A facial analyst has detailed a theory as to why people are ‘becoming less attractive.’
Shafee Hassan, who founded Sydney‘s facial aesthetics consultancy firm QOVES, sought to answer this question in a recently posted YouTube Short.
The video was sparked by a follower’s question asking why an old high-school yearbook ‘contained [so] many attractive people… was it something in the water?’
In the clip’s caption, that was also posted on TikTok, Hassan explained: ‘The average person’s face is becoming increasingly disadvantaged by modern diets, sleeping patterns, pollutants and orofacial habits creating a greater inequality in “the attractives” vs “the unattractives.”‘
A facial analyst has offered up a theory as to why it seems people are becoming ‘less attractive,’ sparked by a follower’s question about it
He said there were multiple theories, but the ‘most intuitive’ to him was known as the functional matrix hypothesis, which theorizes the ‘development of the face is dependent on the forces you put on it’
Beginning the video, he asks if anyone has wondered why teenagers or high schoolers in the 1950s look ‘so much older’ than they do now.
Pulling up an example of a young man, the facial analyst points out the student’s ‘defined’ gonion (the apex of the lower jaw) and his ‘projected’ zygoma (the cheekbone).
‘There are multiple theories about why this is the case, but the one that makes the most intuitive sense at least to me is presented in Contemporary Orthodontics by [US orthodontist William] Proffit and colleagues using what’s know as the functional matrix hypothesis,’ Hassan says.
He further explains that that it theorizes the ‘development of the face is dependent on the forces you put on it, for the upper and lower jaw,’ which are the two features that help someone look ‘handsome or attractive.’
Hassan says the tongue or ‘other forces’ may impact on the development of the jaw, ‘pushing it downwards or outwards’ before new bone grows in.
He claims in the video that a little girl’s sinus infection impacted on the growth of her lower jaw, showing photo examples.
In the clip, he said she was constantly breathing through her mouth and it wasn’t closed often enough for that part of body to ‘develop properly.’
Concluding the video, the creator added: ‘With 70 per cent of the Western world, having some kind of malocclusion or recession, much like this, it’s a very good explanation for why faces are becoming less and less attractive as time goes on.’
Pictured left is the functional matrix hypothesis laid out above in Contemporary Orthodontics. Right is a graphic showing jaw movement
He claims in the video that a little girl’s sinus infection impacted on the growth of her lower jaw, showing photo examples
Malocclusion is the term used to described when your teeth don’t align perfectly, while recession happens when your gums pull away from your teeth.
About 22 per cent of people across the world had an overbite, Colgate reported, citing a global study published by the Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics.
The video has been viewed more than 2.3 million times on YouTube, and on TikTok, where it posted back in 2022, it has more than 3.2 million views.
And it proved to be a divisive one, with many people weighing in with their opinions on the topic.
‘Worth noting that everyone looks better on a film camera compared to an iPhone, it brings out the features and makes a face look more defined,’ one person said.
‘People are definitely not getting uglier. You haven’t seen enough old pictures if you believe this,’ another wrote, with one YouTube user responding: ‘Exactly lol I actually think it’s the opposite.’
The video has proved to be a divisive one, with many people weighing in with their opinions on the topic
A third person offered an alternative theory: ‘Beauty bias, the pictures of ugly people are less likely to be seen/publicized compared to their more attractive counterparts.’
‘They don’t look older, they legit have children’s faces but they got a grown ass adult hair cut,’ someone else added.
‘They look older because they have styles that we associate with grandparents, so they automatically look more mature,’ one comment read.
Another person wrote: ‘One thing people don’t think about in regards to this is diet. Your jaw gets a lot stronger if your diet consists of whole meat, whole vegetables, whole fruit, etc. Things you have to chew with force. Lots of people have replaced good home cooking with softer, processed foods and snacks and it takes its toll.’