R Review From Scalp to Soles 91
Although I explore combinations of moves later, I’ll start mov-
ing into the topic here. If a person is self-conscious about her teeth,
she’ll first signal that by drawing her lips down over her teeth, smil-
ing with lips together. Notice that this close-lipped smile may even
engage the muscles at the corner of her eyes. That means it’s a
genuine smile, and just because she doesn’t show teeth is not an
indication of any bad feelings or deceit. That smile can offer just as
much, or more, warmth as the toothiest grin.
When a person’s mind is completely engaged, he may
unconsciously do things with his mouth that are odd, and almost
abusive. Chewing on the inside of the mouth, licking the lips repeat-
edly, sticking the tongue out, biting a lip, or biting chapped skin on
the lip (maybe even causing bleeding), and twisting the mouth to
the side are among common movements. What his eyes are doing
give away more of the story. Look for signs of emotion (down
right), calculation (down left), and so on.
Another completely involuntary move that a mouth will make is
the quiver resulting from being startled. I saw a clerk drop an arm-
ful of hangers in a store recently and that’s what her mouth did.
She said nothing, but the shaking lower lip and chin displayed sur-
prise. So much communication in one second with no words—and
there was no way she could have controlled what happened to her
because the movement was a purely stimulus-response gesture.
Would any human respond the same way? No, and the reasons are
varied. Someone less sensitive to noise might not have reacted that
way. Someone who didn’t care about dropping hangers in front of