High Cheekbones are considered as a beauty standard universally. But why? How do I know if I have high cheekbones? And if not, How do I achieve them?
The answer is Patience! That’s right, you will have to stick with us patiently until the end of this blog to find answers to all your questions.
Table of Contents
What are Cheekbones?
The human skull has several bones and muscles that form our overall facial appearance. On such bone is the Zygomatic bone, also known as the cheekbone. This bone is attached to the maxilla, the temporal bone, the sphenoid bone, and the frontal bone, situated underneath the eye socket and found in the center of the face.
As this bone is situated close to the eyes and nose it plays a vital role in the overall look and appeal of your face. In most cultures, having high cheekbones is considered a sign of beauty and youth.
High Cheekbones
High Cheekbones translate to having your malar bone sit close to your eye sockets, while low cheekbones often remain in line with the nasal area. When your cheekbone is placed higher on your face, your cheeks tend to draw inwards, creating a shadow below the temples of your face.
This shadow creates more definition making your features appear sharper.
Why Are High Cheekbones Considered Attractive?
What are the traits that people find attractive and that make the perfect first impression has been of great interest to researchers and scientists. Our genes make a huge impact on our features and we are attracted to a certain group of people with specific features. What are these features?
Features like Facial symmetry, full lips, high forehead, broad face, small chin, small nose, short and narrow jaw, high cheekbones are considered attractive in both men and women. Talking about high cheekbones, here are some reasons people prefer this particular facial feature over others:
Various studies suggest that High Cheekbones indicate :
Sexual Maturity
This simply means women and men with wider faces and higher cheekbones look like a full-grown adult that has lost his/her baby fat.
Trustworthiness
A study conducted by the New York University in 2014 suggested that strangely enough, humans do subconsciously link high cheekbones with trustworthiness.
Types of Cheekbones
- High Cheekbones
- Low Cheekbones
- Asymmetric Cheekbones
- Prominent Cheekbones
- Overly Protruding Cheekbones
- Flat /Sunken Cheekbones
What Ethnicity has High Cheekbones?
Your ethnicity and genes play an important role in the structure and formation of your face. Though, some people believe that native groups from Africa, Asia, and America had prominent high cheekbones.
However, what is common in all of these groups is their ancient lifestyle and raw hard diet. Various studies have proven that hunters and gatherers have wide jaws and a lifted face.
High Cheekbones Men
High Cheekbones Women
Individuals of European descent tend to have long narrow faces with fairly flat facial profiles and sharply angled nasal bones. Those of Asian ancestry have wider and shorter faces with prominent cheekbones whilst individuals of African descent have a wide nasal cavity and a prominent mouth region when viewed in profile. – said the Forensic anthropologists while comparing the shape of various skulls.
Here’s the difference between the morphology or shape of various different ethnicities and their skulls –
African:
Asian:
European:
High Cheekbone Test | How to tell if you have High Cheekbones?
It is actually really simple to determine where your cheekbone is located and if it sits high or low, there is no exact science behind it but rather a simple judgment. Follow the few steps that we have listed below –
Let’s start…
#1 Stand in front of a mirror while making sure there’s plenty of light. Remove your makeup before you begin the process.
#2 Place your thumb at the top of your ear and place your index finger between your nose and upper lips.
Move both of your index finger and thumb towards each other while making a line – the line that is drawn is exactly where your cheekbone is located.
#3 Once you have found the placement of your cheekbone, identify the position carefully, is it located closer to the bottom of your nose or under your eyes?
If the line of the cheekbone appears right below the eye or near the bridge of your nose, it means you have high cheekbones, and if the line of the cheekbone is located towards the bottom of the nose, that means your cheekbones are placed lower.
How to Achieve High Cheekbones?
Natural Ways
The most obvious way of attaining high cheekbones is to lose facial fat. There are various ways you can do so such as dietary changes and a full-body workout. Also, something that helps immensely is Facial Workout.
We have in length blogs explaining everything about Facial Exercises and the best ones for both men and women that give the most optimum results. Other lifestyle changes such as chewing gum, drinking plenty of water, avoiding drinking or smoking also help the process.
Makeup Hacks
Wanting to achieve the high cheekbone look is very common, and though going under the knife may sound too intimidating, that’s not your only choice. You can use makeup to warm up the contours of your face, giving you a faux chiseled look.
The right bronzer will do the trick, nowadays contouring is very much in trend and hence you shouldn’t have trouble finding the right product.
Surgery – Cheek Implants
Cheek Implants are the most commonly opted surgical procedures to have prominent cheekbones. The surgeon makes a small incision (cut) on each of the sides of your mouth and adds the silicone implant. This kind of surgery requires general anesthesia. As far as recovery is concerned, it can be uncomfortable.
These implants can give long-lasting effects. However, as we all know, all cosmetic surgeries are accompanied by a certain amount of risk and these are pretty heavy on the pocket.
Derma Fillers
Another commonly opted method is fillers. These fillers are made up of injectable substances such as hyaluronic acid (HA) or collagen, which over time, the body can absorb.
These fillers give short to medium term results as they last up to 3 months after which a follow up is required.
Mewing for High Cheekbones
Orthotropists Dr. Mew believes that it is possible to change the position of your cheekbones by correcting your oral posture i.e. Mewing. If you do not know about Mewing, you have been living under a rock. We have an in-depth blog about the same, in case you wish to learn more.
Circling back to the topic, Dr. Mew suggests that by adopting a proper tongue posture, you can slowly move your maxilla (the central facial bone as shown below) forward and up. As the maxilla moves, the cheekbones should follow as both the bones are adjacent to one another.
As the cheekbones move forward and up along with the maxilla, they should widen in size, appearing more prominent.
Final Thoughts
There are different kinds of ways to accentuate your cheekbones. All types of cheekbones can be made more defined with the steps mentioned above.
Beauty is very subjective and there is no one type of look or ethnicity that can be a benchmark. Let us know if you have any other questions that we can help you with in the comments below.