FACE FORM FINDER · 6 OCTOBER 2026
Hooded Eyes
The strip the word describes
Visible pretarsal skin is the measurement discussed here. It does not by itself define or diagnose hooded eyes. The Malay report specifies the endpoints below; its comparison table reproduces earlier White summaries.
| The distance | Between which two points | Position of the eye when read |
|---|---|---|
| The strip (visible pretarsal skin) | the upper lid lash line, and the skin fold — or the crease if no fold is present | open, looking straight ahead |
| Eyelid crease height | the upper lid lash line, and the crease | closed, with any overlying fold lifted clear by light traction on the brow |
| Eyebrow height | the upper lid lash line, and the front row of mature brow hair at its lower margin | open, looking straight ahead |
The three rows describe different readings. The visible strip uses the fold as its upper endpoint when a fold is present. A change in fold or brow position may change the visible strip; this is not a claim that only one of the three measurements can change or that one mechanism explains every lid.
The same strip in two populations
The Malay report states that it followed the earlier Cartwright method. It used a single observer, three repeats and an average of the two eyes as the representative participant value. Readings were recorded to 0.5 mm; that resolution is not a measured accuracy guarantee. The original Cartwright full methods were not independently verified here, so identical cross-report calibration is not assumed. The Malay participants were clinic attendees and accompanying relatives volunteering in Kelantan: 146 men aged 2–78 and 159 women aged 2–80. Table labels begin at 1–10, but that does not imply measured one-year-olds in this sample.
| Age band | White men | White women | Malay men | Malay women |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 3.3 | 2.1 |
| 11 to 20 | 1.5 | 2.4 | 3.0 | 1.7 |
| 21 to 40 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 3.0 |
| 41 to 60 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 3.0 |
| Over 60 | 0.9 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 3.3 |
Read the 41 to 60 band across: 1.3 mm, 1.4 mm, 2.7 mm, 3.0 mm. The male comparison is 1.3 versus 2.7 mm; the female comparison is 1.4 versus 3.0 mm. These are age-band means, not individual diagnostic limits. The four figures do not say which of those lids is the hooded one, because the word is being asked to do a job a population figure cannot do.
The cross-sectional age-band pattern is not shared either. In the Malay set the male strip narrows as age rises — 3.3 mm, 3.0 mm, 2.9 mm, 2.7 mm — and then rises to 3.7 mm past 60, while the female strip widens from 1.7 mm to 3.3 mm over the same bands. These are different age groups in a cross-sectional sample, not repeated measurements of the same people as they aged.
The two heights that get quoted instead
Crease and brow heights are different measurements from the visible strip. The tables keep their endpoints and sex/age-band summaries separate rather than treating a larger number as the same distance.
| Age band | White men | White women | Malay men | Malay women |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 4.5 | 5.3 | 6.2 | 4.6 |
| 11 to 20 | 5.8 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 4.8 |
| 21 to 40 | 6.9 | 7.3 | 6.1 | 6.5 |
| 41 to 60 | 7.0 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.0 |
| Over 60 | 6.7 | 7.5 | 6.8 | 5.4 |
| Age band | White men | White women | Malay men | Malay women |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 12.0 | 9.3 |
| 11 to 20 | 6.5 | 7.1 | 13.0 | 9.9 |
| 21 to 40 | 6.4 | 7.6 | 11.7 | 11.0 |
| 41 to 60 | 6.2 | 6.4 | 12.3 | 14.4 |
| Over 60 | 6.6 | 7.6 | 14.7 | 16.8 |
Put the three scales side by side and the size of the mismatch is plain. Across the age-band means, the strip ranges from 0.9 to 3.7 mm, the crease from 4.5 to 7.5 mm and the brow from 6.1 to 16.8 mm. These are ranges of group means, not observed individual ranges. Inside any one group and age band the brow sits between about two and a half and 7.3 times the strip, and the crease between about one and a half and 7.4 times it. No frequency ranking of quoted measurements is established here. A reader who takes a brow figure and compares it with a strip figure has changed the distance without changing the label.
What the listed checks do with the strip
The listed descriptions may refer to visible lid space, but they do not replace a defined measurement method.
| The listed check | What it reads |
|---|---|
| Skin from below the brow extends down and touches, or nearly touches, the lashes | The strip — as a reach, not a figure |
| Excess skin folds down from the brow bone and partially or entirely covers the lid | The strip — as a coverage word |
| A crease hidden behind a fold; the visible lid a thin sliver or nothing | The strip — as a sliver or nothing |
| Eyeshadow applied with the eye closed vanishes into the fold when the eye opens | The strip — as present or absent |
| The edge of the lid checked against the pupil, normally resting just below the top of the iris | Lid opening, which is a different distance |
| A tired or stressed look | Nothing measurable |
Terms such as reaches, covers, sliver and vanishes describe an appearance. They are not interchangeable with a calibrated distance or a diagnostic rule.
