Skip to content

Faces‘Looksmaxxing’ Promises Better Looks—but It Can Put Teen Boys at Risk BeardsAhead of Grey Cup game, Elks explain why coach’s change in facial hair symbolizes commitment to team Faces'Looksmaxxing' among social media trends raising concerns with school counselors, medical professionals BeardsZohran Mamdani has the most famous mustache in politics — for now FacesThis one beauty standard is holding women back - why won't we let it go?Faces‘AI Face’ is Creating Dystopian Beauty Standards Faces15 Low-Maintenance Medium-Length Haircuts That Are Easy to Style BeardsWexford rugby team smash €10,000 target in ‘Movember’ days after beard shave FacesModel Paulina Porizkova asks us to imagine a world where 'older beauty' is admired and respected EyewearQueen of shades: 5 of the coolest eyewear moments from Blackpink’s Jennie Faces‘Looksmaxxing’ Promises Better Looks—but It Can Put Teen Boys at Risk BeardsAhead of Grey Cup game, Elks explain why coach’s change in facial hair symbolizes commitment to team Faces'Looksmaxxing' among social media trends raising concerns with school counselors, medical professionals BeardsZohran Mamdani has the most famous mustache in politics — for now FacesThis one beauty standard is holding women back - why won't we let it go?Faces‘AI Face’ is Creating Dystopian Beauty Standards Faces15 Low-Maintenance Medium-Length Haircuts That Are Easy to Style BeardsWexford rugby team smash €10,000 target in ‘Movember’ days after beard shave FacesModel Paulina Porizkova asks us to imagine a world where 'older beauty' is admired and respected EyewearQueen of shades: 5 of the coolest eyewear moments from Blackpink’s Jennie

Science and genetics

How features are inherited and how faces are studied. 27 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.

Science studies how faces form, how features are inherited and how people perceive faces. Embryology explains the philtrum and Cupid's bow; genetics explains eye colour and freckles; psychology studies symmetry and averageness. Science also shows what is not true: physiognomy, the old idea that faces reveal character, has no basis, and golden-ratio beauty claims are not well supported.

Growth and genes

The face forms in the embryo from several swellings of tissue that grow and fuse; the philtrum and Cupid's bow mark where they meet at the upper lip. Eye colour, freckling and many other traits are shaped by multiple genes, with OCA2, HERC2 and MC1R among the best known. Most features do not follow the simple single-gene patterns of older textbooks.

Perception

In 1990 Judith Langlois and Lorri Roggman reported that composite faces, blended from many photos, were rated attractive, a finding called averageness. Studies also find a modest preference for symmetry, though no face is perfectly symmetric. Claims that beautiful faces follow the golden ratio have not held up well. Physiognomy, used in the nineteenth century to support racist theories, is not science.

Famous science and genetics face guides

Facial symmetryStudied in face perception

PhiltrumMarks where facial tissues fuse

Eye colorShaped by many genes

FrecklesLinked to MC1R

Epicanthic foldAn eyelid variation found worldwide

Still to be written: Averageness.

Further reading

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Epicanthic fold: Sarang, Public domain, source
Blushing: Valerie Hinojosa, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Freckles: Loyna, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
Eye color: LeuschteLampe, Public domain, source
Philtrum: Rick Kimpel, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Facial symmetry: Hermann Braus, Public domain, source
Unibrow: Z11o22, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Vellus hair: Kubek15/Slave, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

The weekly digest

Every Monday: the face guide of the day, new pages on EveryFaceShape, and the conferences and anniversaries of the week ahead.