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Saturday, January 7, 2012

Head Flattening, Elongation and Lip Stretching

Moulding of the skull and the practice of head flattening was common among Mayan society and has been used in Eastern countries. Protuberances such as the nose, ears and forehead were flattened to conform to the cultural beauty ideal. The head was flattened by putting the new born infant's head between two wooden boards creating a mouse trap like cradle, held in place with bindings. The soft skull slowly moulded to the cultural beauty ideal of flatness and after a few years the boards were removed permanently.

Elongated heads have been as popular as flattened heads. A Congo woman with an elongated head would be thought very beautiful by her people.

Similarly a Chad woman would have had her lips supported and stretched by metal rings since early childhood. In adulthood her stretched lips would express the ultimate in beauty. Western society has not gone quite this far, but it is now fashionable for some women to have collagen injections and implants to enlarge the lips.

Extremes include plastic surgery where the lips are turned inside out and although some find this an attractive feature on a woman, many do not and are repulsed by it.

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