kingdom
The reason we all look a little different may not be obvious today, but there’s an evolutionary basis for our genetic differences. At first glance, zebra stripes seem like a bull’s-eye for predators. In fact they’re the wild’s greatest camouflage system because predatory animals, which see only in black and white, can’t see zebras standing in the tall grass. Also, zebras blend in with the heat waves coming off the ground, which look alternating black and white against the sand, so they’re especially confusing to the pestering tsetse flies—an example of how an animal’s looks respond to external pressures.
Because of the immense computational complexity and impracticality of processing all the inputs a particular situation presents, the cognitive system has developed a number of mechanisms that limit the number of possibilities that are considered. How? For one, the eye takes in a limited amount of high-quality information (through a part of the eye called the fovea), which is supplemented with lower-quality info as needed. As your eye moves to process the info, it takes in only a fraction of what’s in your horizon. In a constant state of vibration, the eye repeatedly refreshes what it sees (like refreshing web pages). These movements help your brain decide what it is you’re looking at (and without the movements, we’d actually lose our vision because the rods and cones in our eyes respond only to certain changes). So you take some shortcuts and make leaps about what you see; you need cues like beauty and waist-to-hip ratio—things with scientific and universal standards—to make judgments about people. You can’t contemplate 9,000 different nuances in someone’s face in a timely fashion. You keep it simple.
For example, the most information-dense visible area in nature is the human face, so we process a small area of the face and extend our conclusions to the entire surface. The right changes (even if they’re small) can make a huge impact on how you’re perceived. Much of “seeing” someone you know is memory, since we don’t reanalyze an entire face each time.* The richest connection of nerve and muscle density in the body is actually around the larynx (voice box), and the face is second—underscoring how important it is that you read subtle messages through speech and body language. Some argue that growth of the frontal lobe of the brain happened because of these rich connections and our ability to sense and transmit so much information beyond what most animals can.
Your face communicates whether you’re happy, sad, mad, disgusted, surprised, or ready and willing to do the two o’clock tango. Similarly, you receive information about other people through their eyes, their mouth, even their skin. The whole notion of beauty revolves primarily around nature’s hockey masks—either you’ve got a well-designed one or you don’t. Now, the question is: How do we define well-designed?
The theory is that the more symmetrical a face is, the healthier it is. As you can see in Figure A.2, that symmetry is divided into several planes, including horizontally, vertically, around the eyes, around the nose, and so on. The formula for beauty is that precise golden ratio (go ahead and pull out a ruler and a calculator on your next date). The same ratio holds for the width of the cheekbones to the width of the mouth. Scientists also believe that symmetry is equated with a strong immune system—indicating that more robust genes make a person more attractive.
Figure A.2 Divine Ruler Using the golden ratio of 1.6, we judge the beauty of other people’s faces (and other body parts). We use that ratio—subconsciously and reflexively—to decode whether someone’s eyes, face, and body are, in fact, beautiful.
Of course, that’s the element of beauty that you typically can’t control. You have what you were born with. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t make changes—changes to enhance your beauty and, along with it, the way you feel about yourself.
That begs a few very interesting questions about our own beauty. What do you see when you look in the mirror? How do you think others see you? How much of your self-image has been determined not by who you are but by who others think you are? How much has your sense of the outer you influenced the inner you? To some degree your appearance influences how well you do in love, at work, and in life, but most of us feel we don’t measure up. So the question is, should you just accept yourself as you are? Or should you try to improve your appearance? How far should you go? What should you try to improve? Will it make you happier or feel more satisfied with yourself? And which comes first? Does being satisfied with your appearance lead to a higher self-concept, or does having a high self-concept create a greater sense of happiness?
In the first five chapters of this book, we’ll be showing you tips and tricks that will help your skin glow, your hair shine, and your body shrink. They’re things that we believe will not only make you look better to the rest of the world but also help you feel a lot better in your inner world.
1
In the Flesh
YOU Test: Tale of the Tape
To take your facial fingerprint, pull out a roll of Scotch tape. Make sure your face is clean (without makeup, sunscreen, moisturizer, or peanut butter for at least two hours). Place a piece of tape vertically on the middle of your forehead from your scalp to the area between your eyebrows. Move it to the outside corners of your eyes, across the apple of each cheek, and above your lip. Press gently in each spot, leave it for a few seconds, and carefully remove. Check the tape for lines and flakiness.
If your tape is completely smooth: You have the skin of a typical 30-year-old.
If you have flaky or dead cells but no lines: You have the skin of a typical 40-year-old.
If you have flaky cells and small lines: You have the skin of a typical 50-year-old.
The world glows all around us. There’s the celestial kind of glow—the stars, the moon, the sun. And there’s the artificial kind—the night-light inside the baby’s room and the neon lights outside the nightclub. But the most wonderful glow we can think of is the living, breathing kind—the kind that comes in the form of human skin.
We all know or have seen people who radiate—who have the kind of smooth, shiny, healthy, glowing skin that could light up Times Square. But you know what? We all have that potential. The problem is that many of us treat our skin like wrapping paper; it starts out looking pretty enough, but eventually we’re going to find a way to tear it up.
Now, this glow we’re talking about isn’t just the result of good genes. It’s also the result of making good choices to protect, heal, and clean your skin. We all have the ability to make those decisions. European cars “glow” more than American cars because the manufacturers use smaller drops of color that reflect more light than they refract. Your skin works the same way: If you ruin your reflection through a buildup of oil or dead skin, you lose the glow (and your full beauty potential).
Of course, it goes without saying that pornographic and beauty-product entrepreneurs aren’t the only people who know the value of skin. We all know the risks of exposing our bare skin to the sun, snake fangs, and camera phones. And we also know that the way our skin looks goes a long way toward determining how we feel about ourselves. If we don’t look beautiful, we don’t feel it. And if we feel beautiful inside, we reflect it in our skin. So if you have smooth skin that radiates, then you feel and look younger—and probably are younger on the inside, an important aspect of your overall well-being and health. But if you feel depressed and reclusive, you may have more wrinkles than a shar-pei or become spotted, dotted, and blemished. And that’s
