Your eyes can make or break your face! Don’t believe it? The latest research led by UC Berkeley scientists claims that the eyes can reveal whether one is a hunter or prey.
A fascinating analysis of over 214 different species of animals suggests that whether a creature’s prey or predator can be predicated by the shape of their eyes. It was found that species with vertical pupils are ambush predators and those with horizontally wide pupils are extremely likely to belong to prey species.
Similarly, in humans too, eyes make a huge impact on your facial appearance and overall personality. The internet has recently been buzzing about how some eyes resemble hunter eyes while others look like prey eyes. Let’s first learn…
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How do your eyes affect your face?
A study related to individuals seeking a potential partner found that men and women consider an individual’s eyes more important than other facial features.
Facial attractiveness has been previously linked to various factors like symmetry, proportionate facial features, jawline, and so on. Also proven is the fact that facial attractiveness plays a vital role in social interactions including mating and reproduction.
Psychologist Daniel Gill found a gender-based difference in the facial features that men and women placed the most importance on. While leading the new study at the University of Winchester in Hampshire, Dr. Gill studied how people judged the opposite person’s face. Let’s see how…
32 men & women in their early 20s were asked to rate female and male faces using color photographs. They had to provide ratings to features such as eyes, lips, nose, or the entire face. The models in the photograph were wearing no make-up, accessories, glasses, or beards.
- Men rating a female face placed the most importance on the entire face, eyes, and hair whereas, the least importance on nose and lips.
- Women rating a male face placed the most importance on eyes and hair and called nose and lips the least important.
- Women rating a female face considered eyes and hair as most important and the nose or entire face least important.
To conclude Dr. Gill said “Importance and preference found across the sex of a face are not surprising. Male and female faces have different facial characteristics caused by different levels of testosterone and therefore different biological fitness signals”
What is Hunter Eyes? | Hunter Eye Meaning
Hunter eyes are basically ‘almond-shaped eyes’ that are deep-set and sit far back in the skull. Hunter eyes don’t pop out like prey eyes. The positioning of your eyes depends a lot on the orbits of your face. Orbits are socket of the skull in which the eye is situated.
Another important factor is how recessed your maxilla is, your eyes can appear more deep-set if there’s a down-swing in your maxilla. Unfortunately, facial shapes can be largely genetic. However, you can have a large eye socket, aka orbit, and still, have hunter eyes.
Let’s look at an example to understand better. This is Sean O’Pry, an American supermodel and a perfect example of what we call hunter eyes.
Hunter Eyes are straight, vertically compact, hooded, horizontally elongated, & have a positive canthal tilt. What is canthal tilt you ask? A positive canthal tilt occurs when the lateral canthus sits higher than the medial canthus as shown below.
In the above example, the eye on the right has a positive canthal tilt, whereas the one on the left has a negative canthal tilt. This leads to droopy and tired-looking eyes.
What is Prey Eyes?
As learned previously, vertically compact orbitals are essential to an attractive eye. Prey eyes root back to large orbits, the reason being- genetics, aging, or lack of midface support i.e. a recessed maxilla. Prey eyes look circular and hollow.
Hunter eyes are situated deep into the skull, whereas prey eyes are mostly exposed and bulge out.
What Causes Prey Eyes?
There are several causes leading to prey eyes including genetics, bad posture, incorrect tongue posture, recessed maxilla, mouth-breathing. Let’s discuss some further.
Scleral Show
The scleral show is the exposure of sclera (white area) on the lower lid. It is an anatomical condition wherein the sclera area is visibly expanded due to aging, trauma, endocrine disease, or eye surgery failures.
Recessed Maxilla
Most people have tired-looking eyes as a result of having a recessed maxilla. The solution to this is applying an upward force on your palate through your tongue. This technique is called Mewing and it helps achieve upward and forward growth. Mewing includes maintaining a proper tongue posture and proper swallowing technique.
When you mew, your tongue pushes the maxilla upward while expanding your palate and sphenoid bone. Mewing is an excellent way to decrease scleral show and the gap between your eyes and the brow area.
