Ode to Straight Noses - Part 4

Yes, more straight noses.... If your FFS doctor tries to convince you that in order to pass or be beautiful, your nose needs to have a scooped bridge and be turned up like a pig snout (ok, my words, not theirs), remember these lovely women and their straight noses.

Rita Hayworth

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Rita Hayworth

It's also worth mentioning that this hairline on Rita Hayworth is not natural. It was created through electrolysis. Her original hairline was lower in the corners. So in order to make her more attractive they gave her a hairline that FFS doctors would consider more masculine, but it worked.

Lucille Ball (She started out as a model and showgirl before doing comedy)

More Lucille Ball

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alicia Keys' great profile (she may look even better than she does from the front) and perfectly straight nose

 

Liv Tyler and her straight nose

High prenatal androgens cause boys to tilt their heads up when having their photos taken... or, Are square jaws a masculine trait? - Part 2

I was just looking at the abstract for the article "Second-to-fourth digit ratio and facial shape in boys: the lower the digit ratio, the more robust the face" by Meindl, Windhager, et al., and also looking at the accompanying photos which can be seen in an earlier post or here. And although I don't have access to the article, so cannot be sure, based on what I can see I'd say that the methods were faulty and the results should just be thrown out. The photographs were not taken consistently, which means they have no baseline to work from. No baseline means crap data.

In the first image below, the boy's head is tilted down and his ears line up at his eyebrows. In the middle photo, his ears line up below the eyebrows, and in the last photo his ears line up with his eyes. The difference can be seen by looking at his nose, too.

Here's a clue. It's not prenatal androgens.

What does this mean? It means I should start moonlighting writing scholarly articles for Proceedings of the Royal Society :) The image below shows the photographic evidence from the 2012 article, but with Angelina Jolie's face where the little boy face should go.

Photo showing that when Angelina's head is tilted down (look at the ears in the 1st photo), she suddenly has a more feminine, V-shaped face. And when her head is tilted up, a masculine, squarer jaw. But this is NOT due to prenatal androgens. It's just how things work, which is why taking photographs consistently is important. For more info, look up foreshortening.

Also, I returned to check the 2005 article and it doesn't include ears in the images so I cannot guess the accuracy of its findings. Under the 'Methods' section it says it just asked the men to look straight ahead. But its drawings don't have the telltale signs of inconsistency shown in the 2012 article. For example:

1. In the first image (shown above), the boys nose is pointy, in the last it isn't.
2. In the first image, the eyebrows are straignter (much like Angelina's) and the last image they are more arched (like Angelina's). 
3. In the first image the mouth is curved up, in the middle straight across, and in the last one curved down (again, like Angelina's)..

These are effects caused by tilting the head, and none of them appear to the degree they do in the image from the 2005 study shown below.

So, in a nutshell, the 2012 article's results cannot be trusted (just my opinion, of course). The 2005 article appears legit though, which would mean that higher levels of prenatal androgens result in a squarer, broader face whereas lower prenatal androgens result in a pointier chin and a face that is less square overall (longer than it is wide).

To be continued....

Are square jaws a masculine trait?

Recently I was asked my opinion on square jaws by a reader of this blog. I really didn't know where to start though. I thought I knew what the reader was getting at, but didn't think there was a good enough definition for the term, really. Sometimes "square" seems to refer to a square shaped face and at other times a defined jaw line.

What "square" means in the fields of medicine and anthropology...

But John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist and professor of anthropology, has a web site that gets to the point nicely. The angle of a person's jaw, shown below, differs somewhat between men and women. "In males, the angle [sic] is closer to 90 degrees. In females, this angle is greater, up to 110 -120 degrees." Hence the term "square jawed", I would assume.

mandibular or gonial angle

Other articles say this isn't a reliable determinant of gender though. Ethnicity and other factors play a role in determining the gonial angle. But since these articles are written by forensic anthropologists, their interest lies in being able to determine sex from skeletal remains. Our interests are different. We are looking at people face to face so have visual clues regarding age and ethnicity.

Jaw angle does affect face shape...

Another thing I learned from reading books on anthropology and forensic facial reconstruction is that the gonial angle definitely does affect that shape of one's face from the front. The squarer the jaw, the more likely the person will have a round or square face, as opposed to an oval or triangle-shaped face.

Androgens affect face shape...

We know this. We can SEE this. But here are some articles that show the difference prenatal testosterone makes. When a person's ring finger is longer than his or her index finger, this results in a lower 2D:4D ratio (2nd digit to 4th digit ratio) which signifies higher androgen exposure in the womb.

