Why Watching Sports Can Cause ‘Fanxiety Face’

ELATION, DISAPPOINTMENT, DISGUST and relief. You probably feel all that and more while watching your team play. Most likely, you display these feelings all over your face by grimacing, squinting, raising your eyebrows, or just generally tensing up.

While being a sports superfan can offer mental health benefits, all the extreme faces that you pull during the game—a phenomenon known as “fanxiety face”—could be aging your skin.

Blending the terms “fan” and “anxiety,” fanxiety face refers to the stress sports fans experience when watching a high-stakes game, explains Mina Amin, M.D., a Los Angeles-based dermatologist. “It captures those hair-pulling, edge-of-your-seat moments that send heart rates soaring, hoping for a victory,” she says.

Getting caught up in the excitement of the game is great, of course. But Dr. Amin says it’s important to recognize the effects it can have on your skin and hair.

Here’s what you should know about how fanxiety face could be affecting your skin, whether the face yoga trend could counteract these changes, and what to do to minimize wrinkles and other signs of aging.

What is fanxiety face?

FANXIETY FACE IS unknowingly making “severe facial movements, like frowning, scowling, wrinkling, or tensing, in response to stress or excitement, says Lyle Leipziger, M.D., chief of plastic surgery at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. “It is important to remember that repeated facial movements or excess muscle activity will predispose you to further wrinkles, laugh lines, and crow’s feet,” he explains.

The term “fanxiety face” is relatively new, but the idea isn’t, adds Omer Ibrahim, M.D., a dermatologist at Chicago Cosmetic Surgery and Dermatology. “It’s essentially a new way of saying, ‘If you keep making that face, it’ll stay that way,’ but for fans of sports,” he says.

The term is mostly linked to watching sports, but any repetitive facial movements, like smiling or frowning, connected to your job or other stressful situations could have similar effects, says cosmetic dermatologist and skin cancer expert Kenneth Mark, M.D.

Why Tensing Your Facial Muscles Affects Your Skin

WRINKLES CAUSED BY muscle movement are a phenomenon called “dynamic wrinkles,” Dr. Mark says. “The more you move your facial muscles and the more intensely, the greater amount of wrinkles you will have.”

Dr. Leipziger compares the idea to folding a piece of paper—as you continue to fold it over and over, it creates a permanent crease. Then, as you get older and start to lose collagen (the protein that keeps your skin elastic), the folds remain, causing fine lines and wrinkles to stay in place even when the face is at rest, Dr. Ibrahim explains.

During stressful times, your body releases the hormone cortisol, and Dr. Mark says cortisol spikes can exacerbate wrinkles and other skin changes. Stress is linked to higher blood sugar levels. Glucose can react with your body’s proteins to form advanced glycation end products, which are inflammatory and can break down collagen, cause wrinkles and dullness, and diminish skin laxity.

Stress also affects your hair. Dr. Amin says stress pushes hair follicles into a resting phase where they stop growing, which increases the likelihood of hair loosening and shedding. Stress affects melanocytes, the cells responsible for hair color, which can even lead to early graying in some cases.

Could face yoga counteract fanxiety face?

WHILE CERTAIN REPETITIVE facial expressions may cause wrinkles, there’s a theory that more strategic facial movements to tone the muscles there could have the opposite effect.

Face yoga is a popular social media trend with 87,srcsrcsrc videos tagged #faceyoga on TikTok. It involves making certain faces to target and build up specific facial muscles, which some claim will help you look younger.

A small study published in JAMA Dermatology in 2src18 asked women ages 4src to 65 to perform facial exercises for 3src minutes daily or every other day for 2src weeks. Comparing before-and-after photos, researchers noted that the people who did face yoga had fuller upper and lower cheeks and appeared younger.

Face yoga could increase circulation, blood flow, and lympathic drainage, which might make you look more relaxed, Dr. Mark says. But Dr. Leipziger says it’s unlikely to counteract fanxiety face or really improve lines and wrinkles.

“Unfortunately, there is no direct clinical proof that facial exercises reduce wrinkles, build muscles or alter the structure of the face,” Dr. Leipziger adds.

However, yoga, meditation, and any other mindful activity could help you learn to stay calm during stressful times, including watching sports, and may help you stop making exaggerated facial expressions, Dr. Ibrahim says.

How to Deal With Wrinkles and Other Signs of Aging

EVERYONE AGES AND gets fine lines and wrinkles. A basic skincare routine is a good place to start to minimize the signs of aging, Dr. Ibrahim says. If you’re not sure where to start, a dermatologist can help.

If you’ve never used skincare products, start with a gentle cleanser, a basic moisturizer, and daily sunscreen. Dr. Ibrahim says you’ll see a “drastic improvement” in your skin in a week or two. Sunscreen with at least SPF 3src will also protect your skin from ultraviolet damage, which can age the skin and increase your risk for skin cancer.

Doctors may also recommend in-office nonsurgical treatments, like Botox, fillers, chemical peels, laser treatments, radiofrequency microneedling, or softwave ultrasound therapy, Dr. Leipziger says. These treatments can address problems like discoloration, age spots, uneven texture, and lines and wrinkles. If wrinkles really bother you, surgical procedures, like facelifts or liposuction, are other options, he adds.