There is no specific surgery that will give you the desired hunter eye look. Hence, mewing is the right choice. Read our Mewing Transformation guide to learn more about the astonishing results achieved by people.
Hunter Eyes vs Prey Eyes
Orbital Height/Width
A hunter eye is vertically compact and horizontally wide like an almond shape. Overly round eyes are considered that of prey.
Upper Eyelid Exposure
Hunter eyes are usually hooded meaning that the eyelids aren’t visible while looking straight ahead.
Canthal Tilt
As discussed earlier, a positive canthal tilt is what is desirable and looks the best.
Downturned Medial Canthus
A medial canthus (the pink area in the inner corner of the eye) should ideally be tilting downwards, as opposed to being horizontal.
Scleral Show
As previously discussed, there should be no signs of scleral show.
Signs of Prey Eyes | How to tell if I have Prey Eyes?
- Deep prey-like orbits
- High upper eyelid visibility
- Horizontal medial canthus
- Arched eyebrows
- Low outer-canthal width
- Mild-high scleral show
- Asymmetrical eyelid exposure
How to get Hunter Eyes? Hunter Eyes Exercise
Focusing on non-invasive procedures, the answer has to be constantly practicing proper tongue and back posture and chewing hard foods. Your tongue generates enough pressure to be exerted on the maxilla to compress the orbital bones in a vertical direction, though it takes time.
While the shape is quite important, a vertically compact eye socket or orbit is essentially the core factor of hunter eyes.
Mewing
Mewing is simply about the placement of your tongue and corrected body posture. The need for Mewing emerged when humans went from a nomadic outdoor lifestyle to living in closed spaces with little to no physical activities.
We impaired our abilities to breathe through our nose which leads to mouth breathing making our faces longer and dull. Slouching our head forward to look at a computer screen for hours caused Forward Head Posture. So, to undo all of these, you need to learn to mew by following the steps below.
- Sit erectly.
- Close your lips to restrict mouth breathing.
- Rest your molar teeth on top of each other without clenching or applying any pressure.
- Now push your tongue on the roof of your mouth, not just the tip but the entire tongue.
- Hold this posture for as long as you can. Remember to keep your lips sealed and breathe through your nose the entire time.
Many people ask us what is the ideal time a person should be Mewing. The answer is throughout the day. We have to train ourselves to maintain the proper tongue posture. Initially, it will feel impossible, but trust me, you will get there.
Other Ways – Hunter Eye Surgery
Blepharoplasty (Eyelid Lift)
Blepharoplasty is simply an eyelid surgery. The aim is to improve the eyelids’ aesthetics without messing with its functions. Firstly, an incision is made by the surgeon in the upper eyelid crease where visibility of a scar is the least, or on the lower eyelid from the inside. Then the surgeon removes or repositions fat, depending on the case, so he can access the muscle. To tackle dark circles, fat injections are given in the lower eyelid area.
Canthoplasty & Canthopexy
A canthoplasty or canthopexy fixes your canthal tilt. This is done by shifting the lateral canthus 2 mm higher than the medial canthus. An incision is made, cutting open the eyelid, similar to the blepharoplasty. Then the surgeon either tightens the muscles (canthopexy) or slits them (canthoplasty).
Ptosis Repair
Ptosis is drooping of the upper eyelid. The causes vary from paralysis to deformities you could have been born with. Ptosis Repair surgery is meant to only correct this specific situation. It tightens the muscle responsible for lifting the eye which in turn restores the general look and aesthetic.
Final Thoughts
It is to be noted that there are no direct procedures to get the ‘Hunter Eyes’ look. Because the eyes are such a sensitive area, there are only a few surgeries that can provide an almond shape. We recommend speaking to a professional healthcare expert before considering any type of surgery. Surgeries are irreversible and hence taking a wise decision is necessary.
The best way we recommend is to start mewing and correct your lifestyle. This includes replacing soft food with raw, hard food, Facial and jawline workouts, and correct head posture. If you want to get true Hunter Eyes you have to give mewing a sincere shot.