Why is a smaller upper lip height better than a larger lip?

While accepting the vitality of the lips in determining facial symmetry and aesthetics, Kar et al., described the ideal lips features of the face, in terms of anatomy, landmarks, and proportions, together with the ethnic and sexual undertones. They ascribed this as the reason why the popularity of cosmetic surgery to improve lip size is on the rise. In conclusion, they opined that “, the ideal ratio of the vertical height of the upper lip to that of the lower lip is 1:1.6.”

In previous research done at the University of Louisville by Cunningham et al, the authors discovered that women find men with thin lips more attractive. “Faces with the individual mature features of a square jaw and thin lips were rated as more attractive than male faces with round jaws or thick lips.”

Furthermore, Piotr Pietruski and Majak provided more data on the ideal “attractive young Caucasian males” lower third face morphology, which included the lips and jawline.They were convinced that their observation represented the actual upper lip to lower lip ratio of an ideal male.They stated that ideally, “the upper vermilion height was found significantly lower than the lower vermilion height”. This, according to the research, made a strong case that their data, obtained using the Average Body Contours(ABC) image, may provide practical guidelines to help surgeons during lips rejuvenation procedures.

A “first impressions” study was carried out by Caroline F.Keating at the Colgate University involving 145 male and 154 female subjects demonstrating that thin lips made male faces appear more attractive than thick ones.