THE FARRELL FACELIFT

Irish born Myra Farrell lived in the Sydney suburb of Mosman, at 27 Prince Albert Street.

She was an eccentric genius, credited with some thirty inventions. Many had a domestic application; including stitchless buttons, boneless corsets, and a folding clothes line that could accommodate 280 ft of washing in an area of just 12ft by 6ft.

She also turned her mind to military aids, patenting a bullet proof fence and a long range, ‘rayless’ light. Both prototypes were looked at by the Australian Department of Defence, but despite two world wars neither invention was ever adopted. Mrs Farrell was philosophical about the rejections…..and equally so about the likelihood of another world-wide conflict;

Now of all Mrs Farrell’s inventions, it was her facelift device that caught my attention. Forget cosmetic surgery or injections of Botox!

So simple is Mrs Farrell’s device, which she terms a face and muscle support, that she cannot understand why it has never been thought of before. Her theory is that wrinkles and sagging occur as the result of tired muscles. The face gets more work and is more exposed than almost any other part of the body, and [has] undernourished cells. If the strain is removed from the muscles through lifting them to their normal position, and thus resting them, the cell tissues will be built up again.

Her device consisted of a rubber band which was attached to plaster pads at the temple, each shaped for a specific muscle. Hmm, I assume a heavy fringe would be necessary to hide the paraphernalia. And what sort of outcome might one expect?

Once the muscles are rested and the cells rebuilt, some women, if the case is a mild one, will be able to remove it maybe, after several months.

Several months for a mild case eh? 😨 Good grief, I can’t say that would inspire much confidence! And what happened when the rubber band came off?

To quote Mrs Farrell herself from the same article;

The face does not sag more once the support has been removed, because you lift the muscles up to rest them. You are not drawing tissues down and stretching them, but lifting the face up and releasing the strain while the renewed circulation rebuilds the broken tissues. (The Sun, January 11 1931)

Sorry, but I can’t resist adding this. In 1920 Myra ‘invented’ a child prodigy,,,,her violin playing son, George Welsh Farrell.

George gave a well received, debut recital at the Sydney Town Hall on October 26 1935;

Unfortunately I can’t find anything about his subsequent career. I hope his talent didn’t go the way of the bullet proof fence and the rayless light.

FOR MORE ON MYRA FARRELL, CLICK HERE.