“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”
FOR some, the color and tone of one’s skin are important, for others, it’s the height.
Certain cultures attach great importance to long necks. Some Pacific Islanders admire Rubenesque bodies.
We could go on and on about different cultural preferences and yet there is a typical Filipino tradition of choosing the fairest of them all. From the barangay level to national and televised stage, beauty contests are almost an obsession.
Internationally, this country has been hugely successful.
The reigning Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach won in most dramatic fashion (thank you, Steve Harvey).
She seems to have everything —proportion, poise, pulchritude.
She also has a high facial symmetry. It’s not perfect, but nearly.
Pia Wurtzbach
Now, we can’t all be like Pia. The pursuit of beauty can be quite a task, telling us to lighten skin, undergo procedures (cosmetic or surgical), and yet still falling short of our aspiration.
What nature has provided can always be made more attractive through the way we dress, carry ourselves and how we interact with others.
Some ladies shine, not because of extraordinary beauty but because they seem comfortable in their own skin.
So, let’s talk about hairstyle choices. Most women have heard or read about the importance of analyzing skin tones for hair color, respectively determining face shapes for choosing their style. Round, square, diamond, heart or pear-shaped translates to a certain ideal length and cut.
But this is far too simplified.
For one, face shapes usually come in combinations of two or three of these shapes and the one in need of balancing must be identified. Even so, other points to consider are the shapes, arrangement and balance of features such as the eyes and brows area, cheeks and cheekbones area, lips, jaw and chin area.
Pia Wurtzbach
Further consideration is required by overall bone structure of the head and proportion of head to shoulders and the rest of the body.
The list could go on. You can see why there are specialists in the field and even they need years of experience to become the style mavens they are known to be.
They say you need to study 10,000 faces to really perceive a person’s face accurately.
Facial symmetry is of great importance. Use symmetry flaws wisely and your face looks slimmer, longer or better.
We tend to assume that both sides of our face are the same. If that were so, we could take a picture of the left and mirror it and do the same with the right half of the face and the result should be two images as if they were twins.
There is a free app in the App Store called FaceSym which allows you to do just that. Try it, and you might be amazed!
The resulting image pairs look more like sisters or cousins.
Knowing about the symmetrical differences allows us to make better choices starting with the parting of the hair. A center part brings out the differences and accentuates your cheeks. Most people have a photogenic side and when asked to pose for a photo, they turn their head slightly to the left or right. That should be the side of your parting as the parting highlights that side.
Going back to Pia W., notice how the eyes, lips and nose are almost perfectly balanced.
The right image (which is really her left side) shows more angles in the chin and width of the jaw. But, as you can see, nobody’s perfect. Not even Miss Universe.