Bodily Oddities

Flaring your nostrils

Also called: Nostril flaring · Alar flaring

Widening the nostrils on purpose. No study has counted how many people can do it on command. It also happens on its own during hard breathing and in strong emotion such as anger.

Muscle Trick Voluntary Try it Learnable Party trick

How common

No formal count No study has counted how many people can do it on command. The often-repeated 30% has no study behind it.

Can you do this?

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 mainly the work of the alar part.

Everyone has the muscle. It contracts on its own during hard breathing to open the airway a little wider3. It also fires in strong emotion such as anger, which is why a flared nostril reads as an emotion signal4. In babies and small children, flaring at rest is a sign that breathing is hard work2.

Flaring on command, with no breath or emotion behind it, is a separate skill. The muscle is already wired to the facial nerve. What is missing is the habit of firing it alone.

How common it is

No formal study has measured how many people can flare their nostrils on command. The often-repeated 30% figure is a rough, informally sourced estimate rather than the result of a designed survey. What is well documented is the reflex version: the nasalis muscle contracts automatically during hard breathing3, and flaring at rest in babies is a recognised, measurable sign of breathing effort2. Learning the trick on command is a separate skill from that automatic reflex.

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.

Is it a problem?

No. Flaring your nostrils on purpose is a harmless party trick with no health effect. It does not harm the nose. While you hold it, air flows through the nose a little more easily3. Automatic flaring is different. In babies and small children, nostrils flaring at rest, without exercise or crying, is a recognised sign that breathing is hard work. See a doctor if it keeps happening with no clear cause2.

Sources and further material

  1. Wikipedia Nasalis muscle The muscle with a part that opens the nostril and a part that narrows it.
  2. medlineplus.gov Nasal flaring MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia Seen mostly in infants and young children. Often a sign of trouble breathing.
  3. PubMed Alae nasi activation and nasal resistance in healthy subjects Strohl, O'Cain and Slutsky, 1982 17 healthy subjects. Voluntary flaring cut nasal resistance by 29%. Breathing extra CO2 made the muscle fire on its own and cut resistance by 23%.
  4. kenhub.com Nasalis muscle Jana Vasković, Kenhub Flaring happens with each breath, is more visible in deep breathing, and is stronger in emotional states such as anger.

Updated , first published .

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