With so many noses on so many faces, is it possible to say which nose is ideal? Not in any permanent sense, certainly. When it comes to noses, what’s in today can be out tomorrow.
So think twice about saying to a surgeon, “I want a rhinoplasty to make me look like X (insert name of favourite celebrity).”
The Many Faces of Noses
In 2011, the Daily Mail published a story about Abraham Tamir, a professor of chemical engineering at Ben-Gurion University in Israel who teaches a course on the interaction between art and science. Tamir toured shopping centres in Europe and Israel, taking candid photographs of people with interesting noses. He then sorted the pictures and matched each with a face on a painting or other piece of art.
The process revealed 14 types of noses, with classifications ranging from “fleshy” to “celestial.”
You can read the full story and see pictures here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2013699/There-14-types-nose–yours.html
This raises the question: which nose shape is the most desirable.
Cross-Cultural Noses
The Romans had their ideal nose, as did the Greeks. The same can be said for other ancient cultures, including the Hindus, the Mayans, and the Arabs. The modern world has its own ideas about what makes an attractive nose, both for men and for women.
In terms of traditional Western beauty, a beautiful nose is relatively small, straight and symmetrical. When nose jobs became the rage in the 1950s and 1960s—strictly for women, mind you—the standard procedure was to reduce the size and rotate or turn the tip up. The result was a homogenous look to rhinoplasty that was perfectly in keeping with the conformity of those decades.
That was then…this is now.
On his website, Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Darryl Hodgkinson notes that the 21st Century presents new challenges for aesthetic surgeons.
“(The) increase in ethnic groups in Australia demands that the cosmetic plastic surgeon have an understanding of the social, cultural and aesthetic values of patients from these different groups when they seek cosmetic surgery. It has also been shown that first generation new Australians seek an aesthetic which is a hybrid of their own cultural background and their new environment” – Dr Daryl Hodgkinson
Noses Come and Noses Go
In 2013, the NewBeauty.com website published its list of often-requested celebrity nose jobs.
Will they be in-fashion tomorrow? Only time will tell.
The people behind a nose often make its shape desirable and in-fashion. At the height of her popularity, Nicole Kidman’s ski-jump nose was frequently requested. The same was true of Meg Ryan’s button nose.
The Mirren Nose gets its name from actress Helen Mirren. It’s a pointed feature that is unsuallylong and straight. It is similar to today’s ultra-popular Duchess Nose, a straight-edged nose aptly named for Kate Middleton.
The Roman Nose is considered to be one of the most attractive and timeless features among both men and women. It is straight, almost flawless, and ends with a soft curvy tip. It is synonymous with the aquiline nose, as well as the actor Daniel Radcliffe.
The Nose Knows
For centuries, philosophers like Aristotle and Socrates, world-renowned astronomer Pythagoras, and lots of other big brains believed that one’s facial features governed their personality traits.
If you’d like to know what your nose shape reveals about your personality, you’ll find a fun article on the subject here: http://www.e-brainpages.com/the-different-types-of-nose-shapes-and-what-they-reveal-about-personalities-which-ones-are-your-nose-type