Hong Kiwoong, M.D.
Director
SAMSKIN Plastic Surgery, Seoul Korea
Factors that affect the above four conditions of attractiveness include the skin condition and wrinkles. The brightness, even skin tone, pore size, spots and imperfections, etc. can affect the overall attractiveness of a face. According to a study, people tend to assess someone’s age based on the most aged feature visible. That is, if one area of the face appears more aged than the rest, people ignore the more youthful part of the face. For example, someone with a young face but a bald spot may be thought as older than his actual age. This is why wrinkles need to be corrected. For best results, an overall approach is important. Another study reported that deep wrinkles distract from the facial features, giving the face a negative image.
In 2011, Dr. Seung-chul Rhee, Professor of Plastic Surgery at Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, published a study presenting a composite image of attractive female faces for different races. These images created with face morphing technology had the common characteristics of beauty mentioned above. Rhee’s data showed that there were racial differences in standards of beauty. Therefore, a cosmetic surgery that preserves these racial characteristics would bring a better outcome than a surgery that tries to uniformly westernize an Asian face.
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Some scholars ascribe the pursuit of western beauty to cultural assimilation. Cho Yongjin, a face analyst, reported that the modern concepts of beauty have changed in Korea.
Many experiments showed that preferences for certain appearances tended to coincide regardless of the age and sex. It is in our nature to universally view youthfulness as a key aspect of beauty. Some studies have shown that even newborn babies prefer an attractive face, maintaining their gaze longer when looking at an attractive face. Therefore, the preference for a youthful and attractive face is inherent in us. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, a youthful face with symmetry and balance signify healthy genes and physical beauty indicates biological health and high likelihood of survival.
It is important for plastic surgeons to determine correct approaches of treatment based on the above mentioned standards of attractiveness to create the desired appearance. The ideal features of the face include a gentle protrusion of the cheekbones that give a face a subtle smile, smooth and sleek contours of the face, full lips, a horizontally symmetrical jawline, a nose of an appropriate proportion and height, and an egg-shaped or oval face.
-To be continued-
