Facelift or Facial Coverings?

For the fortunate few females with ageless beauty and vibrant visages into their senior years, a facelift may not make sense. But for many, age brings sagging scowls, pouty profiles, misplaced mugs, or flabby features. Besides that, most women cover up their faces, somehow, anyway. If you're sick of covering your smile, you may want to consider giving it a lift, instead. 

Novelist Oscar Wilde once wrote that "A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction." Of course, he wasn't referring to those who have had a facelift here; instead, he was probably referencing the coy countenances of coquettes, but the same observation could apply to the smile surfaces of even the least seductive—and even saintly—sisters among womankind.

The prudish princess-mode Victorian ladies used the technology of their time to change the coloration and attempt to create faux features on their faces. Since light skin tones reflected beauty, affluence, and class, the skin color of choice was a light ivory or even alabaster; those with more olive-hued complexions were known to bleach their faces. Another sought-after facial alteration came in the form of dimpled cheeks. Machines would be worn, overnight, in an attempt to train facial muscles into spasms that would cause chic-looking cheeks. Victorians also held grand masquerade balls, in which ornate masks were worn over the top halves of their faces. 

Similar to those Victorian visage-veilings are the pretty party masks that can still be found in Venice, Italy. Paper Mache, paint, sequins, ribbons and feathers provide carousers with façades under which they could feel free to act as risqué as they might please. In Western society, only one day a year provides an opportunity for such disguises, even if most of them are even more frightening than most people's natural nuances.

While most Westerners might not routinely wear woven wraps or cover their faces entirely, Muslims and other religious conservatives across the globe exercise face-covering for the sake of eliminating any kind of seductive powers women's faces might exude; their beauty should be hidden from all men except their husbands. The more extreme head-coverings include niqabs, which include slits for the eyes, and burqas, which have a mesh screens over the eyes. Of course, more common among Western Muslims is the hijab headscarf, which does allow full view of a woman's face.

Many non-Muslim Western women cosmetically cover their faces, instead. They seem as committed to doing so as some are to their prayers: Even amid a financial recession, the sustainability of the cosmetics industry seems unharmed. According to some researchers, an estimated $20 billion is spent globally each year on makeup. Even though some of the first women who painted their faces did so in order to seduce their male counterparts, and it was popularized in America by early "starlets" of the silver screen, painting one's face is now a "normal" part of mainstream culture in America and throughout the West.

So if you aren't the Victorian face-bleaching or Venetian masquerading type, don't subscribe to the Islamic faith, and you don't own stock in Cover Girl, a facelift might just be the choice for you.