Bodily Oddities

Flaring your nostrils

Also called: Nostril flaring · Alar flaring

Widening the nostrils on purpose. About 30% of people can do it on command. Everyone does it without thinking during hard breathing and strong emotion.

Muscle Trick Voluntary
Try it Learnable Party trick

How common

~30% on command Common · 10–50% The muscle works in everyone during deep breathing.

Can you do this?

These are answers from visitors, not a study.

How it works

The nostrils are shaped by the nasalis muscle, which lies over the side of the nose. It has two parts. The transverse part squeezes the nostril narrower. The alar part pulls the rim of the nostril down and outward, which makes it wider1. Flaring is the alar part working alone.

Everyone has the muscle and everyone uses it. It contracts on its own during hard breathing to open the airway a little wider2. It also fires during anger, fear, and disgust, which is why a flared nostril reads as an emotion signal. In babies and small children, flaring at rest is a sign that breathing is hard work2.

About 30% of people can flare on command, with no breath or emotion behind it1. The rest can usually learn. The muscle is already wired to the facial nerve. What is missing is the habit of firing it alone.

Try it

  1. Sit in front of a mirror and watch your nose.
  2. Take a sharp, deep sniff in. The nostrils should widen for a moment.
  3. Now try to make the same widening without the sniff. Hold your breath and push the sides of the nose outward.
  4. If nothing moves, try a hard grimace or an angry face. Notice which parts of the nose move.
  5. Practise a few times a day. Most people get some control within a couple of weeks.

Sources and further material

  1. Encyclopedia Nasalis muscle The muscle with a part that opens the nostril and a part that narrows it.
  2. Encyclopedia Nasal flaring Automatic flaring as a sign of breathing effort.
  3. Video Nostril flaring demonstration YouTube search.
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