DO YOUR EARS HANG LOW, DO THEY WOBBLE TO AND FRO?

Do our eyes, ears and noses really grow in our older years?   Have you heard that before? Have you seen evidence to support that claim?   Are you presently experiencing what appears to be a snout that is larger in your aging years than in your young adult years?   Do your now large eyeballs rival the likes of Gene Wilder?

I can't say I have ever been overly fond of my nose. When I was young, and not fully grown into all my parts and pieces, I hated looking at my profile. It seemed to highlight a nose that was way too pointed and stuck off my face in a Pinocchio sort of fashion.  Looking at me straight on you weren't covered by the shadow my nose cast.  But if off to my side profile, wow!  If only I could have just directly faced people and never had to walk by them or turn my head!

My eyes were already somewhat on the big, cow-eyed side of the size chart even as a kid. Being skinny as a young kid did nothing but highlight both my large nose and overly big eyes. You combine that with an overbite and you got one out of proportion situation on your hands.  My ears thankfully were untouched by abnormalities.  No ear pinning needed or hair styles to hide their Dumbo-ness. 

Lately I have been noticing, or rather freaking out slightly, that my nose seems to be growing.  When I look at pictures of myself I see a big flipping nose that dwarfs all other features next to it.  Since it does stick off my body further than anything else, it gets sunburned constantly (I am horrible at sunscreen!).  Why all of a sudden is my nose so predominant on my face again? 

WC FIELDS

In all reality, our noses and eyes DO NOT keep growing as we get old.   It is somewhat an optical illusion. Technically our eyes, ears and noses do grow a bit larger from birth to around age 18 or so.  But, they do not spontaneously start enlarging again in old age.  If you are immediately thinking of W.C. Fields' nose - bulbous, large and red, his was a result of heredity and alcohol.  A deadly nose combination that was present and accentuated by his love of hooch.  I guess if you  have a large nose you might as well embrace it - trademark it even.  Some might even say Barbara Streisand, funkily big nose and all, is beautiful in her own way.  Possibly. 


BARBARA STREISAND

We lose collagen and elasticity in our skin as we age. (Um, along with brain cells, hair, vision, hearing, flexibility of muscles.  Sign me up, please!!)  Without those things in as great of supply supporting us in the world of skin cells, stuff falls -all stuff.  I will let you use your inner screen to play the images right about.... now.  Gravity naturally, without a staying mechanism in place, will pull anything down. Skin around our eyes falls. So does skin in all our face, thus causing protrusions; eyes, ears and noses, to appear larger.
 
Now that is not to discount the fact that if genetically you were given larger versions of eyes, ears and a nose at birth that it won't be worse in old age.  It will.  Gravity.