How to get a jawline: what you can change and what you can't

What makes a jawline look defined?

Five things shape how your jaw looks: bone, chewing muscles, fat and skin, neck posture, and your hair and beard. Only the bone stays fixed. The rest you can work on.

The bone sets the basic shape. That means the width below your ears, the length, and how far your chin comes forward. A twin study found that genes explain more than 70% of the variation in face size. The width of the lower face also depends on the masseter, the big chewing muscle at the jaw angle.

Fat and posture decide how much of that shape people see. The same jaw can look sharp when you are lean and hold your head level. It can look soft with more body fat and your head dropped forward.

Source: Djordjevic and colleagues, 2016: Genetic and environmental contributions to facial morphological variation, a 3D twin study (PLOS One)

What can you change about your jawline?

Use this table to put your effort where it counts.

How to get a sharper jawline: step by step

Do these in order. The first two matter most, and the last three give you results the same day.

1. Take a front and side photo at eye level, in daylight, as your baseline.
2. Lower your body fat slowly: a small calorie deficit, protein at each meal, lifting two or more days a week.
3. Cut late salt and alcohol. Sleep 8 to 10 hours if you are a teen, or 7 or more as an adult.
4. Fix your neck posture: head level, ears over shoulders, screens raised.
5. If you can grow a beard, shape the neckline and keep it fuller along the jaw.
6. Get a haircut that suits your face shape.
7. Shoot photos with the camera at or a little above eye level and your chin slightly forward.
8. Retake your baseline photos every two to four weeks and compare them side by side.

How to lose face fat

How to get rid of a double chin

Body fat: the biggest lever for a visible jawline

Face fat tracks body fat. In a 2018 review, people could estimate body mass index from face photos alone with a correlation of 0.71. When body fat drops, the soft layer over the jaw and under the chin gets thinner. Then the jaw angle shows.

You cannot pick where fat comes off. Chewing and jaw drills do not burn the fat on your jaw. Trials on spot reduction show that training one area does not take fat from that area. Overall fat loss is the only non-medical way.

There is no single body fat number where a jawline appears. It depends on your bone and where you store fat. Track your photos rather than chasing a number.

Source: de Jager and colleagues, 2018: Facial adiposity, attractiveness, and health, a review (Frontiers in Psychology)

How neck posture changes your jawline

When your head drops forward, skin and fat under the jaw bunch up. The angle between jaw and neck gets softer. Hold your head level, with your ears over your shoulders, and the line under your jaw gets cleaner straight away.

Do chin tucks. Stand against a wall, keep your chin level, and slide your head straight back until it touches the wall. Hold 5 seconds, 10 times. It is a posture drill, not a fat burner. Raise your phone and screens so you are not looking down for hours.

Do jaw exercises work for a jawline?

Jaw exercises make chewing muscles stronger. They do not burn fat and they do not reshape bone. In a 1995 study, adults chewed a hard gum for an hour a day for 4 weeks. Their maximum bite force went up.

Bigger muscles are a different question. In a 2024 randomized trial, 58 adults chewed gum three times a day for 6 months. Their bite force rose, but there was no change in masseter thickness or jaw shape compared with the control group.

Heavy chewing also carries a risk. The US dental research institute (NIDCR) gives advice for people with jaw joint problems. It says to cut back on gum chewing and jaw clenching. If your jaw clicks with pain, aches or locks, stop and see a dentist.

Source: Jung and colleagues, 2024: Effects of gum chewing training on occlusal force, masseter thickness and mandibular shape, randomized trial (J Oral Rehabil)

Does chewing gum help your jawline?

Does mewing give you a jawline?

Mewing means holding your whole tongue flat against the roof of your mouth. Fans claim it reshapes your jaw over time. The American Association of Orthodontists warned against it in 2024. Its president said there is no scientific evidence that it reshapes the jawline.

The AAO also listed risks from chronic pressure: loose teeth, a changed bite, tooth wear, and speech problems. Pressing your tongue up can make the area under your chin look firmer in a photo. That is a pose, not a change in bone. For jaw or bite concerns, see an orthodontist.

Source: American Association of Orthodontists: AAO warns against popular mewing trend (January 2024)

Mewing: what it is and what the evidence says

The science behind mewing and jawline exercises

Why you should never try bonesmashing

Bonesmashing means hitting your face, often the jaw or cheekbones, with the idea that the bone will grow back bigger. It does not work, and it can hurt you. There is no medical evidence that hitting bone builds a better shape.

Bone that breaks heals by repairing the break, not by sculpting itself into a sharper jaw. Hitting your face risks fractures, broken or loose teeth, and nerve damage that leaves areas numb. It also risks bleeding under the skin and lasting asymmetry. In a 2026 study, oral and maxillofacial surgeons called bonesmashing a dangerous social media trend. Almost all of its content comes from young men. It found searches for the term up 5,000% in a year.

Did you hit your face and now have pain, numbness, a changed bite or swelling that stays? See a doctor or dentist.

Source: Grillo and colleagues, 2026: Dangerous trends on social media related to facial esthetics, looksmaxxing (J Stomatol Oral Maxillofac Surg)

What looksmaxxing is and which parts hold up

How to shape a beard for a sharper jawline

A beard can draw a jawline where your bone does not. The key is the neckline and the fade. Shave everything below a curved line, and keep length where you want width and angle.

1. Find your neckline: place one to two fingers above your Adam's apple and mark that point.
2. Draw an imaginary curve from that point back to just below each earlobe, following the jaw angle.
3. Shave or trim everything below that curve. Never trim the neckline up onto the jaw itself.
4. Keep the beard a bit longer along the jaw and chin, where you want the edge.
5. Fade the cheeks and sideburns shorter, so the widest point sits at the jaw.
6. Keep the cheek line low and natural. A high, hard cheek line makes the face look rounder.

Haircuts and contouring that make your jaw look sharper

Your haircut changes the proportions people read. If your face is round or wide, try shorter sides and more height on top. That makes the face look longer and the jaw more angular. If your face is long, avoid a lot of height and keep some width at the sides.

If you wear makeup, use a shade a little darker than your skin. Contour along the underside of the jaw bone. Blend it down onto the neck, not up onto the cheek. Add a touch of highlight on the chin. Check it in daylight, because indoor light hides harsh edges.

Haircuts for men by face shape

Find your face shape

Face shapes explained

Medical options for the jaw

If your jaw is set back or your bite is off, an orthodontist can assess you. Some people need braces, and some adults need jaw surgery to fix how the teeth and jaws meet. Those are medical decisions about function first.

Fillers along the jaw and chin, fat-reducing injections under the chin, and other cosmetic procedures exist for adults. Discuss them with a board-certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon, who can explain risks for your face.

Medical options for a double chin

Check your jawline score with Lookist

Lookist gives a jawline score out of 10 with a written note. It is one of 15 feature scores from a single front photo. Chin, cheekbones and facial harmony sit next to it. So you can see how your jaw fits the rest of your face.

Scan history lets you compare scans and scores as your body fat, posture or grooming changes. Use the same camera height and light for each scan. A low angle or a dropped head changes how the jaw reads.

Try the face rating tool

Check your facial symmetry