CHIN

C as in Chin

The lower portion of the face lying below the lower lip and including the prominence of the lower jaw is being considered among the most fundamental of the features that are uniquely human.    Elephants are the only animals that have something similar.

I’ll neither talk about Vincent Louis Gigante, also known as "Chin," who was a New York Italian-American mobster in the American Mafia and the boss of the Genovese crime family from 1981-2005; nor about Chin-Chin, a doughnut-like sweet snack popular in Nigeria and West Africa; nor about Chin, an ethnic group in Burma; but about the human anatomy, the part of our face that comes in different shapes: angular, pointed, round or square.  It can be very prominent and plays an important role in how we perceive a person’s face, to the point that plastic surgeons implant artificial chins to enhance or augment the physical structure of the face, to balance the proportions between forehead and mid-face, and to emphasize the profile.

We see a prominent square chin on a man as attractive and masculine, contrary to a woman’s face where roundness or a triangular shape is the ideal.  Who came up with this?

Anyway, whatever we have that we’re not happy with, we can improve upon without drastic or surgical intervention by just holding our head in the right position, the NIMBLE way.  This is very important, by the way, when you have your photo taken and don’t want to show a double chin!

Of course, you know the expressions, “Chin up!” or “Keep your chin up!”

An important muscle, the digastric, has its anterior belly directly under the chin.  It can be trained effortlessly to support the skin in a way that no sagging can occur and that the lower part of the face stays smooth with less wrinkles.  It all happens when you have your tongue where it belongs all day long!