The first person - NOT any kind of lip curl that I'm talking about. 

Second person - It appears to be a lip curl but I can't fully tell because I can't see her chin. If her chin is wrinkled and sort of going upwards, then yes. 

This is a lip curl: http://vothphoto.com/gallery/Moments/images/After%20The%20Fall.jpg

I like your descriptions! As you know, I love the lip curl as well, on both men and women.

I, on the other hand, have decided that I do not do the full lip curl. It's more of a pulled back/contorted mouth and chin rather than a curled or wrinkled one. I have full lips and a bottom lip that curves slightly upward at the corners, so your analysis holds true with me.

Lesson 3.

Here's a disaster that all of you definitely relate to: a crying person often will not do the lip curl until their crying turns to full sobs. This is either because of the way their face is built, or because they're holding it back (and pissing me off). What a predicament! But, here's a bunch of observations I've made to try and tell if the person is a lip curler from their "softer" crying.

1. You might be able to tell from the trembling of their bottom lip and chin. I have three observations on that:

- The mouth is closed. The chin is trembling. The bottom lip is not visibly trembling - The person is probably not a lip curler (though it varies)

- The mouth is closed. Both the bottom lip and chin are visibly trembling. The person is considerably more likely to be a lip curler than the above.

- The mouth is open. Both the bottom lip and chin are visibly trembling. The person is very likely to
be a lip curler.

2. Putting a barrier between the bottom lip or chin: The lip curl makes the bottom lip stick out and down while pulling the chin upward. Therefore, a lip curler will often put a hand or a finger between them to try and prevent this. It also helps to stop both of them from trembling.

3. The way they cover their mouths:

- Covering the mouth (or entire face) with both hands - least likely to be a lip curler

- Covering the mouth with the palm of one hand - considerably more likely to be a lip curler.

- Covering the mouth with the fingers of one hand only - even more likely to be a lip curler

4. The way they curl their lip while they are crying and talking. 

- The lip curls naturally when someone is crying and talking at the same time, even if they're not lip curlers. As I said, I don't consider it to be a "real" lip curl. However, a if the lip is curled in a lopsided way during talking (one side more curled than the other) - then it is a good indication of a lip curler.

- How curled or bulgy is it? An actual lip curler may do a very big bulge or a very prominent curl shape when they're crying and talking.

5. Biting the lip back might also be a sign, but I'm not as confident about this one as the ones above.


Once again, it all varies and I might be misreading the pattern.
 

Interesting observations TorNorth - the immeditate thought that came to mind when relating this to my wife's crying was that only the talking while crying comes into play.

Most of my wife's crying (definitely when she is not talking) has no chin/mouth movement at all. She is very much a tears girl - so for the first set of observations I'm assuming no talking so one the first point applies.

She never (or at least very rarely) covers her face in any way - this includes eyes and mouth and covers her full range of crying. If she is sobbing and the BLT is present you will see it, if she is crying hard and her chin/lip is trembling you will see it. If she is crying softly you will see tears roll down her cheeks unchecked. She will sometimes wipe tears away from her face (hardly ever directly from her eyes) but more often than not they are left to run down her neck or drip off her chin/nose. This is generally true even when she is crying infront of others, not just infront of me and or when she is alone.

I've never seen her bite her lip either before she starts crying or during.

Talking even at lower intensities bring out a bit of chin/lip movement. Talking tends to automatically increase the intensity. She's gone from slight wet eyes to full blown tears in seconds just because she has started talking. Her voice is always at least emotional and wobbly. If she is talking and crying her mouth will distort a bit first, her mouth opens and her breathing become more ragged and if the intensity increases can quickly turn into sobbing. At full blown sobbing stage her voice falters completely and she cannot form words - her chin/lip will probably start to tremble uncontrollably.

If the intensity increases further as described in previous post the BLT appears - it's like she completely gives in and her body takes over - she has not control at all - very raw indeed. As I've mentioned before also very rare.

Does this make my wife's crying somewhat complex?

My limited experience has been a bit different for #3. I've found that people tend to cover their entire mouth with one or both hands right as they have the biggest lip curl. A few months ago a friend was crying while covering her mouth with both hands, and I pulled her hands away to hold them and saw an insane lip curl. Insane. You would have loved it. She may be an outlier.

Also I've found that drunk people have bigger lip curls when they cry.





 

Last edited by truffle (May 1, 2014 10:36 am)