Another day, another toxic beauty trend on TikTok.
The idea of “facial harmony” first went viral on social media last year, though it’s been around as an artistic guideline for a lot longer than that. The term has recently reemerged on TikTok with a fresh wave of pseudoscientific filters, and with it numerous creators who are all reassuring users of the numerous ways they can “fix” their long midfaces, from make-up hacks to style changes.
So what actually is facial harmony?
@lydd222 i like to believe that i have good facial harmony
#goodfacialharmony #nomakeup #badfeaturesgoodharmony #facialharmony #badfeatures #badfeaturesgoodharmony
In real anatomy, the midface just means the middle section of the face, so the area between the lower eyelids and your upper mouth. The whole idea of the face being divided into thirds comes from classical art rather than science, with the “rule of thirds” appearing a lot in the Renaissance era.
Now TikTok lets you diagnose your own midface with the “33 33 33” filter, which slices your face into thirds and has been dubbed the “Golden Face Ratio” by users.
Facial harmony, meanwhile, just means proportions that look balanced. For the trend, people film extreme close-ups of their eyes, nose, lips or jaw, then pull the camera back to judge whether everything looks balanced together. The whole premise is that you can have individually “perfect” features but still end up with what TikTok calls poor facial harmony – and the opposite can be true too.
There is some element of science to facial harmony – we can subconsciously be more drawn to faces with more balanced features – but beauty is obviously not quantified by the measurements of your forehead to your chin.
Why is it back on TikTok now?
@evecatherine.r #stitch with @Mora
More recently, one TikToker has claimed the “short midface trend has had a chokehold on us long midface girlies”, reigniting a debate about the whole concept of midfaces. “Cures” for long midfaces are being promoted by users too, who claim different makeup looks can obscure the perceived insecurity.
One dermatologist has reacted by saying “there’s no such thing as a face trend” . “That idea is dangerous; we need a little more self acceptance, and this is coming from somebody who does cosmetic procedures,” he added.
Other reaction stitches mocking the pseudoscience of it have been going viral, with another girl responding to a TikTok about long midfaces by simply screaming: “WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?”
Users have taken to the comments to share their frustrations, too. One person remarked: “We’re never making it out of patriachy man”, whilst another admitted “…guys we are losing the plot”.
Unfortunately, I think they may be onto something.
Featured image via TikTok @drmonicakieu /@evecatherine.r / @guzellikmodu
