The Ideals of Facial Beauty Among Chinese Aesthetic Practitioners: Results from a Large National Survey

ABSTRACT: As the demand for cosmetic procedures increases, the importance of patient-centred care in this field becomes more prominent. The aesthetic practitioners’ ideals of beauty, in addition to their knowledge and perception of patients’ ideals of beauty and expectations, are important during doctor–patient communication. These are important in strengthening practices of patient-centred communication and treatment. This study was conducted to investigate ideals of facial beauty among Chinese aesthetic practitioners. A questionnaire with simple sketches of facial features was given to aesthetic practitioners in Chinese cosmetology hospitals and clinics to assess aesthetic practitioners’ ideals of beauty and their preferences for facial shapes, facial profile, nose and lip shape, jaw angle, and chin shape. A total of 596 surveys were completed. This survey revealed that Chinese aesthetic practitioners preferred a heart/inverted triangular facial shape with a reduced lower face height, a straight and small nose, as well as lips that are full medially and taper off laterally with well-defined borders and Cupid’s bow. An obtuse jaw angle for women and a square well-defined jaw angle for men, and a round and pointy chin for both women and men were the most preferred. A majority (66.7%) of the respondents said they would have plastic surgery. However, if given the choice 82.9% indicated they would opt for non-surgical procedures. Finally, a clear majority (90.5%) believed that being beautiful would improve their daily life. The results were then compared to a similar previous study in which the same ideals of beauty were investigated among Chinese laypersons. This information will help the aesthetic professionals to understand their patient’s requests and expectations better and therefore aid in offering and providing treatments that are in line. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE V: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.