Everyone sure wants to stay young forever, but it comes with a price. This 50-year-old woman, Tess Christian claims she had never smiled for about 40 years because she feels smiling makes the face shrink and gives one wrinkles.
She is definitely not the only one with such belief. Big screen reality goddess, Kim Kardashian also said something similar last month. Little wonder her husband Kanye West doesn’t just force a smile in most selfies.
So Christian had devised a strategic approach which makes her always conscious in order to avoid smiling and she said it has paid off because a lurk of unbelief often lingers on faces each time she reveals how old she is to them.
‘I don’t have wrinkles because I have trained myself to control my facial muscles.
‘Everyone asks if I’ve had Botox, but I haven’t, and I know that it’s thanks to the fact I haven’t laughed or smiled since I was a teenager. My dedication has paid off, I don’t have a single line on my face.’
The 50-year-old who works as a cooking instructor for a vegetable produce company, said, ‘It’s not as if I’m miserable. I love life. I just don’t feel the need to show it by walking around with a rictus grin on my face.’
Although she said the no-smile trend was birthed after she studied in a Catholic school where the nuns never wanted to see the students smile.
After graduation, she felt the stone face fits more and coupled with the obsession to stay young forever she decided to take a step further.
She said, ‘Yes, I am vain and want to remain youthful. My strategy is more natural than Botox and more effective than any expensive beauty cream or facial.’
In as much as dermatologists believe the tactic might be an effective way to avoid wrinkles, Dermatologist Dr Nick Lowe said, ‘It can be an effective anti-ageing technique. Undoubtedly, there are some actresses who have retrained their facial expressions to this end.
‘Wrinkles happen because of the constant creasing of smile and forehead lines by the muscles in your face, which fold the connective tissue under the skin. If you can train yourself to minimise your facial expressions, you won’t get as many lines.’
Although Christian said it’s not always easy to stay stone-faced as her friends had given her a couple of nick names.
She said, ‘My friends have nicknamed me Mona Lisa, after the da Vinci painting. ‘Mona Lisa was said to have been quietly amused, as am I. I just won’t show it.’
Christian said she loathes to be told by men to ‘cheer up love, it might never happen’.
According to Mail Online, a London psychologist Amanda Hills argues that the more you smile, the happier you feel. ‘When you smile you release endorphins, known as “happy hormones” that make you feel good.’
And how do men cope with that?one may ask. They sure do always urge her to smile but she usually pad deaf ears.
‘I assure them it’s not because I’m not interested,’ she says. ‘My pet hate is men who call out, “Cheer up, love, it might never happen,” ’ in the street. ‘I wouldn’t dream of criticising their appearance.’
‘Not smiling, meanwhile, has the opposite effect. A resting face with no emotion won’t allow your brain to pick up the signal that you are happy. And just as smiling attracts people, looking miserable is likely to deter them — which obviously risks making you feel miserable, even if you were happy in the first place.’
