Too much upper eyelid exposure can make you look bug-eyed. So, what can you do about upper eyelid exposure?
Dermal fillers and fat grafting can correct upper eyelid exposure. Mewing consistently from a young age can decrease upper eyelid exposure because it encourages upward facial growth and corrects your posture. For more severe cases, you may need to get eyelid surgeries such as blepharoplasty or ptosis repair.
For more info about eye area aesthetics, check out this Looks Theory episode:
Consider one of our custom facial reports if you’re interested in an in-depth analysis of your eye area.
How Upper Eyelid Exposure Affects Your Facial Aesthetics
Some people want to have double eyelids, which are a common European trait. However, too much upper eyelid exposure can create a bug-eyed appearance.
Take the photo below as an example. Too much upper eyelid exposure can make you look tired and often older. As you can see on the right, it often makes your eyes look droopy and bug-eyed. On the left are hooded Hunter eyes. As you can see, there is less upper eyelid exposure. They look more alert and focused, which generally looks more attractive.
When you are young, your eye orbits are small. However, the aperture width and area increase with age (Kahn et al., 2008). The orbit bones erode and recede, creating more room and less support for your eyes.
How much upper eyelid exposure you have depends on the shape and position of your upper orbit. Additionally, the soft tissue structure and fat tissue in that area will also play a part.
When there is not enough support under the eyes, it can often look droopy. Hunter eyes are a desirable trait, so most people want to reduce their upper eyelid exposure.
Typically, hooded eyes are more masculine. However, women can also look great with hooded eyes.
To learn more about how to get hunter eyes, click here.
How to Decrease Upper Eyelid Exposure
Mewing
When you mew, you correct your tongue and head posture. Poor head posture can cause droopy eyes, which can contribute to excessive upper eyelid exposure.
Additionally, poor tongue posture means that there is little to no stimulation to your hard palate. Mewing focuses on correcting your tongue posture and using your tongue to apply pressure to your hard palate.
When you apply pressure to your hard palate, you encourage your midface to move up and outward. This has the side effect of creating prominent cheekbones. However, it also affects your eyes.
Your eyes become more vertically compact when you mew. As your midface goes up, so does the bone structure around your eyes.
It can help your eyes be horizontally wider from the extra support, which is aesthetically pleasing. Mewing can decrease your upper eyelid exposure as your eye structure moves up, creating more hooded eyes.
Another bonus for your eyes is that mewing can help with droopiness. Since there is more support under your eyes, it can create a positive canthal tilt.
To learn more about how mewing affects your eyes, click here.
Fillers
You may ask a doctor if you can get fillers for your upper eyelids. Dermal fillers can be an excellent way to decrease your upper eyelid exposure and get hooded eyes.
Fillers can add volume to upper eyelids. If your eyes are incredibly deep-set and you have a bug-like experience, it could help reduce the prominence of both.
If the crease of your eyes is too high, then dermal fillers can help. It can help bring down the crease to achieve Hunter eyes.
But remember that fillers are temporary. On average, most dermal fillers will last for 6-12 months. However, some people say that their fillers can last for two years.
Some doctors may suggest Botox to decrease your upper eyelid exposure. They may inject the Botox into your medial brow.
Botox will relax your eyebrow muscles, causing it to drop and reduce your upper eyelid exposure. It could be an excellent way to get hooded eyes.
However, it would be best if you were careful not to go overboard with it. If your medial brow is too low, you may look angry and unapproachable.
Fat Grafting
Fat grafting may be a better option if you want a more permanent solution to reduce your upper eyelid exposure. Fat grafting may create a double-eyelid crease and treat sunken upper eyelids with multiple folds (Lin et al., 2016).
To perform the procedure, they will first take fat from other parts of your body. They will take a tiny amount from your abdomen, hips, thighs, etc.
They will then use the removed fat to create pure fat. Next, the doctor will use cannulas to inject small amounts of fat into the desired areas.
New vessels will grow in the places where the fat got injected. Therefore, the fat will thrive and continuously retain the new shape of your upper eyelid. This makes it superior to fillers because less of the fat is likely to migrate to other parts of your face.
However, you may not have consistent results. About 50-70% of the injected fat will remain after a fat grafting procedure. You can expect to have to go for a follow-up procedure to polish your results.
Additionally, different factors could affect the size of the grafted area. For instance, sudden weight gain can make it larger, whereas sudden weight loss can make it smaller.
Your surgeon will have to assess if you have volume loss from a lack of fat or the retruded orbital bone. There are times when it can be both. An in-person consultation will help the surgeon decide the best approach for your procedure.
Surgery
You may consult a surgeon if you can get a procedure to reduce your upper eyelid exposure. The type of procedure you will get will depend on your needs.
You may ask a surgeon if you are a candidate for ptosis repair surgery. Ptosis repair surgery is for people whose upper eyelids partially cover their pupils, obscuring their vision.
While ptosis repair surgery can significantly improve the eye’s appearance and function, it may not be an option for everyone.
A surgeon may suggest blepharoplasty, a procedure that can repair droopy eyelids. The procedure often involves removing excess fat, muscle, and skin.
Almond eye surgery includes a blepharoplasty, eyelid implants, and possible ptosis repair to give you the hunter-eye shape. But if your eyes are not deep-set, you will always have upper eyelid exposure, and no surgery can change that.
