Face shapes impact what hairstyle, beard, eyebrow style, and makeup you should wear. However, deciding what exactly that means is a little difficult since face shapes are pretty much a pseudoscience. Luckily, we’re here to help.
While it can vary, most people agree that a pear face shape is the most unattractive face shape. While it may look good for some people, it can generally look unattractive on most people. You can enhance a pear shape with the right hairstyle. You can also get surgeries to reduce the prominence of your jaw.
Consider one of our custom facial reports if you’re interested in an in-depth analysis of your face shape and overall facial structure.
What Is the Most Unattractive Face Shape?
Generally, the pear face shape can be unattractive for both men and women. The pear face shape is round. It has a narrow upper face and midface but with a squarer jaw.
Many people with pear face shapes can have a pointy chin, which can often be attractive. However, the pointy chin usually brings more attention to the square jaw, making a person look less appealing.
The pear face often has a large mid and lower face. Many people with this face shape have plump cheeks, which can make a face have less definition.
However, what people think the most unattractive face shape is can vary. A lot of what people will think is attractive is determined by personal preference.
Typically, people often prefer others with similar features and the same level of attractiveness as them. A study showed that people often preferred self-similarity (Sulutvedt et al., 2014).
The preference for similar features could be because we usually want our kids to look like us and explains why averageness is a pillar of attractiveness. Therefore, we unknowingly look for people that have features similar to ours.
Additionally, the face shape may not always matter as much as the symmetry of the face. For instance, you may have the “ideal” face shape, which is the oval face shape. Most people agree that the oval face shape is the most attractive because of its smooth proportions. However, if your other features like your eyes or nose are not symmetrical, it can ruin your facial harmony, creating a less attractive appearance. If one side of your cheek is larger than the other, you may look less attractive.
Face shape is just one parameter of attractiveness, and it doesn’t mean much by itself.
Keep in mind that a person can be attractive if they have a pear face shape. They can look good because of other facial features or if they know how to enhance their face accordingly. For instance, Kate Walsh has a pear face shape. However, she is still attractive because she has a slim face. Her nose is straight, and she has striking eyes, which can distract people from her pear-shaped face. Additionally, she has high and pronounced cheekbones, which adds more balance to her face.
However, it is essential to note that people can have a mixture of face shapes. Kate Walsh has a pear face shape, but it is also long. The length of her face makes the pear shape less noticeable.
How Can I Enhance a Pear Face Shape?
Strategic Hairstyles
The goal will be to add more volume to the upper half of your face. You can wear a partial bang or opt for a deep side part or an off-center part. Try to avoid parting your head directly at the center.
Avoid sleek and long hairstyles because that will draw more attention to your jaw. While strategic layers can cover your jaw, avoid having too much volume at the bottom of your hair.
Like women, men should keep more volume at the top of their heads, like a pompadour. It would be best if you avoided high fades and too much softness on the top of your head.
You can also grow a beard to hide the roundness or width of your jaw. However, try to choose a hairstyle that adds volume to the top of your head if you want a beard. It will help keep your face looking balanced.
Jenna Ushkowitz for example hides her pear shape with her bangs:
Hairline Surgery
In some cases, hairline surgery can help enhance your face shape. Pear shapes need to bring more attention to their forehead to create more balance to their face, which hairline surgery can do.
For instance, the picture above shows Rita Hayworth before and after she got hairline surgery. Her original hairline made her forehead look very narrow. However, the squarer hairline created the illusion of a larger forehead, enhancing her facial harmony.
Eyebrows
Ideally, you should have eyebrows with a higher arch that extends to the outer ends of your eyes. It can add more width to your forehead to enhance your facial harmony and draw less attention to the lower half of your face.
Your eyebrows should start slightly further than the inside corners of your eyes while extending past the outside corners. Make sure the eyebrows look strongly defined yet not too thin.
Jaw Surgery
Most people can make a pear face shape look great with the right hairstyles, beard, makeup, etc. However, jaw reduction surgery might be an option for more extreme cases. Jaw reduction surgery can help slim down your jaw, especially for girls. The type of procedure you will get will depend on your goals.
For the back of your lower jaw, a surgeon may remove the bone by removing the bone’s whole lower edge to change the shape and make it narrower. Alternatively, a surgeon may shave it to narrow the jaw angle while still retaining the shape.
While you will get long-term results from the procedure, it can be invasive, and recovery can take a while. It may take three months or longer to make a full recovery.
Most people can return to work two weeks after the surgery. However, the swelling may still be visible. There are also some side effects like facial bruising and bleeding that usually last for a few weeks.
Buccal Fat Removal (Cheek Reduction)
You may have a pear face shape because of your cheeks rather than your jaw. For instance, your actual jawline may be fine, but the general shape of the lower half of your face looks round because of your cheek fat.
Therefore, you can get buccal fat removal to reduce the excess buccal fat. It is a quick way to slim down your face.
To perform the procedure, a surgeon will create an incision inside your cheek so there is no visible scarring. To expose your buccal fat pad, they will put pressure on the outside of your cheek. Next, the surgeon will cut and remove your buccal fat pad as needed. Typically, they will remove very small amounts at a time to avoid overdoing it. The surgeon will then use dissolvable stitches to close the incision.
Some people are hesitant to get buccal fat pad reduction because they worry they will age quickly. The buccal fat pad adds volume to your face, and the fat in your face decreases and shifts as you age.
People believe that removing the buccal fat pad could speed up the aging process. Since there is less facial fat to keep your face plump, you will look older faster, right?
However, surgeons are aware of that fact. That is why they will only remove as much fat from your buccal fat pad as needed. The surgeons will always leave enough, so your face still has enough volume to avoid signs of aging.
Of course, this may vary on how much fat you want to remove. Some patients may want to get an extreme amount of their buccal fat pad removed. Therefore, it would be ideal to speak to a plastic surgeon about the long-term effects of how much fat you want to get rid of. After all, it might be better to look good in your 20s and 30s than your 50s.
