Alrite, this is drivin me nuts.
Does anybody know of any good methods for learning how to raise one eyebrow independant of the other?
if it helps, i can wink, and smirk.
I never had to learn. It was one of those stupid things that I was born with, so all I can tell you is that it uses many of the same muscles as wiggling your ears, if you can do that…
[complete hijack]
I am the only person in the worldwho can roll his tongue downwards ??? Let me know…
[/complete hijack]
I never had to learn. It was one of those stupid things that I was born with, so all I can tell you is that it uses many of the same muscles as wiggling your ears, if you can do that…
To raise the eyebrow, you must squint with the opposing eye.
That is, to raise the left eyebrow, you must squint with the right eye, like Popeye.
Sorry - Ignore my hijack - I’ll start a thread.
Apologies
Watch lots of Star Trek as a kid and imitate what you see. Which means that I can raise my left eyebrow, but not my right…
Of course, Spock always lifts his right brow…
I learned to do the one sided lip curl/sneer as a kid by flexing the muscle and pushing it up with my finger while holding the other side down … maybe that would help to do something similar with your eyebrows?
This is strange. I’ve read a couple of times, or heard in documentaries, of people who would raise one eyebrow and it would be disconcerting to the crew. I think I may have started a thread about it once. It had just never occured to me that people wouldn’t be able to raise one eyebrow.
dantheman: I’ve never had to squint.
Now if only I could wiggle my ears without my entire scalp moving about…
I was 12 when I started practicing this. I had just read Are You There, God, It’s Me Margaret and she could do it in the story and I thought that was cool so I figured I’d learn how to do it. I can only raise my right eyebrow, and I don’t have to squint to do it. My son thought it was cool and he practiced and can do it now, too. Just don’t practice in public, it looks strange.
it’s not so much of a squint, but i know what dantheman means. you do kinda of lower your opposing eyebrow as well as raising the other. well…i do.
I’m the same as bustmeanoreo. I can raise my left eyebrow, but really I can’t raise it that much, I just raise it a little and lower my other eyebrow. I’ve tried a little to raise the right one, but I have no idea how to do it. One of the things I’ve always wondered about is little things that this that you should phsyically be able to do, but you just can’t figure it out. I’d imagine wiggling your ears and twitching your chest is the same thing.
Now that I think about it, I have no idea how I learned to raise my left eyebrow, but I know I couldn’t always do it. Must’ve been from just watching The Rock on WWF when I was younger.
Yeah, I lower my left eyebrow, as in a scowl (not a squint). Then I pull up the right side of my forehead and the eyebrow comes up with it. I can only raise the right side.
The best way to practice is in front of a mirror so you get a feel for mapping how the muscles feel to what it looks like. It will take a while to get this if you can’t do it naturally.
I can also move each eye independently. Another thread, I guess.
thx every1, looks like the mirror’ll b gettin xtra usage over the comin weeks.
now to hijack my own thread… CookingWithGas, you can move EACH EYE INDEPENDANTLY?? now i wanna learn how to do that.
Sit in front of a mirror. Practice raising both eyebrows. Now try to make a small movement with one eyebrow whilst the other stays still, you will learn slowly how to control just one eyebrow and be able to raise it more than the other.
I can raise my right eyebrow, but not my left. The “look” I’m going for determines whether or not I lower the left one in contrast.
I’ve tried to learn to raise my left, but I just lack the muscle coordination on that side of my face. It’s like teaching someone to raise their arm - you can’t describe it, you just do it.
I can wiggle my ears but, yes, it’s really my whole scalp moving back and forth.
And I TOO can move each eyeball independently! It’s freaky and fun for the whole family!
Getting shot in the forehead helped me, but I don’t really recommend it. I have a scar over my left eyebrow that lowers it slightly, so I always look like my right brow is raised slightly. Raising it more is easy, but I can’t raise the left one without squinting a lot.
And, just because this thread demands that it be used at least once: :dubious:
I can raise my right eyebrow at will, the left one sometimes goes off accidentally, I have no control over it. I can move my eyes independantly one at a time, not both together. I can shake my eyeballs and contract my pupils.
Can’t wiggle my ears though… how do you learn to do that?
I too can raise my eyebrows independently. I can do both the left, and the right in fact. And yes, I sort of squint with the opposite eye. I’ve never really practiced it, its just something I’ve always been able to do.
I can also do a really great snear 
I don’t have to squint at all, I can raise my right eyebrow with no movement whatsoever on the left. I think it’s the same muscles involved as when I raise both eyebrows at the same time, just isolated on the right side - I’m not using any of the muscles I use when wiggling my ears. I can’t do the left side at all.
It’s a great move of eloquent skepticism. It gracefully and economically expresses doubt and scorn without having to say a word or risk being impolite, and it sometimes freaks people out a little. My sister says it comes in very handy during her high school debate competitions.
You might be able to do it and just haven’t figured it out yet. I only figured out how to roll my tongue (a genetically determinied trait) at the age of twelve, even though I presumably was wired to be able to do it all along. And I can only wiggle my ears when I’m in the right mood.
Yes, I definitely enjoy the slient “body language” of the single eyebrow move