With the global epidemic in novel coronavirus, keeping social distance, wearing masks, washing hands frequently and avoiding gathering have become a part of everyone's life. Although the mask blocked the droplets and germs, which caused the gap of interpersonal communication, it also unexpectedly increased the space of infinite imagination. When most people wear masks to go out, an interesting phenomenon happens: Do you find that there are more handsome men and beautiful women on the road? This phenomenon is actually not unfamiliar to surgeons! Hair caps and masks are standard equipment when working in hospitals, especially in operating rooms. Everyone meets by "eyes". Obviously, one moment they were in the same knife room, and the next moment they got dressed and walked out of the operating room, but they didn't recognize each other in the corridor (sorry, I didn't mean to …)! Or I am often mistaken for an ophthalmologist's colleague by my colleagues and patients in the operating room or ward (I will take off my mask and say I'm sorry ...). Is it all the mask's fault (Recommended reading: Medical masks are not enough. Can cloth masks and mask covers prevent epidemics? Experts remind at 3 o'clock)

The invisible part has more room for imagination (source: shutterstock)

I remember two years ago, there was a report that the Japanese Fuji TV program "Question of the God of Summer" randomly asked 100 women wearing masks in the street, hoping that they could take off their masks for video recording, and only 45 of them were willing to take off their masks to face the camera. Of course, some of them are not much different from their imagination after taking off their masks, but others are! Professor Naito, an expert invited in the program, explained that this is actually an "idealized" imagination of the "invisible part" of the human brain, and this imagination is everyone's ideal and expectation for beauty or handsomeness.

In fact, everyone's brain definitely has a different definition of "beauty" or "handsome". For example, Sister Lexus, Biddy Sheeran, Angelababy and Chou Chou Tzuyu are totally different types of beauties, so I believe everyone will imagine what they will look like under the mask.

But why do most people take off their masks and respond with "Wow!" Ok ... "Oh ~" and "errrrr" are quite close? This shows that people actually have a lot in common about the expected appearance of men and women. Find out what these * * * have in common, and you should be able to find the ideal face in the eyes of the public. (Recommended reading: Wear a mask when something happens, and pay attention to hiding the face and lining problems)

From the professional perspective of plastic surgery, for women, the widest part of the face is the position of the zygomatic arch, which is exactly where the top edge of the mask can't be covered, so most people will have an expectation for the face under the mask:

Usually, it is automatically expected that the face under the mask will be narrower and narrower when moving down; Assume that the ratio of the lower face to the upper and lower lips is coordinated. At the same time, the proportion of the nose in the face (such as length and width), the depression or protrusion of the upper and lower jaws, the arrangement and angle of the teeth, etc. Are automatically filled into the expected imagination, and finally form the expectation in everyone's mind.

Therefore, when the mask is taken off and there is a gap in expectation, it will inevitably be "Errrrr"!

(In the plastic surgeon's definition of facial aesthetics, the distribution of facial features does have a golden ratio to follow. Image source: provided by Dr. Lin Weinong)

In the plastic surgeon's definition of facial aesthetics, the distance between the five senses does have the so-called golden ratio. For example, divide the face into three equal parts, that is, hairline to the center of eyebrows, eyebrow center to nose column (where nose column meets lips), and nose column (where lips meet) to chin (the lowest point). When the distance between these three ranges is 1: 1: 65444,

But even as a plastic surgeon, my imagination may not be far from your/your expectations. For me, if I don't use a ruler to calculate the data, it looks beautiful, so I don't have to worry too much about the proportional value.

(The author is Lin Weinong, director of plastic surgery at Luodong Aibo Hospital and full-time attending physician at the Medical Beauty Center. )

& lt This column reflects experts' opinions and does not represent our position >