Beauty has been and is a quality that is relatively easy to perceive but very difficult to explain. The most beautiful faces seem to have certain characteristics in common that are not always easy to identify. When we analyze faces that are considered beautiful in photography (generally those of Hollywood actors), we can see that, having changed certain standards of beauty, they still seem handsome to us, even after more than a hundred years have passed.
And why is this? Well basically because beauty is a trait of attraction between individuals in addition to other traits such as height, muscularity, intelligence, kindness, friendliness …
But what does it mean to be beautiful?
When we are in front of someone, our brain unconsciously analyzes certain characteristics of the face and we almost involuntarily classify them by their:
- proportions between elements : larger than usual eyes on a face with all its well-proportioned elements can be very attractive and increase the beauty of that face. This is one of the characteristics of Japanese anime, pretty faces with big eyes. The same thing happens with a fleshy mouth, it is associated with a certain “sexy” component. On the contrary, very large ears or a nose drastically worsen the appearance of our face.
- shape and size of the elements: continuing with the example of big eyes, as we all know, “big, whether you walk or not” is not worth it. Almond-shaped eyes are not the same as very round, bulging eyes and our brain knows it.
- signs of hostility or friendship: if large eyes are considered by our brain to be excessively open, this can be interpreted as a sign of stress or tension from the person in front of us and their face will not be attractive. A tilted mouth that shows certain teeth, such as the incisors, is considered aggressive or unfriendly. Along the same lines, well-placed eyebrows can give a happy appearance to our face while eyebrows with a very pronounced slope give the impression of anger or sadness, both characteristics considered unattractive by our brain.
- facial elements frame: if the size of the facial elements (eyes, nose, mouth, ears…) is appropriate and proportionate and the expression is friendly, the last element that will increase and “round” the beautiful appearance of a face is the shape of the face, which is given by the jaw line, cheekbones (zygomatic arches) and forehead. A facial shape is considered attractive depending on the age of the person, let me explain, in babies and children we find a rounded face attractive, in adults our brain is attracted to oval or triangular features (with the vertex on the chin) in women and slightly oval or rectangular in men.
Aesthetic Medicine, with the different treatments, seeks to improve the proportions of the different facial elements, improve the framework that encompasses them, enhancing the features associated with youth and trying to give the face a friendlier and more youthful appearance.