Cassadee Pope

Why is a smaller nose width better than a wider one?

The study by Ferruccio Tersello at George Eastman Dental Hospital, “the nose width smaller than 1/4 of facial width” describes the beauty of the face. The study was held on 50 italian models selected for an important beauty contest. According to the report by Nikola Vučinić, Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad, men with medium width noses appear to be more attractive. It depicts that a man may have appealing face features however wide or big noses might lessen the beauty in general.

Another study by Doug Jones, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan reports that a youthful face is one that combines a high ratio of lower-facial features with a small nose and ears and full lips(Doug Jones, 2011). Additionally, a face with unusually large eyes, a small nose, and full lips as compared to face height will have a low predicted age(Doug Jones, 2011). These studies shed light on how better is “a small nose” than the wider one for overall attractiveness.

The study by Van Zijl, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Erasmus Medical Center, finds that the ideal nose width measures one-fifth of the width of an individual’s face as the alar base. Wider alar base and larger tip lobule can result in the appearance of an unusually and disproportionately larger nose when the anterior view is concerned.

Why a high set eyebrow is more attractive than a low set?

In his famous paper, Cunningham mentioned that the expressive features of highly set eyebrows were associated with female features. To corroborate his finds, two studies mentioned below are finds the high set eyebrows are sexually diamorphic feature.

Packiriswamy et al. in their paper “Anthropometric and Anthroposcopic Analysis of Periorbital Features”, quantified the aesthetic dimensions and position of periorbital features.The study involved 300 male and 300 female subjects with ages ranging from 17 to 25 years.Standardised facial photographs of the subjects were taken in frontal view and the aesthetic dimensions and position of periorbital features including eyebrow height(EH) were measured using Image analyzer. The study demonstrated that interbrow height was significantly greater in females than males(p < 0.005).

In a study carried out by Price et al. “Eyebrow and eyelid dimensions: An anthropometric analysis”, ideal eyebrow and eyelid dimensions were studied among 68 male and female subjects, divided into three age cohorts(20 to 39 years, 40 to 59 years, and 60 to 79 years) and by gender.The subjects were then photographed in the frontal view with brow fixation, first with eyes open in primary gaze, and then with eyes gently closed.The standardised digital images were then analysed using a measuring software.It was found that eyebrow height was significantly larger in women than men(p < 0.001).

The scientists Zhao et al in their study “Data - Driven Research on the Matching Degree of Eyes, Eyebrows and Face Shapes”, go on to explain that although eye to eyebrow distance does serve as a proxy for female attractiveness, it is heavily influenced by overall face shape.Shorter, rounder faces are scored as most attractive when they have high set(or more distal) eyebrows with a higher degree of curvature.Whereas square or longer faces are considered most attractive with exactly the opposite: lower set, flatter eyebrows(Zhao et al, 2019; Baker, 2007). The eye to eyebrow distance and shape can accentuate other attractive facial features, slim the overall facial appearance and alter the perception of eye size but the bi - directionality of this relationship means that the ideal eyebrow placement varies with individual facial aesthetics.