What the mean and standard deviation can tell you
A mean and a standard deviation summarise a sample. They do not specify its minimum, maximum, fraction near zero, or a diagnostic cut-off.
| Group and band | Mean strip | Standard deviation | SD divided by the mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malay men, 41 to 60 | 2.7 mm | 2.1 mm | 78 per cent |
| Malay men, over 60 | 3.7 mm | 2.1 mm | 57 per cent |
| Malay women, 41 to 60 | 3.0 mm | 1.5 mm | 50 per cent |
| White participants, pooled sexes, 41 to 60 | 1.4 mm | 1.1 mm | 79 per cent |
The standard deviation is not the observed range. The Malay male mean of 2.7 mm and SD of 2.1 mm do not tell us how many participants were near zero or where the sample began. The white pooled row is not a female-only SD; it must not be attached to the white female mean merely because both means are printed as 1.4 mm.
In Table V, the 41 to 60 female white mean is 1.4 mm and the male Malay mean is 2.7 mm, a difference of 1.3 mm. Sex differs as well as population, so this is not an isolated ethnic effect. The separately listed pooled white SD and male Malay SD do not establish a normal range or a hooded/not-hooded threshold.
When to stop
- Stop when a strip figure arrives without its two points. The strip runs from the lash line to the fold, or to the crease if there is no fold. A number that names neither edge cannot be repeated on your own face, because the upper edge is exactly what a hooded lid changes.
- Stop when a crease figure is used as a strip figure. They are read in different positions of the eye, and on a covered crease the crease number can only be taken with the fold lifted clear. The two are not interchangeable even on the same eye.
- Stop when a brow figure is compared with a strip figure. Inside one group and age band the brow runs up to 7.3 times the strip, and the crease up to 7.4. Two numbers that far apart are two different measurements, whatever the sentence around them says.
- Stop when one band is quoted for everyone. In the 41 to 60 band, 1.4 mm is the white female mean and 2.7 mm is the Malay male mean. Do not use this cross-sex comparison as a universal cut-off.
- Stop when a word is used where the strip is meant. Reaches, covers, sliver, vanishes — four descriptions of one measurable strip. A description alone does not provide a numerical measurement.
The strip, the crease and the brow, by age band, sex and population, as a CSV.
The strip on one card
Questions
What are hooded eyes?
Hooded is an appearance description involving overlying upper lid skin. This page discusses a related measurement, not a one-number definition or a diagnosis. It is measured from the lash line to the fold, or to the crease if no fold is present, with the eye open and looking straight ahead.
How much visible lid counts as hooded?
The age-band means and standard deviations here do not supply a validated diagnostic cut-off. They also do not prove that every possible cut-off would fail. Read them as group summaries, with the sex, age band and measurement endpoints kept explicit.
Are hooded eyes the same as deep-set eyes?
No. Deep-set describes where the eyeball sits in the socket, read from the outer rim of the socket to the front of the cornea. Hooded describes how much lid skin is left visible below the fold. They describe different quantities; one measurement does not establish the other. The deep-set page takes the socket distance and the checks that read the brow instead.
Why does the same lid get called hooded by one person and not another?
Because the strip is read with the eye at rest, and the look is read from a photograph or a mirror, where the brow can be held higher or lower than it sits at rest. Raising the brow may move the fold and change the visible strip as well as apparent lid space; that is a different viewing condition. Two people reading two photographs of the same face can therefore disagree, and both can be describing what they see.
Do the two heights above the lid matter?
They matter, but they are not the strip. Across the listed sex-specific age-band means, crease values span 4.5 to 7.5 mm, brow values 6.1 to 16.8 mm, and strip values 0.9 to 3.7 mm. These are extrema of group means, not individual normal ranges. Different crease or brow positions may affect apparent lid space. The measurement definition still needs its endpoints and viewing conditions stated.
Related guides
- Eye Shape Chart — the seven eye readings in millimetres, and what that chart says it does not record.
- Deep-Set Eyes — the socket distance, and the brow-based checks that do not measure it.
- Eyebrow Shape Chart — the brow read on its own, without the lid underneath it.
- Face Symmetry Test — the same face read twice, and what a small head turn does to the number.
- Face Shape Chart — the thirds of the face, and how to check them at home with a soft tape.
- Golden Ratio Face — the classical proportions, written out in millimetres on one face.
The 128-second version
The four panels restate what the tables above do: panel 1 names the strip and the two points it was read between, panel 2 keeps each sample attached to its own summaries, panel 3 divides each standard deviation by its own mean, and panel 4 shows why a group summary does not validate a cut-off.
If the player does not load, watch the 2:08 version on YouTube: Hooded Eyes: One Strip, Two Populations, and No Threshold.