From golden ratios and 3D images, to Linda Evangelista’s cheekbones and Christie Brinkley’s perfect smile, today’s cosmetic surgeon knows beauty is a science

WORDS Anna J. Lloyd PHOTOGRAPHY Tommy Chung

While you only need to flip through the glossy pages of this magazine to spot “beauty,” defining it is significantly trickier. It’s been said that beauty is truth, nature, all around us, in the eye of the beholder—a potpourri of poetics about beauty abounds—but, in fact, an increasingly convincing body of research suggests that the definition of beauty lays within science.

In fact, artists and philosophers have long approached beauty as a science, at least since the Renaissance. Today, what was previously translated in sculpture, paint and poetry is being examined in the flesh. Thanks to ever more sophisticated theories, technologies and an unyielding demand for the perfect face, modern-day surgeons and psychologists are not only furthering our understanding of the science of beauty but applying it with unprecedented precision.

Biologic Beauty

For all the emphasis we put on a pretty face, aesthetic perfection is not unique to the human form. Sunflowers, seashells, classical architecture—these unrelated examples of beauty are explained by what is called “the golden ratio” (aka, the golden section or the golden mean). It is a geometric relationship first discovered by the ancient Greeks, of roughly 1 to 1.6, which they called ‘PHI.’ When objects are designed with this ratio in mind—let’s say the width of a building’s façade compared to its height—the form is regarded as aesthetically pleasing.

This “pattern of perfection” is also known as the Fibonacci sequence, named after Leonardo of Pisa (Snr. Fibonacci) who introduced the mathematics of it to the Western world in the 11th century. What Fibonacci realized was that this special sequence is a mathematical succession of numbers in which each number is the sum of the two before it: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so on. The relationship of each number to the next—say, 8 compared to 13—produces this golden ratio.

Artists and philosophers have approached beauty as a science since the Renaissance.

When the numbers in this sequence are mapped out, the result is a perfect spiral, which some believe is the framework for biological beauty. In fact, many of the spatial relationships in a “perfect” face reflect the golden ratio, for example, the width vs the height of the face, or the width of the eyes vs the length of the nose.

Of course, no one looks in the mirror and thinks, “If only my golden ratios were better aligned,” but, according to Dr. Stephen Marquardt, a maxillofacial surgeon and founder of Marquardt Beauty Analysis in Huntington Beach, Calif., maybe we should. Dr. Marquardt has spent the last 35 years researching what defines facial beauty. Golden ratios, he believes, are the basis of an ideal, universal facial beauty. In applying golden ratios as a series, Dr. Marquardt has designed the PHI Mask, which he has shown to gauge archetypes of beauty from Nefertiti to Stephanie Seymour.

“As you adjust a person’s features to more closely align with the PHI mask, they become more attractive,” explains Dr. Marquardt. Don’t worry, the adjustments he’s suggesting aren’t as drastic as you might expect. Actually, Dr. Marquardt claims that the majority of us fit the mask fairly closely. “We’ve evolved such that we are, for the most part, attractively neutral or average,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons plastic surgery is so effective, because the changes are so small.”

Survival of the Prettiest

Find it hard to believe that the difference between average and Angelina is a matter of millimeters? According to Dr. Marquardt, it’s Darwinian driven, and that our attraction to physical beauty is actually based on how beauty reveals biological health. Someone whose features are terribly out of symmetry, for example, is judged “unhealthy” and not suitable for reproduction. “Our brains have sensitized to these minute differences throughout evolution,” he explains. “The perception of the face and its countenance is a survival mechanism.”

You probably encountered the survival of the prettiest theory in high school. But what Dr. Marquardt and others suggest is a mathematical and biological variation of the theory that is all around us and at our very core. Specifically, Dr. Marquardt has identified the same golden ratio in his mask in the chemical structure of DNA—the building blocks of life. Based on this finding and his extensive research, Dr. Marquardt believes that, more than an age of beauty, the PHI mask represents an image of humanness. We find a face like Jessica Stam’s beautiful, he says, because her supermodel features so closely approximate a mathematical model of health that we are biologically hard-wired to appreciate. How’s that for skin deep?

BEAUTY BY NUMBERS

Grab a ruler and a mirror and see how you measure up to some of the digits that define the ideal face.
“Rule of the Fifths”
The face should ideally measure five eye widths apart, from the outside of one ear to the other. The width of the base of the nose should be one eye width and approximate the distance between the eyes.
“Rule of the Thirds”
The vertical length of the face should ideally break down into equal thirds: the hairline (trichion) to the brow (glabella); the brow to the base of the nose (subnasale); and the base of the nose to the tip of the chin (menton).