'Manly' Fingers Make For Strong Jawline in Young Boys (Note that this 2012 study had a very small sample size of 17. See the abstract here.)

Less prenatal androgens resulted in a more feminine, triangular, face shape, as seen on the left. This differs greatly from the masculine face, which is square-shaped.

Second to fourth digit ratio and face shape (2005 study of 106 volunteers)

Again, the more prenatal exposure to androgens, as seen on the far left, the squarer the face shape.

To be continued...

Ode to Straight Noses - Part 3

For your viewing pleasure, more non-scooped noses...

Rudolf Valentino (feel free to ignore his nose) and Natacha Rambova (who has a lovely jawline, that is both defined and feminine, to go with her great profile)

Carole Lombard's perfectly straight nose (although I can't say much for her jaw line)

Joan Crawford close-up by George Hurrell (the man's nose has a little bump, but hers is great)

More Joan Crawford

Ursula Andress

Keira Knightley (Her nose is turned up, but straight. Also, I know she's had rhinoplasty but don't know what her original profile was or if it was changed at all.)

Until later...

Which is More Important for a Feminine Chin? Length or Shape? - Heidi Montag's Flat, Broad Chin

Not to speak ill of the dead, but I think that Montag's surgeon could have done better when he reduced her chin. Although her original chin was long, it was rounded, as shown below. But after her chin reduction surgery, the shape was squarer and wider, as if the bottom had simply been sawed off. Good FFS surgeons would never do this intentionally since their goal is to make their patients' faces more feminine, not masculine.

But the question I posed was... which is more important in feminizing a chin? Length or shape? I am guessing shape is, because in the 1st photograph below, she's had her nose done, but still has her old chin. But in the before and after photographs, I changed her chin to make it pointier (more feminine), but also made it longer (not as long as her original chin, but definitely longer). The end result? I think the more feminine shape completely trumps the more masculine length and, as a result, she looks more feminine. 

New nose with original chin (longish but rounded)

Before and after photos showing a longer chin but with a better, more feminine shape. This is what she would have looked like if her doctor had retained the shape of her chin, yet shortened it.

Facial Proportions - Tori Spelling with a Higher Hairline and Slimmer Nose

In my last post about facial proportions, in which I Photoshopped Tori Spelling to show what FFS doctors might do to her if they got a hold of her, I did not change two things:

1. I stopped short of raising her hairline because FFS doctors would never do such a thing. The common belief (or mistake?) is "the lower the better" and that high hairlines are masculine. So in the photo of her, her facial proportions were not quite in tune with Leonardo da Vinci's guidelines (that the face is divided into thirds).
2. Also, although I made her nose more symmetrical, I did not make her nose narrower. In art class, it is often taught that the outer edges of the nose line up with the inner edges of the eyes. I'm not sure if that holds true for all ethnicities, but there are other guidelines out there as well. This is jut one of them.

So, although FFS doctors would never raise a hairline, here she is... Tori Spelling with the changes I made to her in an earlier post, and Tori with a taller forehead and narrower nose.

Approximate facial proportions in the "before" and "after" photos.

	Before	After
Top Third	30%	33%
Middle Third	35%	33%
Lower Third	35%	33%

Do you think the higher forehead makes her look more masculine?

Facial Proportions - Tori Spelling with New Facial Proportions and FFS

Once I read something about Tori Spelling looking like a drag queen. Just recently this came to mind and I thought, "Does she really?" And to answer that question, I found the best photo I could find of her and got started.

The first thing I did was draw a head-shaped oval and put a horizontal line through the center. (I was trying to see how the proportions of her face compare to the guidelines used in drawing faces, shown here. In art class, this is how you start drawing a head.) The eyeballs will fall along the center line. So, the distance from her eyes to the top of her head should be the same distance to her chin.... according to how I was taught, which is just a guideline. But Tori is different. Here eyeballs fall above the center line and the rest wasn't lining up well either, so I wasn't sure what to do with that.

On to Plan B. According to the same art class guideline I mention above, the distance from her eyeballs to right below her nose should be about the same distance as that from below her nose to her chin, and her mouth should fall right above the lowest line. But her mouth is a bit low. I can't make her chin THAT short. It would look odd. So that was not working either.

So on to Plan C. I decided to divide her face into thirds as outlined in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, and shown on this page (my guideline is a little off in the image below but I'm sure you get the point). And this is what I got.

