Nasion placement and attractiveness

The nasion is shown below, and can be roughly regarded as the indentation of the nasal bones around where the nose meets the forehead.  It may also be referred to as the radix, sellion or the soft-tissue nasion, though the radix is better conceptualized as the region centered at the nasion and extending to the eyebrows above and mid-eye level below.

Fig. 1. The nasion.

Mowlavi et al.(1; zip) examined nasion position preference in a sample of white North Americans.  They varied the vertical placement of the nasion as follows.

Fig. 2. Nasion level (vertical position) at four separate positions: supratarsal fold (ST), ciliary margin of the upper lid (CM), midpupil (MP), and lower limbus (LL).

They also varied the projection of the nasion as follows.

Fig. 3. Nasion height, as defined by the projection of the nasion beyond the anterior corneal plane, at distances of 7, 10, and 13 mm anterior to the corneal plane.

Male and female judges were asked to rate the 12 combinations for both male and female faces.  Male and female judges preferred nasion projection in both men and women as follows: 10 mm > 13 mm > 7 mm.  Male and female judges preferred nasion vertical position in men at the ST, CM or MP level over the LL level.  The nasion vertical position in women was preferred at ST, CM or MP over LL by the male judges and at CM or MP over ST or LL by female judges.

The following image shows the outline of Marquardt’s mask, which he claims to be the outline of the “ideal” female face.  Note that the nasion in Marquardt’s mask is below the mid-pupil level.  Once again, Marquardt’s mask is shown to be inconsistent with what most people actually prefer.

Fig. 4. Marquardt’s Phi mask.  

References

1. Mowlavi, A., Meldrum, D. G., and Wilhelmi, B. J., Implications for nasal recontouring: nasion position preferences as determined by a survey of white North Americans, Aesthetic Plast Surg, 27, 438 (2003).