This book covers a lot of knowledge on medical aesthetics, but it does not discuss what constitutes “beauty.” Is there a criterion for beauty? What makes a standard beautiful person attractive? In this age of science, everything seems to have a clear standard. Beauty is believed to have a recognized standard, do you agree?
In a beautiful face, apart from flawless skin, the proportion and contour of the facial features are also essential. Thousands of beautiful faces have been analyzed in studies, resulting in the following criteria: first, symmetry. This is easy to explain, as a large eye paired with a small eye or one side of the face being larger than the other cannot be considered beautiful. So symmetry is the first condition. Second, balance between the upper and lower parts of the face. Some people have a larger upper half of the head than the lower half, or their eyes are relatively smaller than their mouths, or their noses are larger than their eyes. These situations of imbalance make the face look unbalanced, so the perfect face should maintain balance between the upper and lower halves. Third, in addition to symmetry and balance, the distance between the facial features should also follow a certain proportion. For example, the distance between the eyes should not be too far apart, and there should be a proper distance between the nose and chin or the pupils and nose tip, etc. In summary, the distance between the facial features should follow a proportion.
Whether or not there is symmetry can be easily seen by placing a grid paper on a front-facing photo. The distance between facial features needs to follow the appropriate proportions, and if the proportions are not balanced, the beauty will be greatly reduced. Using a more scientific method, we can measure and improve the parts that are imbalanced.
The simplest method is to measure using a 1:1 ratio. That is, the vertical line of the front-facing center is divided into three equal parts: the top part is from the lowest point of the hairline to the forehead, the middle part is from the forehead to the bottom of the nose, and the bottom part is from the bottom of the nose to the chin. The height of the top, middle, and bottom parts should be the same, that is, 1:1:1. The length of the ear to nose, the distance between the eyes, and their length should also be 1:1.
This is part of the so-called “golden ratio,” and we will discuss other ratios in the following section!