What would you do if your face transformed in a day?

Are you referring to your rhinoplasty?

@gailcalled For me that was it, but I want to know how people would react to an unexpected change like this. I think it’s useful for me to know how others would deal with it.

I would scratch at it and see if it would come off. and I would wash my face with soap.

There are many solutions like plastic surgery or makeups. If it cannot be fixed in any way then like many other insecurities we face in life we will have to deal with it. I had a similar situation a couple of years back. One day I woke up to find a long scar on my face, the skin began to peel off and it looked really awful. It was a shock and I was completely down. I never wanted to go out. The doctor gave me medicine and I had to use it for nearly a month. People used to stare at me. But my husband was really supportive, he encouraged me to go out. He used to say just walk outside with a big smile and just don’t bother about what others might say. Every person stares at everything. If you are pretty or ugly you will get stare. If people stare just wave back to them. I finally prepared myself to accept it for what it is and move on with my life. Truly his supportive and encouraging words made me believe that I am so much more than just my face. Eventually after two months the scar vanished. It’s truly a challenging and distressing experience.
Those days I remember seeing this video on how to deal with a disfigurement.

A couple of friends taught this young lady when she was in high school.

youtube link
Once labeled, “The Worlds Ugliest Woman,” Lizzie decided to turn things around and create her own definitions of what she defines as beauty and happiness.

Whenever I find myself staring in the mirror too long or worried about some relatively minor defect in my appearance I try to remember her and the fact that she’s a wonderful woman by all accounts. It helps to put my crooked tooth or the fact that I need a haircut in perspective and reminds me that people might judge in the short term on appearance, but the ones that are important to your life judge on your character. If I have to get better at one or the other, I’d rather build my character.

Large parts of our appearance are beyond our control. Our attitude is not.

It depends on exactly what it is. With my dermatillomania, I would probably try to pick it off like I do with every flaw on my skin.
I’d probably feel insecure about it for a while, before accepting it for what it is.

That, can be pretty distressing for a woman. If that happened to me, I would most likely never leave my house until I can get medical attention. However, I will try and remain positive. I won’t pick at it though, in case it worsens.

I would feel terrible. While I am ok with not being stunningly beautiful, I would be distressed if I suddenly felt I was noticeably unattractive.

If my life was based on the look of my face I would have cashed it in long ago. I have done so many mean things to my face over the years. Baseballs, elbows. go kart crashes, bike crashes, falls while sleep walking (yes multiples) and a few other accidents. I like to think I’m cool on the inside.

I can imagine that someone who is young and beautiful would find this devastating. Good looks carry a lot of power. If you have that advantage and you’re used to the privileges it affords, then to suddenly see it diminished would be like a rich person waking up to a stock market crash.

I’m not rich, so hearing that the Dow has lost 300 points doesn’t ruffle me. And I’m not young and good-looking, so I don’t have much riding on what happens to my face. I pretty much take it for granted that the discoveries I make in the mirror will be increasingly grotesque.

^^ I pretty much take it for granted that the discoveries I make in the mirror will be increasingly grotesque. It happens so gradually that you will barely notice…until, suddenly, one day, you see your paternal grandfather staring back at you. And that’s not so bad either.

@gailcalled Just this morning I surprised my father in the mirror. And he’s been dead for 25 years.

I think there is a difference between the gradual ravages of age and a sudden disfigurement even if self-imposed. It is a pity that we can torture ourselves so much about perceived natural “imperfections” that we try to correct and end up making ourselves more unhappy.

And yes, @thorninmud, I look at my eyelids and hands and say, “Mom?”

Film critic Roger Ebert before and after his draconion surgeries for thryoid and salivary gland cancers. He continued to write movie reviews (read by millions) after surgeons removed his jaw in 2006 until his death in April 2013.