The Most Common & Most Desired Nose Shapes: Which Nose Is Yours?

posted on:
November 30th, 2021
posted by:
Dr. Thomas Bell, MD

In the world of cosmetic plastic surgery, the nose reigns supreme. While many people think that liposuction or breast augmentation is the leading surgical option among patients, they are not. While both make the top 5, rhinoplasty is the number one cosmetic procedure that patients opt for when seeking plastic surgery, for both men and women alike. In 2020 alone, rhinoplasty was performed over 352,000 times on those seeking the ideal nose shape.

The nose is a critical factor in a person’s facial appearance. Being located right at the centre of the face, having a nose disproportionate to the rest of your face can throw off the facial symmetry. When discussing the perfect nose shape, there’s no one correct answer; It’s all a matter of proportion.

In this blog, we’ll be discussing the shapes of noses, from the most common to the most often requested noses that our Toronto rhinoplasty clinic gets every day.

What Makes a Nose?

We’re going to be discussing the nose a great deal throughout this blog, so to help better understand the described structures, it may be beneficial first to understand the components of a nose.

Three main components can categorize the nose:

Bridge

The bridge is the most structural part of your nose that keeps the rest of the nose held together. The bridge of your nose works to give a strong foundation for the other components of your nose to work.

Nostrils

Your nostrils are located at the bottom of your nose. The nostrils allow air to enter and exit the body, acting as the channel in which the air flows through your nasal cavity. In short, this is the part of the nose that allows you to breathe. As the nostrils flare when they breathe, some people are insecure about the size of them as they extend, feeling their nostrils are too “wide.”

Nose Tip

The dorsum, or nose tip, is the part of the nose connecting to the nostrils. This is the part of the nose that protrudes the furthest away from the face, and this is often a part of the nose people have complaints about looking too bulbous or attracting unwanted attention.

While women may desire a smaller nose with a delicate slope, men may want a male rhinoplasty that gives them the result of a prominent bridge that creates masculine asymmetry on their face. For this reason, TPS offers both female and male nose jobs.

Common Noses

Now that we’ve elaborated a bit on the three main components of the nose, you might be wondering, “what is my nose shape?” Let’s discuss some of the most common types of noses that people have.

Bumped/Humped Nose

A Humped nose is defined by the presence of a large bump/hump on the nose bridge. Some people are naturally born with this, but a principal reason for a humped nose is due to physical injury such as a broken nose. The size and shape of the hump can wildly vary but is usually most prominent when being the nose from the side. Actor Owen Wilson famously has a prominent hump in his nose due to having his nose broken twice during his youth.

Crooked/Asymmetrical

When it comes to conventional attractive qualities in the face, it’s all about symmetry—having an asymmetrical nose shape can throw off the face’s overall appearance. Asymmetrical noses are usually categorized by having curved and bent bridges, occasionally giving the bridge a bumpy appearance. In more prominent cases, the curvature can begin to impact the breathing capabilities of a person, also known as a deviated septum.

Long and Narrow Nose

This nose is defined by having a nose bridge that appears to extend longer vertically than ideal to a person’s face. This long appearing bridge usually due to narrowness in the nose is. Having a long and narrow nose can cause the rest of your face to be disproportionately wider. This nose is sometimes referred to as a “hawk nose” due to its “beak” like appearance. When correcting this type of nose shape, the tip of the nose is usually shortened and or widened to make it more proportionate to the face. Actor Adrian Brody has this type of nose shape.

Pinched Nose

Having a nose that is pinched gives the appearance that your nostrils are pressed close together as if you were holding them “pinched” closed with your fingers. This type of nose can cause issues such as improper airflow and structural issues in the nose itself. This type of nose shape often is the result of an improperly done rhinoplasty procedure. Our Toronto plastic surgery clinic offers reconstructive rhinoplasty procedures, where we attempt a structural repair to the bridge. Some cases may require cartilage extraction from donor areas such as the ears and graft to the nose in the critical areas, but this is not always required.

Fleshy/Bulbous Nose

Having a bulbous nose is one of the more common shapes; roughly one in four people have one!

Having a bulbous nose is often a genetically inherited trait. These noses are typically defined by their wider bulb-like wideness, a narrow bridge, and rounded drooping nose tip. This is typically solved with rhinoplasty by redistributing cartilage from some more prominent areas to the more narrow features, creating a more symmetrical look.

Albert Einstein had a famously fleshy nose, as do celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo.

Most Desirable Noses

Now that you’re familiar with some of the many nose shape types that people commonly have let us discuss a few of the most desirable nose shapes types. These are the types of noses most sought after by those seeking cosmetic rhinoplasty.

Celestial Nose

The celestial nose, also known as the upturned nose or the button nose shape, is defined by its small size, with a slight dent at the bridge of the nose and a tip that protrudes slightly. The celestial nose shape is currently one of the most popular requests from those seeking rhinoplasty, mainly to actress Emma Stone, who has this most attractive nose shape. Getting this button nose shape procedure proportionally done by a skilled plastic surgeon in Toronto is paramount, as overdoing the upturned nature of this nose can cause undesirable results.

Duchess Nose

Ever since emerging into the royal spotlight, the popularity of those seeking the nose of Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, has skyrocketed.

The duchess nose shape is defined by its straight cut down the bridge, with a slight rotation and roundness at the tip. The duchess nose shape isn’t overly narrow either, fitting proportionality to the face.

