. Hair grows irregularly on the temples, denting the oval outline of the face. Or cheeks sag and make the face look square at the jaws instead of oval. Mouth corners droop and make deep furrows like parentheses that break the smooth curve from the chin to the ear. Hollow cheeks that sink in, or prominent cheek bones that stick out, distort the oval outline of the face. A roll of fat under the chin makes the facial oval heavy and thick looking just at the point where it should seem to spring-upward in a keen light curve. What to do?

Do tilings with your hair to correct the faults of your facial outline. If your forehead is high-making your facial oval too long for its width —wear bangs or waves down over your brow to hide your actual hair line, and set up a new hair line that makes a better frame for your face. If your hair recedes in bald peaks at the corners of your forehead, fill in these points with a wave of ringlets, to make the outline of your forehead a smooth curve, i *

If you have no widow’s peak you can simulate the effect by parting your hair in the middle and brushing it back like a wing on each side of the part. Then, with a slightly pointed chin, your face takes on a heart-shaped outline. If your cheek bones are widely set, wear your hair flat to your cheeks and fluffed out at the back of your neck below the level of your cheek bones. This low fullness of your coiffure will have the effect of broadening your face through the jaw and chin, and thus will subdue the prominence of your cheek bones. Greta Garbo’s coiffure, flat around her cheeks, which are broad, but full below her ears to give more width to her narrow chin and jaws, is an ideal frame for her facial outline. After 30 your face tends to take on fullness around the jaws. If you have any hint of coming jowls wear your hair short or flat or high at the neck—no Garbo-ish fullness of hair below your ears to add to your width of jaw. Besides planning your coiffure to improve the outline of your face, work on your muscles to sculpture them in a smooth oval. Knead and model your cheeks upward from the chin. Place your thumbs under your jaw bone on each side of the chin and pinch deeply, with thumb and first finger, outward along the jaws to the ears. Pinch away the fat that makes your facial oval too heavy here. Use the back of your hand to pat upward against your chin, to break down the fold of fat that settles under your chin and spoils the oval of your face. Good posture, with head back,_ helps to create a good chin and throat line. The curve of your forehead into your nose is always an important detail of the modelling of a face. Tweeze out nuv stray hairs that grow in this middle ground between your brows. Stroke upward here with your cold cream or tissue cream every night. Be on guard against the habit of frowning, so no lines will come here. , „ . , Your eyebrows define the contour of the eye socket, and give character and emphasis to the face. Eyebrows heavy enough to cast some shadow into the hollow of the eye socket have the effect of making your eyes look deep. Only tweeze your eyebrows to keep them well defined, so they look like smooth wings or like the clear sweeping strokes of a brush.