The lips are an essential aspect of the human face and play a critical role in facial expression, phonation, sensation, mastication, physical attraction, and intimacy.
They keep the mouth airtight and control food getting in and out of the mouth. We can also change the mouth shape allowing us to suck on a straw and breastfeed as an infant. They also have a huge nerve supply and are very sensitive to touch, warmth and the cold. Lips are also an important erogenous zone in the body.
Lips allow us to chew and swallow with our mouth closed; to hold onto things like nails and clothes pegs, and to suckle at the breast. But even more importantly, our lips are used in communication. They allow us to smile, to bare our teeth and to kiss.
So, the larger the lips, the more heat that can be disseminated. Thus, people living in hotter climatic conditions gradually evolved to have bigger lips. The opposite is true for people in colder climates.
Studies have also shown that Caucasian women were found to have thinner lips than Asians, with the smallest upper lip height and volume.
They are the source of expressions of love, sexuality, intimacy, and all types of communication. There is a reproductive drive in chasing after full lips, given their connotations with sexual vitality; some have even suggested that lips are attractive because of their resemblance to the labia.
According to Ryan Neinstein, M.D., a plastic surgeon in New York City, our lips are made up of blood vessels, which become dilated during kissing.
"Lips are fundamentally important for eating, respiration and speech," Noël Cameron, a professor of human biology at Loughborough University in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. Lips are, Cameron noted, sensitive.
The skin on your lips is different from the rest of your body because it is thinner and more delicate. Skin on your face can be up to 16 cell layers thick while the skin on your lips is only 3 to 5 layers thick. This means your blood vessels are more apparent, giving your lips their pink or red colour.
A kiss might seem like a natural thing to do for most of us, but the scientific jury is still out on whether it is a learned or instinctual behaviour. Approximately 90 per cent of cultures kiss, making a strong case for the act being a basic human instinct.
What is important with lip-on-lip kissing and other types of kissing is that the moment is about sharing close, intimate information about each other. Kissing by pressing our lips together is an almost uniquely human behaviour.
Lips are made up of many nerve endings. Containing many nerves, our lips are very sensitive to touch, warmth, and cold. It is also the large number of nerves that classify the lips as an erogenous zone. Erogenous zones are parts of the body that have heightened sensitivity and stimulation.
White lips
White or pale lips are often accompanied by general paleness affecting the face, lining of the eyes, inside of the mouth, and the nails. This is usually caused by anemia, which is a low red blood cell count. Anemia that causes pale or white lips is severe and requires immediate medical attention.
Normal, healthy lip color varies, depending on skin color and other factors, but should fall in the reddish-pink-to-brown range.
No. They may get smaller with age, but not grow.
Indeed, when men and women become sexually excited, both our lips and our genitals swell and redden as they are engorged with blood, becoming increasingly sensitive to touch.
As you age, your body's production of collagen starts to slow down, which leads to sagging and reduction of volume in areas of your face, like your cheeks and your lips. Hyaluronic acid production also slows down.
Chronic lip biting can cause swelling, rawness and sores. Repeatedly biting the same area can even cause fibromas to develop. Additionally, you could end up with jaw pain and headaches.
Most people can't focus on anything as close as a face at kissing distance so closing your eyes saves them from looking at a distracting blur or the strain of trying to focus. Kissing can also make us feel vulnerable or self-conscious and closing your eyes is a way of making yourself more relaxed.
Along with the oxytocin and dopamine that make you feel affection and euphoria, kissing releases serotonin — another feel-good chemical. It also lowers cortisol levels so you feel more relaxed, making for a good time all around.
A long kiss releases dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin, feel-good chemicals that will make him smile. A single smile produces endorphins, another hormone that lifts his mood. Endorphins also create a “feedback loop” that will make him smile over and over.
Lead researcher Dr. Geoff Beattie says the study shows lips represent one of the most sensual aspects of a woman's body and play an important part in sexual attraction. He explains, “The research suggests that red lips and perceived attractiveness are still inextricably linked.”
Psychologically speaking, having plumper and full lips is a sign of blood flow on the face which is essential to the health and fertility of a woman to which men are attracted.
A study of 1,000 people in 35 countries revealed that the perfect lip shape is all down to symmetry. More than 60% of respondents thought a 1:1 ratio between the upper and lower lip was the most attractive shape. A cosmetic surgeon in London said a heavily-defined cupid's bow is the most-requested lip feature.
Causes of dark lips
excessive exposure to the sun. lack of hydration. cigarette smoking. allergic reactions to toothpaste, lipstick, etc.