You can’t reshape your facial bones without surgery, but you can make a long face appear noticeably shorter and more balanced through a combination of styling choices, grooming techniques, and habits that support your facial structure over time. The key principle behind every method is the same: add visual width or horizontal lines to counterbalance vertical length.
A face is considered “long” when its vertical measurement (forehead to chin) is significantly greater than its width. In standard facial analysis, the face is divided into three horizontal thirds: forehead to brow line, brow line to base of the nose, and base of the nose to chin. These thirds are ideally equal, but in a longer face one or more of these sections is stretched, making the overall proportions feel narrow and elongated. Everything below targets that imbalance.
Why Some Faces Grow Longer
Genetics play the largest role, but one surprisingly common contributor is chronic mouth breathing during childhood. Breathing through the mouth instead of the nose changes the resting posture of the tongue, lips, and cheeks, creating an imbalance in the forces those muscles exert on the growing jaw and palate. Over years, this leads to what clinicians call “long face syndrome”: a narrower upper jaw, a higher palatal vault, and increased vertical growth of the lower face. The result is a face that appears stretched and narrow.
Understanding this matters because some of the “natural” strategies below, like correcting tongue posture and nasal breathing, are rooted in the same biomechanics. They won’t reverse bone growth that already happened in childhood, but they can influence soft tissue tone and, in younger people whose bones are still developing, potentially support more balanced growth.
Tongue Posture and Nasal Breathing
The technique most commonly discussed online is “mewing,” named after orthodontist John Mew. The idea is simple: flatten your entire tongue against the roof of your mouth, keep your lips closed, and breathe through your nose. Your teeth should rest lightly together without clenching, and the tip of your tongue should sit just behind your upper front teeth without pressing against them. A helpful cue is to make the “ng” sound (as in “thing”) and notice where your tongue lands. That’s roughly the position you’re aiming for.
Proponents suggest holding this position throughout the day, starting with 10 to 20 seconds at a time and gradually increasing. Realistic expectations are important here: even advocates acknowledge it can take years to notice any structural change in the jawline or face shape, and the evidence for adults is largely anecdotal. What is well established is that habitual nasal breathing supports better oral posture and avoids the soft tissue changes associated with mouth breathing. If nothing else, correcting a mouth-breathing habit is good for your dental health and sleep quality.
Facial Exercises for Midface Fullness
Facial exercises won’t shorten your bones, but they can add volume and firmness to the cheek area, which visually widens the midface and reduces the appearance of elongation. A clinical study published in a peer-reviewed journal tested a facial muscle exercise device and found that the cross-sectional area of the major cheek muscle (the one responsible for smiling and cheek projection) increased significantly after a consistent exercise program. Surface distances along the midface and jawline also decreased, meaning the face looked tighter and less saggy.
You don’t necessarily need a device. Exercises that target the cheeks and the area around the mouth can help. Puffing your cheeks with air and holding, exaggerated smiling against gentle resistance from your fingers, and “fish face” holds are commonly recommended. The key finding from the research is that consistency matters: the participants exercised daily over several weeks before measurable changes appeared. Occasional effort won’t do much.
The practical effect is subtle. You’re not reshaping bone. You’re building slightly thicker, firmer muscle in the cheek area, which can lift the midface and create the impression of more width. For someone whose long face also looks flat or hollow through the cheeks, this can make a real visual difference.
Hairstyles That Create Width
Of all the strategies available, hairstyling offers the most immediate and dramatic change. The goal is to add horizontal emphasis and reduce visible forehead length.
- Bangs: Any style of bangs will visually shorten the face by cutting the forehead third. Medium to long bangs are most effective because they cover more vertical space. Longer side-swept bangs add asymmetry that further distracts from overall length.
- Side volume: Hairstyles with fullness through the sides, whether through layers, waves, or blow-drying technique, add width that balances the vertical dimension. Avoid flat, sleek styles that hug the head, as these emphasize length.
- Avoid height on top: Volume piled at the crown adds to the vertical line. If you style your hair up, keep it relatively low and focus any volume at ear level or below.
- Chin-length or shoulder-length cuts: Very long, straight hair hanging past the shoulders creates a vertical frame that elongates the face further. Cuts that end around the chin or collarbone, especially with some texture, add a horizontal stopping point.
Eyebrow Shaping
Your eyebrows create a strong horizontal line across the face, and their shape changes how long or short your face reads. High, sharply arched brows draw the eye upward and add vertical emphasis, which is exactly the opposite of what you want. For a long face, the ideal brow shape is straighter and more horizontal with only a very gentle arch. Extending the tail of the brow slightly outward draws attention sideways rather than up and down, breaking the vertical flow.
This is one of the easiest changes to experiment with. If you currently maintain a high arch, try letting the brow grow in slightly and reshaping it flatter. Even a small reduction in arch height can soften the perceived length of your face.
Glasses and Sunglasses
If you wear glasses, frame choice is a surprisingly powerful tool. Deep frames with taller lenses add a horizontal band across the middle of the face, visually breaking it into shorter segments. Look for frames with decorative elements or contrasting colors at the temples, as these details draw the eye outward and create the impression of width. Wide frames that extend to or slightly beyond your face’s natural width work best.
Avoid small, narrow lenses or rimless frames that do nothing to interrupt the vertical line. Round or square frames with substantial depth are your best options. Even for sunglasses, choosing oversized or wide styles with bold temples will have the same shortening effect.
Makeup Techniques
Contouring can visually reshape facial proportions more than most people expect. The basic approach for a long face involves three moves:
- Contour the forehead and chin: Apply a shade slightly darker than your skin tone along the hairline at the top of the forehead and under the tip of the chin. This visually “pushes back” the top and bottom of the face, reducing perceived height.
- Highlight the cheeks horizontally: Apply blush or highlighter across the cheekbones in a more horizontal direction rather than swept upward toward the temples. This adds width to the midface.
- Keep lip color bold: A well-defined lip draws attention to the center of the face. The width of the lips ideally spans about 40% of the lower face, and emphasizing them with color creates a horizontal focal point.
The same principle applies to beard grooming for men. A beard that’s kept shorter on the chin and fuller on the sides adds width without adding vertical length. A long, pointed beard does the opposite.
What Actually Changes Bone Structure
It’s worth being honest about limits. In adults whose facial bones are fully developed (typically by the early twenties), no exercise, tongue posture, or styling trick will physically shorten the skeleton. The strategies above work by changing the visual proportions of your face through muscle tone, soft tissue positioning, and optical illusion. They’re effective, but they’re working on perception, not structure.
For people who feel their long face significantly affects their quality of life, orthognathic surgery (jaw repositioning) is the medical option that can physically alter facial height. This is a major procedure typically pursued for functional reasons like bite problems, not purely cosmetic ones. Short of surgery, the combination of consistent posture habits, targeted facial exercises, and smart styling choices can meaningfully change how balanced your face looks in the mirror and in photos.