Frown lines are those nasty little vertical mimic lines that tend to appear between your brows as you age. While they can suit some silver foxes, for most of us, we’d prefer they weren’t there. If you’re looking to avoid them, you’re in the right place. In this post, we’ll tell you about the top frown-line-reducing exercises recommended by our certified experts. The ‘11’ lines, also known as frown lines, are called glabellar lines in medical speak. They form above the nose and between your brows due to the muscles moving. When you yawn, smile, grimace or make faces, this area is the most affected by your skin’s movements. While the skin is young, it can easily smoothen itself out again. But eventually, constant movement will make it so that the frown lines can’t recover anymore. Whether this happens in your 20s, 30s, or 40s, there are ways to minimize frown lines. You can try to fix their appearance by exfoliating and moisturizing, but it’s the muscle that’s the real problem, so these products don’t actually fix it. The good news is that muscular hypertension and spasm responds really well to home treatments, such as massage and acupuncture. Among other natural ways to reduce these pesky lines is face yoga for frown lines.

Can facial exercises for ‘11’ lines really help?

The two extensive overviews of research in the field of non-invasive natural beauty remedies [1], [2] show that face yoga does have a certain impact on one’s appearance, though more extensive research is needed. However, regular face yoga for lines between the eyebrows and nasolabial lines can truly change your face simply by relaxing the key muscle centers. Start with a good relaxing massage for the whole face, and follow that with several of these exercises recommended by our top experts. Make it me-time, and feel how the stress dissolves along with the spasm between your eyes.

Best face yoga exercises for lines between eyebrows

Eyebrow smoother

23. With your index and middle fingers, pinch the skin between your eyebrows. Make sure to grip the muscle underneath the skin.
24. Now start moving your hands in opposite directions, from the middle to the sides of your face, keep pinching with a good grip.
25. Step by step, pinch the brows all the way from end to end.
26. Return to the start and repeat.

Eyebrow resistance pinches

30. With your index and middle fingers, pinch the skin between your eyebrows.
31. Try to frown and pull the brows to the sides. Feel the resistance in your eyebrow muscles.
32. Repeat pinching and resisting for 30 seconds or more.

Bottom to top 11 massage

36. Starting from the bridge of your nose, start strongly stroking the area between your eyebrows in an upwards motion.
37. Focus on one eyebrow at a time.
38. Repeat the strokes, gently pushing with the side of your finger. Switch your hands for a smoother motion.

Binocular pose

1. Cup both your hands and place them over your eyes like binoculars.
2. Apply pressure to avoid forehead wrinkling.
3. Close your eyes and relax your face.
4. Open your eyes as wide as possible.
5. Hold for 5 seconds and relax again.

Forehead massage

1. Ball your hands into fists.
2. Place your hands on either side of your brow.
3. Apply pressure and use your hands to knead your forehead.
4. Do this for 30 seconds.

Worryline eraser

1. Take your index fingers to the point in between brows.
2. In a criss-cross motion, move your fingers alternately from the bridge of the nose to the forehead, smoothing the crease.
3. Move your fingers up and diagonally, applying light pressure.
4. Repeat about 20 times for each side.

Basics of avoiding frown lines

Like most skin imperfections, the biggest culprits behind the visibility of wrinkles and lines are smoking, sun exposure, and skincare neglect. Try to tackle these, and pay attention to your maintenance procedures. In particular, exfoliating and microcurrents work great in the reduction of mimic lines.

• Wear sunglasses. The area between your eyes is the most prone to being squeezed and pulled with squinting. So, when going outside, throw on some sunglasses.
• Unclench your face. Stress is no joke when it comes to mimic lines' appearance. We’re not telling you that you can’t have emotions. But even relaxing your face in between the emotions will help.
• Check how you sleep. In the case of the pesky ‘11’ lines, sleeping on your face is a sure way to make these more prominent. Besides, if you always sleep on a certain side, these lines can even become asymmetrical. To deal with this, it’s always better to sleep on your back, as this will stop swelling.

Face yoga for ‘11’ lines is a nice way to minimize their visibility. Keep the general nutrition-and-hydration rules in mind, do exercises for frown lines from the post above, and you’ll love the way you look.