I find it interesting that many studies conclude that beauty is tightly correlated with how symmetrical someone’s face is. However, many haircuts and hair styles are asymmetrical, including any style with the part off-center (very common for both male and female hair styles). Not just that, but we really like the way these haircuts and styles look too. It makes me wonder why one’s perception of beauty might not take into account the symmetry of one’s hair. I don’t have an opinion on what looks better, symmetrical vs not symmetrical as I think it depends on the person and what suits them. I am wondering if anyone else has thought about this.
Your hair is not your face
This is the kind of insight we need
Short and to the point.
I don’t think “tightly” is the right word here. Some studies seem to show that symmetry is not linked with attractiveness so much as asymmetry is linked with unattractiveness. For example:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7644543/
“In this experiment, the authors performed a manipulation that altered asymmetry within a face without altering the mean size of facial features. These faces were then rated on attractiveness. Contrary to what was predicted, faces that were made more symmetrical were perceived as being less attractive”
As for hair, it seems that humans don’t really link hair to the face in terms of attractiveness in the sense we would expect. For example:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00377/full
The study found that the attractiveness of a person’s hair can influence how attractive their face is perceived to be, but only if the person evaluating the attractiveness of the face has not previously evaluated the attractiveness of the hair.
Then your symmetric hairline would draw attention to the lack of symmetry on your face. (Royal you)
It’s possible that having certain asymmetrical elements ENHANCE the symmetry of your face.
If everything is symmetrical, then any little imperfection or flaw will stand out like a sore thumb.
A symmetrical face with asymmetrical elements is still attractive.
I mean, you’re not talking about the face, per se, when you’re talking about haircuts. No one thinks Cindy Crawford looks less beautiful because she has a mole on her face.
The face is still symmetrical, it’s just adorned by asymmetry in other elements. And, I for one, love asymmetrical elements.
Asymmetry can be hot. Observe:
Any mention of asymmetric beauty needs to include Natalie Dormer:
She looks symmetrical to me though…
No kidding. She’s perfectly symmetrical when she’s not smiling. She just has a cute little crooked smile and everyone shouts “asymmetrical!!”
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Here’s Matpat’s recent video on this.
Mirror symmetry is just one kind of symmertry.
i like this question
Not everyone puts being beautiful and attractive to others above their own desires and needs.
It has less to do with hair and more to do with facial features
I don’t have any more hair lol
I have a cowlick near my natural centre part, so I end up having a huge forehead. Parting my hair slightly off-centre fixes that problem.
I didnt know that was true. Some famous people ive seen called really attractive dont have perfectly symmetrical faces. In fact for some of them its not too hard to notice the asymmetry but theyre still really attractive… i think the amount that symmetry comes into play might not be as high as other stuff like the shape/size of features, if at all. but ya.
Also for the hair thing i think is just bc some hairstyles look cuter than others depending on the person. Not necessarily middle part for everyone tho is not bad.
I guess hair is never really symmetrical (think of curls and “flowing” hair) so you don’t associate it with health and beauty like someone’s face. Hair that is full and thick like the TV tells me hair should be is probably the sign of beauty we look for.
But what do I know, I’m as symmetric as a Salvador Dali painting.