Topic on gender aesthetics

Aesthetic medicine is no longer a taboo topic and we often hear people speaking/discussing openly about it. The same way males are more accepting towards aesthetic treatments in a recent trend. There is no denial that major face care companies are developing male specific product range, appearance of beauty spas catering to only male clients and hair saloon specializing in mens grooming mushrooming around, even here in Malaysia. The old rules applies, if there is a demand for it, there will definitely be a supply.

So what is so different between a man and a woman doing same aesthetic treatments? There are key differences when between different sexes especially on the result do we want to deliver, for that we need to have an understanding on the key difference between the anatomy of a man versus that of a woman. And if we are not careful, we can feminize a mans face and masculinize a womans face.

For a woman, the shape of the face has soft angles and more heart shape as compared to man where the face is more squary and has sharper more defined angles. The bony prominence of the men is more defined and exaggerated in man than in women, and man has a deeper set of eyes due to the protrusion of forehead bone (frontal bossing). In the temple area (sides of the forehead), the shape are more convex man and in woman the temples are more concave.

Eyebrow shape in female is arched laterally as compared to man with thick and more horizontal brows. The eyebrows are higher in a woman from the eyes as well. As for the shape of the eyes, man has a narrower more oval shaped eyes, where in woman they have a more almond shaped eyes. Female has higher and more lateral cheek than man. And when doing cheek augmentations, we are more concern not to exaggerate the cheek especially, as it will feminise a mans features.

Nose in a woman is shorter and narrower. And looking from the side profile, the angle is more prominent as compared to a man with a straighter, less angled nose from nose bridge up till the nose tip.

Lips are thicker in woman and man has narrower upper lips. The jawline is prominent and defined in man for a stronger masculine look. The shape of a man's chin is broader. Typically, during treatment of jawline and chin, man requires more volume for support for a more squared mandible.

Skin and muscle bulk on the face are thicker in a man than woman, so in neuromodulator treatment such as Botox(R) a higher dosage is often needed. However, man usually prefers to have some lines as compared to woman who prefer to have no lines so its between the consultations between each individual client we will customized to  individualized need.

Interestingly, there is a study led by Dr Chris Solomon, a world expert in facial mapping, that asked people to put together a composite of the perfect face using the EFIT-V PhotoFit software used by UK police. And the results of features of an ideal woman and man was summarized as below.

*picture from telegraph.co.uk