Essential Facial Anatomy
Muscles of the face, neck and décolleté
I consider muscles of the face, neck and décolleté “essential esthetics anatomy” - meaning, it is essential that we understand them to do our jobs correctly. Yet, most introductory esthetics education spends only a short amount of time on this topic. In fact they kind of leave it up to the students to read the book and figure it out. It’s on the state board test, so the students need to know it, but for most esthetics teachers the topic is either over their heads (they don’t actually know or understand it) OR the entire job is over their heads (they are overwhelmed and just don’t have the time). In my time teaching and co-teaching in schools I saw MANY a cosmetology or esthetics instructor fly through, skip over or literally stutter and stumble through the anatomy chapter.
Personal experience? Students HATE the anatomy chapter. They’re bored. They don’t know why it applies. They just want to touch people and not sit through ANOTHER boring theory class. I get it. Even once I felt comfortable teaching it, I couldn’t get a lot of people to give a shit.
It really isn’t a topic you can learn in 1 week, anyways. It has to be constantly brought up, revisited, connections made in hands-on learning, etc. and it needs to happen over and over again over the course of a long span of time to really know the information - kinda like everything else in life, right.
Flash forward to continuing education. Most beauty industry professionals DO NOT want to take a CE theory class… they want to learn a new technique, something they can capitalize on and make more money for their business. So maybe they take a massage class, but the class is limited on time and no one wants to do theory anyways so all you learn is the technique or protocol.
What does any of this mean? Well, it means most estheticians don’t have a solid understanding of something that is essential to our careers. I am not saying this to shame anyone or pass judgement, it’s just the truth.
Why is muscle knowledge essential to estheticians?
Um, because you are touching them all day sillies! Honestly, the first reason is that we work on the facial muscles alllllll day. The second is that facial massage is one of the most important components of a successful treatment for so so many reasons… it’s not just for relaxation, although that is beneficial. If you need convincing that massage can make a huge difference in your results, read my past blog about connective tissue massage and my case studies on aging and acne.
Also… the muscles of the face are so freakin cool. We have these complex structures that move in so many different ways and different directions to perform very specific, detailed actions - the communication of emotion. This is unique to our species, and it is likely that facial expression was a key factor in evolution due to the connection and social interaction it provided. Our brains evolved special branches of the nervous system that sends signals to our detailed facial muscles because when we communicated in this way, we survived as a species. In my past life I was an anthropology major and this kinda thing is so mind-blowing and cool to me. 🤯 I found this cool article if you want to nerd out over the evolution of facial expression with me.
If you just want to nerd out over the esthetics and facial massage part of the story with me, I have created a free offering called “Muscles of Facial Massage.”
Muscle of Facial Massage (previously Muscle a Day) is a free course where I will share information about each important muscle in the face and surrounding area. You will receive overview of the muscle, function, location, attachments, tension concerns and manipulations with photos + video to support your learning journey. The goal is to focus on just one muscle per day, which is a perfect way to slowly layer in knowledge, recap and revisit that essential information about muscles + level up your touch work or recommendations.
✨ Magic will happen.
🤯 Connections will be made.
💡 Your brain will be going POP POP POP with all the lightbulb moments.
Now, keep reading because this is the key background info you need to understand essential esthetics anatomy!
Muscle Attachments
Fun fact: Muscles don’t just float around in our bodies. I bet you knew that, but most of the time in esthetics we don’t think much about the attachments which is an epic fail on our part. Remember in school when we were taught to always massage insertion to origin? You might have even had a question about this on your state board test. It is in the Milady textbook + tests.
Unfortunately, the textbook didn’t actually cover where the insertion and origin of the facial muscles are, nor did any other class I’ve EVER taken, so for years I was just straight winging it. It drove me crazy so I dug into a massage textbook, and here we are.
Why is this important to know? Detailed, intentional work requires knowledge as a foundation.
Muscles are attached to other structural or connective tissues, such as bone, fascia, other muscles, tendons or the skin itself. Each muscle has at least 2 attachments, but many have more. Attachments are classified as either an origin or insertion.
Origin: whatever the muscle is attached to is immobile during action
Insertion: whatever the muscle is attached to moves during action
Note: It is common online, in anatomy or in massage therapy to just use “bone” as a reference when defining insertion and origin, i.e. “origin = the bone at the attachment remains immobile during action.” I find that generalization is less applicable when discussing facial muscles because so many attach to other types of tissue.
When a muscle moves (contracts), the insertion is pulled toward the origin. Knowing the muscle’s insertion and origin points help to explain its movement.
Connective Tissues
Muscles attach to and are surrounded by connective tissues. Connective tissues, as a primary support structure, are also a focus of facial massage for rejuvenation + healing.
Loose - loosely packed with gel-like substance between, provide strength + flexibility, support structures such as internal organs, blood vessels, lymph vessels, nerves and the skin
Collagen: strength
Elastin: stretch
Dense - more tightly packed with less gel-like substance, attaches or surrounds structures for protection
Tendon: joins muscle to bone
Fascia: surrounds muscle
Specialized - varying amounts of strength, flexibility and gel-like substance with specialized tissues
Adipose: stores fat, insulates against heat loss, protects organs, produces hormones
Bone: mineralized connective tissue that provides primary support in the form of our skeleton
Cartilage: provides flexible support
Blood + lymph: fluid that connects multiple organ systems together through circulation, provides nutrients and removes waste
When a muscle begins to sag on the face, it is often a result of the connective tissue it is attached to. Muscle tension and adhesions in the fascia can limit the ability of connective tissue to regenerate, remove waste, bring nutrients, etc. Adhesions are a primary concern when it comes to signs of aging, and lymph flow is a primary concern when it comes to literally every skin condition.
Key terms to help with essential anatomy of the face
Understanding terms or roots we well come across in anatomy is kinda like understanding that secret code language we made up as kids. Once you understand the code, it is easier to decipher or find meaning AND it’s easier to remember or recall information. The following are just a few select terms that will show up in our overview of facial muscles, and I thought it would be beneficial to decode them for you.
Elevate: moving a body part up (therefore, muscles with the name levator raise something)
Depress: moving a body part down (therefore, muscles with the name depressor lower something)
Process: a protuberance or projection of the bone
Head: the end of a bone that is expanded + rounded
Latin/Greek Roots
Above: supra, super, epi-
Beneath: infra-
Underneath: sub-, hypo-
Next to: lateral
Mouth: oris, os, oral
Lip: labial
Eye: oculus, oculi
Ear: auris, aural
Angled: anguli
Circular, spherical, surrounding: orbicular, orbicularis
More than, larger: major
Less than, smaller: minor
For example…
Orbicularis means circular or surrounding, so we know it is a circular muscle. Oculi means eye and oris means mouth, so we can decode that orbicularis oculi is the muscle surrounding the eye and orbicularis oris is the muscle surrounding the mouth.
Levator labii superioris = a muscle that lifts (levator) the lip (labii) from above (superioris)
Zygomaticus major is larger than zygomaticus minor
That is all I have for today, but I hope to see you soon!
Remember, this is the background information to support what we will learn in Muscles of Facial Massage. Sign up for all the tips!