[Etone TV] The reasons behind the obsession with the “midface” and its real effects, as explained by a plastic surgeon

A plastic surgeon explains

the reasons behind the obsession with the “midface” and its real effects

These days, interest in the midface is really intense,

so much so that sometimes it feels like

all standards of beauty are centered on the midface.

The eyes, nose, philtrum, and upper lip

almost seem to hold the core of the face.

In textbook terms,

there is an agreed-upon standard for dividing the face into the upper face, middle face, and lower face.

To explain it simply,

you divide the face into thirds using four points.

The point where the hair ends

and the forehead begins

The most protruding part

near the eyebrows

Right below the nose

The recessed area inside the philtrum

The very bottom point below the chin

When the face is divided into thirds

using these four points,

the middle face refers to the area between the second point (the eyebrows)

and the third point (below the nose).

Sometimes people ask,

“If the philtrum or lips belong to the lower face,

why does a long midface make the philtrum look long?”

People judge things intuitively as “pretty” or “cool.”

When we feel attracted to someone,

we do not measure based on the eyebrows or below the nose.

In my opinion,

the key points we intuitively sense are

“the two eyes” and “the lips.”

These three points form a triangle,

and the longer the distance from the eyes to the lips,

the more likely we are to perceive the midface as long.

There are three main factors that are usually cited

as causes that make the midface look long.

1. Visual effect of nose and philtrum length

: If the nose is long

or the philtrum between the nose and lips is long,

the midface looks longer.

2. Drooping corners of the mouth and changes in impression

: If the corners of the mouth are drooping,

the whole face can feel as if it is sagging downward,

creating an optical illusion that makes the midface look longer than it actually is

and sometimes giving an impression that is less calm and more gloomy or tired.

3. Volume sagging due to aging

: Even if the length is the same, as we age,

if the fat volume in the front cheekbone area decreases

and starts to sag downward,

it changes into a stretched triangular shape.

These three factors work together,

making the midface look longer.

That is why the makeup trend of making the midface look shorter

is also focused on filling in this sense of contour and empty space.

If makeup is what makes you look pretty in two dimensions,

then the plastic surgery or procedures I perform

improve the three-dimensional structure.

Just as with dark circles that makeup cannot cover,

when three-dimensional structural improvement beyond 2D is needed,

people visit a plastic surgery clinic.

These days, the obsession with the midface has become so intense

that it seems to be spreading into appearance anxiety.

There is an abundance of content saying

“Only a short midface is beautiful,”

but in fact, there are many people who are attractive even with a long midface.

It makes me uncomfortable

that all the causes of ugliness seem to be concentrated on the midface.

A long midface does not mean

that attractiveness is automatically reduced.

There are examples such as actress Mun Ka-young and Park Eun-bin,

who, by medical standards,

do not have especially short midfaces,

yet still radiate broad public appeal.

What these people have in common is that they possess

excellent balance along with other attractive elements

that offset the numerical measure of “length.”

What matters is not simply the length,

but the “three-dimensional form.”

It is not true that a long midface always makes someone look older

and a short midface always makes them look younger.

But why do people especially

want to make the midface look shorter?

It comes from the basic human desire

to pursue beauty.

If we analyze why we feel attracted to certain people

from a neuroaesthetic perspective,

we find that attraction arises when both universality and rarity are present at the same time.

Universality means “average beauty.”

The more balanced the left and right sides are

and the closer the proportions are to the average,

the more beautiful we tend to find them.

This is related to the instinctive desire to find good genes

from a genetic standpoint.

But if something is too average or too symmetrical,

we may still think it is beautiful,

but we do not feel “attraction.”

Rarity has to be added

for us to truly feel attraction.

And after analyzing celebrities who have become popular recently,

I found that many of them have shorter midfaces in common.

That is why people have come to believe that

“the current trend is a short midface.”

Actors who were popular in the 1980s and 1990s

may now seem to have long midfaces or feel old-fashioned,

but at the time, that was the trend.

Right now, a short midface is one of the major trends.

A face with a short midface can also give a youthful impression,

like a child’s face.

In the end, the desire to make the midface shorter

seems to be rooted in the desire to look younger.

Then, as we age,

does the midface actually get longer?

Rather than saying it “gets longer,”

it is more accurate to say it “looks longer.”

When we consider changes in the bones together with changes in the soft tissue,

the length does not clearly increase,

but the face does develop factors that make it look longer.

The biggest cause is

the reduction and sagging of fat volume.

As the fat volume decreases like air leaking from a balloon,

the soft tissue stretches downward.

This change in contour makes the midface

look longer to people.

An impression of looking longer can ultimately

lead to an impression of looking older.

Trends always change,

but the confidence and atmosphere that come from your own balance

remain the best tools of attractiveness.

When you look in the mirror today,

instead of obsessing over whether your midface is short or long,

why not think about which lines and volumes of your face

will make you look the most attractive?