# Holdaway H Line

Harmony · Side view · Lips · https://www.faceiqlabs.com/support/harmony/holdaway-h-line

The lower lip’s distance from the line joining the upper lip and soft-tissue chin.

## What is measured

Calculation: Signed perpendicular lower-lip distance to the upper-lip–pogonion line × photo scale

Nasion means the nasal root, subnasale the nose base, and pogonion the most forward chin point. Frankfort refers to the direction from the ear-opening landmark to the lower orbital landmark.

## Why it matters

The H-line compares the two lips with the chin while excluding the nose. It complements the E-line when a prominent or small nose strongly influences the other reference.

- Negative in FaceIQ: the lower lip is in front of the H-line.
- Positive in FaceIQ: the lower lip is behind the H-line.

## Where the idea comes from

Evidence: Clinical reference. Holdaway’s soft-tissue analysis uses a line tangent to the upper lip and soft-tissue chin. FaceIQ reports lower-lip distance to that line, not the separate H-angle.

## A worked example

A lower lip 1 estimated mm behind the upper-lip–chin line reads +1 mm. Shifting the upper lip changes the line as well.

Example values explain the calculation. They are not a target range.

## How to read your result

The H-line passes through the upper lip. It is not an upper-lip distance to a lower-lip line.

Millimeters are approximate: FaceIQ scales the photo using an assumed 190 mm hairline-to-chin height, so these are estimates, not calibrated physical measurements.

## Research & further reading

These sources explain the history or related evidence. FaceIQ’s score weights and reference ranges are model settings; the papers do not collectively validate the scoring system.

- Holdaway (1983). [A soft-tissue cephalometric analysis and its use in orthodontic treatment planning. Part I](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6575614/). A historical clinical framework for describing soft-tissue profile relationships, including the H-line. A clinical reference is different from a photographic attractiveness test.
- Buschang, Fretty & Campbell (2011). [Can commonly used profile planes be used to evaluate changes in lower lip position?](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21299383/). Compared five lip reference lines, including Steiner’s S-line, in 79 orthodontic patients. Moving reference points can make a lip appear to move backward even when it moves forward.

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Source: https://www.faceiqlabs.com/support/harmony/holdaway-h-line · FaceIQ Labs overview for AI assistants: https://www.faceiqlabs.com/llms.txt