Beyond the Numbers

But before you run out to your cosmetic surgeon, protractor in hand, you might heed the words of psychologist Michael Cunningham, PhD, a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Louisville, Ky. He gives pause to the idea that beauty is a numbers game, explaining that ideal ratios and proportions are aspects of facial beauty, “but they aren’t at the top of the list.” Rather, Dr. Cunningham approaches beauty as a social science. “To understand what we judge as beautiful, it’s necessary to analyze the categories of features and qualities that cause someone to be seen as more or less physically attractive,” he says.

So what are these features? (Inquiring minds want to know!) According to Dr. Cunningham, the categories that determine facial beauty include: baby face features—like Gemma Ward’s tiny nose and big eyes; sexually mature fesky-high cheek bones or a Clooney-esque jaw line); aging features; and socially variable qualities, like grooming and expressivity. It is the balancing of these features that Cunningham’s research has shown to be most beautiful. This balance is generally characterized by the concentration of more neonate, or “cute,” features in the center of the face and more mature features on the periphery, along with a harmony between youthful qualities and those that express sexual maturity.

A beautiful face, says Dr. Cunningham, “is not a single, absolute quality, but instead reflects a combination of desirable qualities.” While we are programmed, as Dr. Marquardt suggests, to perceive certain features as more or less beautiful, flashing a smile, batting an eye, or sporting the latest hairstyle can also affect your beauty quotient. Expressions that show interest, such as dilated pupils or highly arched eyebrows, and grooming features that reflect social status—like that fabulous Dior lipstick you just had to have—can accentuate the appeal of facial features.

Beauty in Context

Golden ratios and perfect plumage aside, the question we’re all asking right now is, how can I make this work for me?

Dr. Tanuj Nakra, MD, a cosmetic surgeon based in Austin, Tex., knows more than a thing or two about perfectly placed facial features. “Symmetry and proportion are very important in the overall science of beauty and I think patients in general can be naive to these concepts,” Dr. Nakra explains.

To educate patients on the importance of symmetry and proportion in facial beauty, Dr. Nakra uses the rule of the thirds, which divides the face horizontally into three, and the rule of the fifths, which divides the face lengthwise into five segments each about the width of one eye. Though not as complex as the PHI mask, the plotting of the face in this way helps to acquaint patients with the realities of their face, aging and possible enhancements.

“Once patients get that, a lot of maneuvers become obvious,” says Dr. Nakra. When a 20-year-old woman came into his Austin office seeking a nose job, for instance, a simple assessment using the rules of thirds and fifths revealed that the procedure that would most complement her features was a chin implant. A second patient of Dr. Nakra’s, who complained her cheeks were too big, was surprised to learn that it wasn’t her cheeks at all but her nose and chin that were a little disproportionate. “The results of minor adjustments to these features,” says Dr. Nakra, “were dramatic.”

Although it is proportion that is most im-portant to the overall beauty of the face, symmetry plays a key role in rejuvenation procedures, such as fillers, Botox and blepharoplasties. “We all have congenital asymmetries, which become more pronounced as we age,” explains Dr. Nakra. But an asymmetrical face in itself is not necessarily unattractive. “Look at Paris Hilton,” Dr. Nakra suggests. “She is an example of dramatic asymmetry, but most of us agree that she is beautiful.” Instead, it’s when these asymmetries exaggerate the effects of aging, that beauty—or those “desirable combination of qualities” described by Dr. Cunningham—can be obscured and we might consider a nip, lift or plump to get them back in shape.

Imaging the Future

Describing the science of beauty as “in its infancy,” Dr. Nakra concedes that innovative technologies and the latest research are taking it into new dimensions—literally. Three-dimensional photography systems, like Canfield’s 3D Vectra 3M, now offer precise 3D facial views that can be used to create models for pre-procedural consultations.

Compared to conventional consultative techniques, which can require dozens of photographs from different angles, 3D projections put every nook, cranny, hill and crevice at the consulting doctor’s fingertips. Not only are patients better able to visualize the anticipated results of a procedure, but 3D imaging is enabling cosmetic surgeons to work in greater detail and apply new concepts about the role of volume in facial aging and the science of beauty in general. (Yes, youth is all in the cheeks!)

The purpose of a scientific approach to beauty is not to compare beauties, however, but to consider how we might approach our own ideal. From algorithms and golden decagons to evolutionary biology and imaging models out of a Star Trek episode, the science of beauty offers explanations and a framework for perfection—but does it bring us any closer to a definition? As Dr. Nakra quips, “Once you find that you have a definition of what beauty is, you find some example of beauty that doesn’t fit the rule.” In the end, it is likely this fact—the ever-changing, fluidity of beauty—that will forever keep its science something a little less than perfect.