The resulting image has four changes:

1. a shorter chin
2. a narrower, pointier chin (unlike Heidi Montag's chin which appears to have been just sawed off at the bottom leaving it wide and flat)
3. a symmetrical nose (to hide her bad rhinoplasty that has left one side caved in)
4. narrower jaw (just the tiniest bit since her jaw stuck out further than her cheekbones)

Approximate facial proportions in the "before" and "after" photos.

	Before	After
Top Third	29%	30%
Middle Third	33%	35%
Lower Third	38%	35%

I did not raise her forehead, due to the fact that FFS doctors would not do that, but if I wanted to remake her face into perfect thirds, that's what I would have done. Also, if she were male and FFS doctors got to her, I think they might suggest more changes since they are prone to that, but I think think the difference is remarkable. But more about facial proportions another day...

Are high hairlines really a masculine trait?

A while ago I saw photos of a Swedish MTF transsexual who had facial feminization surgery by Dr. Yaremchuk in Boston, Massachusetts. (All the photos and YouTube videos have since disappeared though.) I have to say that I have been amazed at his skill and the quality of work, but I believe he was working outside his level of expertise when he took on this patient because the hairline was left too low, among other things.

But in the field of FFS, it seems that patients are routinely expected to get hairline lowering. I've seen hairline lowering that actually left the hairline looking higher than it had been previously. For example if the patient has a widow's peak (not a receding hairline, just a little widow's peak) and that is removed, it makes a difference in the overall look of the forehead.For example:

Vanessa William with her widow's peak, and without it.

But my question is whether high hairlines really look masculine. I once read a statement on a doctor's web site that it's better to go too low than too high. Alexandra, at Virtual FFS doesn't believe that men's hairlines are higher than women's (she explains why here) and I agree with her. She has visual evidence to back her up, after all. Doctors' web sites don't refer to anything. They don't cite sources. So until I see proof otherwise, I will trust the evidence I can see.

But the one thing that doctors don't mention, but I find true, is that short foreheads look weird. For example, the "before" photo is Teresa Giudice's natural forehead. Her scalp hair grows directly on the flat area of her forehead above her eyes. In the "after" photo, I made her hairline too high. 

I think her forehead looks too high in the "after" photo, but it's not especially weird looking, aside from being huge and unnaturally flat. Also, if a doctor lowers a hairline too much, then it's not like one can remove the hair by laser or electrolysis because a massive scar will show.

Ok, enough on hairlines, but I have one more photo. Tyra Banks with a low forehead like Teresa Giudice. (This is young Tyra, before her nose job and the wigs that cover up her naturally high, very high, hairline.)

Would she have made it in modeling with the very low hairline?

Rumer Willis with a Little Less Chin... a Chin Reduction, Part 2

Not to pick on Rumer Willis again, but I just saw a photo of her from a different angle and her chin is really messed up. So I shrunk her chin and set it back a bit since it juts forward. It used to even be smaller at one time but the smaller I made it, the larger her jaw looked. I think the end result is nice though.

I also noticed that when I glance at the first photo, I cannot help but look at her chin. But in the second one, I seem to take in her whole face and even noticed that her hair is messy, which I didn't notice in the first photo at all. It's like her chin took up all my attention.

Ode to Straight Noses - Part 2

In an earlier post I asked why the world of FFS is gaga about scooped noses when this concept (scooped is the ideal) only seems to exist among FFS doctors and their patients. So here are more examples of straight noses.

Elizabeth Taylor

Louise Brooks (I know, not the normal profile shot but I just happened to come across it on accident)

Audrey Hepburn (Not classically straight, but definitely not scooped either. More convex, actually.)

 Also, you might be asking... where are all the scooped noses? I have photographs of beautiful profiles on famous women, but why am I leaving out the scooped ones? Well, like I've mentioned before... scooped notices are, historically, not considered an attractive feature. That is why Angelina Jolie had hers fixed. But to be fair, I've included one. Julie Andrews' nose is scooped. Granted, she did not accomplish what she has by her looks. But I've included her still.. And I straightened her nose a bit while I was at it.

Julie Andrews (The 'before' shot is her natural nose... the 'after' shot is my doing. Which looks better?)

Reese Witherspoon #2 - Forehead Reduction

I was looking at my earlier photo of her in which I had given her a chin reduction and thought... if she were to get facial feminization surgery, she would probably also get a forehead reduction as well. So I gave her one (in addition to the chin work).

I didn't change her forehead to match any concept of ideal facial proportions though. I just eyeballed it. It could be a little to short, perhaps.