Esthetics

Shortly ago, I came across a good study^{(1, pdf)} that I should have had ran into an year ago, but strangely missed it.  It clarifies an argument that I have been making by mostly contrasting Europeans with non-Europeans.  This study has shown the existence of an aesthetic preference for placement along the overall ancestral-to-derived discriminant within an European population (Italians), and it employs the proper way of measuring face shape.

Since this issue has come up repeatedly, it should be addressed in an article by itself.

Rhinoplasties (nose jobs) are among the most difficult cosmetic surgical procedures and unfavorable results are not unusual, making a number of patients seek additional rhinoplasties to correct the deficits of the first one.  People considering a nose job and cosmetic surgeons in particular should be aware of four types of nose deformities that predispose to unfavorable results.^{(1, pdf)}

Whereas it is clear that Marquardt’s Phi mask, derived from the golden ratio or divine proportion, is inconsistent with the optimal esthetic preferences of most people on multiple counts, it is necessary to also address issues as in the image below.

The golden ratio -- also referred to as the divine proportion, Φ (Phi), golden mean or golden section -- is illustrated below.

Some individuals have asked whether extreme femininity is aesthetically desirable in women.  This question is best answered by pictures.

This is a response to a commentator, Kimberly, who has repeatedly insisted that tallness in women is a masculine characteristic.  Some other individuals have also left comments along the lines of beauty pageant contestants looking masculine because they are tall or that fashion models look masculine because tall women are needed for fashion modeling and hence the models look masculine.

Micro-fat grafting surgery involves removing fat from one part of the body and implanting it elsewhere.  For instance, a woman could remove fat from her abdomen and have it added to the backside.  Singh and Randall obtained pre- and post-operative pictures of the side or back views of 15 women that had undergone this procedure and had their attractiveness rated by men and women, one example of which is shown below(1, zip).

This is a follow-up on a previous entry on eyebrow aesthetics.  Baker et al.(1) morphed the faces of 5 women into oval, square, long and round faces; digitally removed the eyebrows, and for each morphed shape, came up with two images: one with an added eyebrow conforming to Westmore’s ideal and another with an eyebrow added by a make-up artist to suit the face shape.