We know that testosterone helps differentiate male faces from female ones. However, did you know that testosterone affects your cheekbones, too?
Testosterone makes men have more prominent cheekbones by making them wider and larger. As men’s faces mature, they develop more masculine features, including wider cheekbones, larger jaws, etc. Testosterone also makes men lose cheek fat and develop cheek hollows, enhancing their cheekbones’ prominence.
How Testosterone Affects Your Cheekbones
Testosterone plays a huge role in differentiating male faces from women. For example, men typically have larger jaws and cheekbones than women (Little et al., 2011).
When boys go through puberty, testosterone makes their faces more angular, making their cheekbones more prominent.
Most men will notice their bones changing when they are in their late teens and early twenties. However, it may take a few years after puberty to see the final results.
Additionally, some researchers believe that men evolved to have wider cheekbones. According to their theories, wider cheekbones can take punches better than smaller ones.
Other Reasons Why Men Have Prominent Cheekbones
Other than testosterone, men usually have more prominent cheekbones because of other parts of their face that emphasize their cheekbones. Male cheekbones are not always as large as they seem, but other facial parts make them look more prominent.
For instance, most men’s buccal fat pads decrease as they age because of testosterone. A decrease in the cheek fat means you have thinner cheeks, creating the illusion that your cheekbones are higher and larger than they truly are.
Men naturally have less fat than women because of testosterone. However, estrogen reduces women’s ability to burn energy after eating.
The reduced ability to burn energy in women leads to more fat getting stored in the body. It is likely to prepare women for pregnancy and birth.
Men also often have more lean muscle tissue than women. Lean muscle tissue burns more calories than body fat, causing men to have slimmer cheeks. Since their cheeks are slimmer, their cheekbones will stand out easily.
Additionally, men also grow larger jaws because of testosterone. As your face gets slimmer and your buccal fat pad decreases, you develop cheek hollows.
The cheek hollows add shadows under your cheekbones, making them look more prominent. Plus, they can make your cheekbones look more defined.
How Testosterone Changes Your Face
When your face matures, testosterone affects than just your cheekbones. As mentioned earlier, testosterone increases jaw size, decreases cheek fat, and helps you develop cheek hollows.
Men developed thicker jaws over the years because of women. Men used to literally fight over women, so big jaws can take better blows than thinner ones. As mentioned earlier, the same reason applies as to why men also have bigger cheekbones.
Men often get oilier and slightly thicker skin because of testosterone. You would probably have larger pores due to the extra oil production. Some men develop acne.
Most men will also have generally wider faces because of testosterone. Studies show a link between testosterone and facial width (Lefevre et al., 2013).
Many men will also develop more angular eyes because of testosterone. Your facial fat decreases and shifts with age and testosterone, creating more angular features like your eyes and face.
How to Improve Your Cheekbones
Mewing
Mewing is proper tongue posture. When you mew, you keep your tongue flat on your palate with a light and constant pressure. It would be best if you focused on keeping pressure on the back third of your tongue to press on your hard palate, as that’s the most challenging part to get up.
When you have proper tongue posture, you stimulate your midface to move up and forward. That happens because you use your tongue to apply pressure on your palate, helping your midface move to enhance your face.
Your cheekbones are a part of your midface. When you mew, you encourage your cheekbones to be more prominent because the midface moves.
You can click here to see the scientific evidence behind mewing.
Testosterone often helps you get a more angular face with sharper cheekbones. However, other factors can affect how your face develops, which is why some men may not have the typical masculine features.
For instance, mouth breathing can take a toll on your face’s development. Mouth breathing can make you have small cheekbones, a long face, a weak jawline, a receding chin, etc. It can greatly impact how you look if you start this at a young age and continue mouth breathing for years.
Therefore, you can counteract the effects of mouth breathing by mewing. Keep in mind that it does not work overnight.
Some children and teenagers may get quicker and more obvious results, especially in cheekbone prominence compared to adults. That is because their bones are more malleable, making it easier to mold and move them when you mew.
Adults can still see results from mewing. They usually see results after several years or decades of consistent mewing. Adults need to be more consistent when they mew. Their bones are harder than teenagers and children, so the results will take longer to appear.
Howevermewing can still greatly enhance adult faces after doing it consistently for a few years.
To analyze different people’s mewing progress, click here. Click here to visit our ultimate mewing guide.
Dermal Fillers
Dermal fillers are the way to go if you want a quicker way to add more volume to your cheekbones. A surgeon injects the dermal filler into the desired areas to add volume.
The dermal filler’s ingredients are naturally present in your body, like hyaluronic acid and collagen. However, these fillers will fade over time. Your body metabolizes the materials in the fillers, so they will disappear.
Therefore, the results will not last forever. Most people’s fillers last for 3-6 months, but some people have theirs for 1-2 years.
However, dermal fillers only add volume to your face – they may not give you the sharp angles you want. Dermal fillers may not be right for you if you want razor-sharp cheekbones. Dermal fillers are gel-like materials, so they cannot create sharp lines.
Cheekbone Implants
If you want a more permanent solution, then cheekbone implant surgery is the ideal option. It is also good for people who want sharper cheekbones.
Cheekbone implants are usually medical-grade silicone. A doctor shapes the implants specifically for your face to get the desired volume and projection you want.
Typically, a surgeon may also change your zygomatic arch to enhance the overall aesthetic of your cheekbones. Note the example below.
Cheekbone implants are meant to be permanent, and you may not need to get a follow-up surgery if your initial procedure goes well. However, you can ask a surgeon to remove them if you do not want them anymore.
It is still possible for your cheekbones to decrease in size as you age, even after getting cheek implants. Your actual cheekbones will get smaller, so the implants tend to fall back as well.
However, there are ways you can maintain your new cheekbones. For instance, you can consistently mew after you recover from surgery to encourage your midface to move up and forward, which pushes your cheekbones out. You can also get dermal fillers to add volume as needed.
While cheekbone implants are permanent and give you instant results, there are some downsides. Most people will need 3-6 weeks to recover from surgery fully.
You may also have to deal with the side effects after surgery. You would also have to deal with facial swelling, bruising, etc. for a few weeks and avoid any strenuous activity. Silicone implants can also have long-term effects which doctors will rarely ever know or tell you about.