Greek Nose

The Greek nose is named after the way noses are often sculpted on ancient Greek statues. This most attractive nose shape is defined by its impeccably straight bridge appearance, without any curvature of bends. This is similar to the duchess shape but does not feature the rounded tip. This is a sought-after nose, as having a nose without any deviations or curvature is rare. It’s thought that only 3% of people naturally have this best nose shape. Actress Jennifer Aniston is a prime example of this nose.

Roman Nose 

This is a variation of the Greek nose but far more commonly found in people than the Greek variant. This beautiful nose shape is named after the many human sculptures of ancient Rome. Unless the perfectly straight cut Greek nose, the Roman nose shape is defined by its stronger chiselled shape, with a slight curve that slopes the nose to protrude slightly from the face. The bridge of a Roman nose has a slight exaggeration and features a slight bend.

This is a popular nose shape desired by men for a more rugged appearance and is featured by the Hollywood elite like Tom Cruise and Ryan Gosling. This best nose shape can also suit many women; however, A-List actress Meryl Streep also sports this beautiful nose shape.

Snub Nose

This nose is top-rated among women, as it is considered to be a more feminine appearing shape. The snub nose is known for its smallness in size, with a round tip and upward slope. Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor featured this style of the nose.

Rhinoplasty at Toronto Plastic Surgeons

So now that we know more about the shapes people seek out, your next question might be, “can you change the shape of your nose.” The answer is almost always yes. Let’s talk about how we perform the procedures and the many types of nose surgery we offer at our clinic.

Traditional Rhinoplasty

During a traditional rhinoplasty, our goal is to create your perfect nose. While the shapes and styles will vary, the goal is almost always the same: To improve symmetry.

Having a nose that is proportional and symmetrical to your face can drastically improve a person’s appearance. Usually, this process doesn’t involve changing just one thing but a multitude of features at once. For example, simply removing an unwanted bump from the bridge of the nose may create an unwanted appearance of unalignment, thus straightening the nose may also be necessary. When slimming the nose tip, nostrils may also have to be reshaped smaller, so they appear proportional to the rest of the nose.

Traditional rhinoplasty can also treat a deviated septum, as more severe cases may require visible structural changes. This is not always the case, however (More on this later).

There are two main types of traditional rhinoplasty; open and closed.

Open rhinoplasty refers to a more in-depth rhinoplasty that has more invasive surgical elements to it. This allows for easier manipulation of structural changes like bone and cartilage. This is the style used to treat size changes, protrusions and bumps, and bulbous tip shapes to create an ideal nose shape. This is also the technique that is commonly used during revision rhinoplasty.

Closed rhinoplasty is a less invasive rhinoplasty performed by making incisions inside the nose rather than the outside, working instead through the nostrils. This method is often used to correct nasal obstructions, reduce bridge bumps or minor concerns with nose tips. However, as this is a less invasive rhinoplasty, major structural changes to the nose will be unlikely through this method.

The 5-Minute Nose Job 

Our team here at the Toronto Plastic Surgeons has helped to revolutionize this modern method of rhinoplasty. This procedure involves no surgical process instead of utilizing injectable dermal soft tissue fillers such as Juvederm or Restylane.

While no surgical structural changes are made, the fillers can help impact things like bumps on the nose bridge, scoops, and nose tip issues. This procedure takes virtually no time at all, does not require anesthesia, and features no downtime.

Septoplasty

One of the biggest myths about nose jobs is that they are purely cosmetic.

We mentioned earlier how rhinoplasty could be used to treat a deviated septum. The septum is a thin wall of bone and cartilage located between the nostrils, going up the centre of your nasal passageways. In an ideal scenario, the septum would perfectly align straight up the length of your nose. However, in more cases than not, the septum deviates to one (or both) sides, causing a slight blockage in the nasal passageway. A deviated septum can occur either through natural genetic formation or due to injures which cause breakage.

Having a deviated septum is incredibly common – it is estimated close to 80% of people have one. In most cases, the deviation is usually subtle enough that most go their whole lives without noticing. However, in cases of a more significant deviation, symptoms such as breathing problems, nosebleeds, infection, snoring and sleep apnea may all be prevalent.

While many people opt for traditional rhinoplasty to allow cosmetic changes to be performed when treating a deviated septum, as the nose is undergoing surgery regardless, some only desire the deviation itself to be corrected, with no additional changes to be made. This procedure is referred to as septoplasty. While septoplasty only targets the septum’s deviation, some may find their nose has correctively changed post-surgery if the deviation created a noticeable curve or bend in the nose.

Revision Rhinoplasty

While most rhinoplasty procedures are a success, our clinic is happy to treat an improper rhinoplasty procedure that other clinics have performed.

During these cases, we assess with you the concerns of your previously “botched” rhinoplasty and work to perform revisions to give you the nose you have always wanted. We do request you attempt to hold off for at least two years after your initial rhinoplasty procedure before seeking us out for revisions, as the nose needs that time to reach the full effects and come into its final shape.

Call Us Today

If you’re feeling insecure about your nose and wondering to yourself, “should I get a nose job?” we can help. By scheduling a consultation online or calling us at 647-723-3739, you can speak with a member of our clinic, who can get you started with how to change your nose shape and begin your journey to the perfect nose shape you’ve always dreamed of.

Posted by:

Dr. Thomas Bell, MD

Dr. Thomas Bell has been one of Canada’s most renowned cosmetic surgeons for 35 years. He prides his excellence on the harmonious balance of vision, aesthetic appearance, and patient care.

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