Nose shapes, width and height
Wide nose: how to measure it, and why noses differ in width
A wide nose is broad at the base: the distance across the nostril wings is large for the face, and usually more than the gap between the inner corners of your eyes. The bridge above it can be high or low, straight or curved, so width combines with every other shape. Nose width is one of the ways noses vary most around the world, and research links it partly to the climates people's ancestors lived in.
What is a wide nose?
Bridge The top line, brow to tip
Any height or line, and often a little broader from the front than on a slim nose.
Tip Its direction and fullness
Usually average to full, set between nostril wings that reach out past it.
Base Across the nostril wings
Wide: across the nostril wings, wider than the gap between the inner corners of the eyes.
Defines the shape
Does your nose look wider in selfies?
Yes. A phone held at arm's length sits close to your face, and a close lens enlarges whatever is nearest to it, which is the nose. A 2018 study modeled the effect: at about 30 cm, a selfie made the nose look around 30% wider for men and 29% for women than an undistorted view, while a portrait from about 1.5 m showed essentially no difference (Ward et al., 2018).
So before you decide your nose is wide, check it in a mirror, or in a photo taken by someone else from a few steps away with the camera at nose height.
How to measure your nose width
Width is a front-view trait you can measure. Face the mirror square on, at eye level, with your face relaxed and your mouth closed.
The pencil check
The view that matters most- Hold a pencil straight up from the inner corner of one eye: your nostril wing reaches past it.
- Repeat on the other side: the base spans more than the space between your eyes.
- The nostril wings are full and rounded, curving out from the tip.
- The base still looks broad when your face is completely relaxed.
The wing from the side
- The nostril wing is large and rounded from the side, with a clear curve where it meets the cheek.
- Your profile may look average, because width barely shows from the side.
Why some noses are wider: what the climate research says
One job of the nose is to warm the air you breathe in and load it with moisture before it reaches the lungs (Zaidi et al., 2017). That led scientists to ask whether nose width tracks climate.
A 2017 study in PLOS Genetics measured noses from 3D face scans of people with West African, South Asian, East Asian and Northern European ancestry. The width of the nostrils was linked to temperature and to absolute humidity, the amount of water the air holds: on average, people from warm, humid climates had wider nostrils, and people from cold, dry climates narrower ones (Zaidi et al., 2017).
The authors were careful about what that means. The climate signal was not very strong, they called it a simplified story of a complex history, and they suggested other forces, such as preferences in choosing partners, may have played a part. It describes populations over thousands of years, not any one person.
How much nose width varies
Width varies a great deal between people and between populations. In a study that measured the faces of 1,470 young adults from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa, nose width and height contrasted sharply between groups, and noses were markedly wider on average in the Asian and African groups than in the North American white reference used for comparison (Farkas et al., 2005).
Averages hide a lot of overlap. Nose shape varies within every population as well as between them (Zaidi et al., 2017), so your width describes your face, not your background.
Width also changes with expression: a smile or a deep breath spreads the nostril wings for a moment, which is why the measurements above are taken with the face at rest.
Wide, bulbous, Nubian or flat?
Wings or tip?
If the roundest, widest part of your nose is the tip rather than the wings, the bulbous nose guide has the two-measurement check.
Length and flare
A Nubian nose is a wide base on a long bridge, with full, flared nostril wings. A wide nose can be any length, with wings that sit closer in; if yours is also long and the wings curve well out, the Nubian guide fits better.
Width is not height
Flat describes how low the bridge sits in profile, not how wide the base is; the flat nose guide shows how to tell the two apart.
Sizing frames for a wide bridge
- Saddle bridgeSuits this shape
- Keyhole bridge
- Adjustable pads
- Low bridge fit
Match the bridge size
A wide nose often has a broader bridge too, and the frame bridge needs to match it. A frame bridge that is too narrow pinches, leaves red marks, and perches the lenses high above your eyes.
Read the numbers on the arm
The bridge width is the middle number printed inside the frame arm (in 52-20-145, it is 20); try sizes up from your current pair. Pick frame width by your face at the temples; the bridge size printed on the arm matters more for comfort.
Spread the weight
Saddle bridges spread the weight evenly across the top of the nose, which is comfortable on a broad bridge. With adjustable pads, an optician can set them wider apart.
Optional contour for a broad base
Contouring a wide nose is optional, and it is about definition. Soft shade beside the nostril wings makes the base read narrower in photos; a line of light on the bridge alone adds shape without touching the width.
Beside the wings
A soft shade on the outer curve of each nostril wing, blended out onto the cheek, and straight lines down the sides of the bridge, set a little inside its edges.
A slim center line
A slim, straight line of highlight on the bridge, which draws attention to the middle of the nose.
- Shade down the sides of the bridge, a little inside its natural edges, keeping the two lines parallel.
- Sweep a little shade around the outer curve of each nostril wing, then blend it outward onto the cheek so no line shows.
- Finish with a slim stroke of light along the middle of the bridge, ending at the tip.
- Check from the front and from a three-quarter angle, and soften anything that shows as a stripe.
Watch for
- A contour shade grayer than your skin can look ashy; match your undertone and go two shades deeper.
- A highlight that widens at the tip: it spreads the light across the base.
Measure your nose width from a selfie
Width is something the nose shape detector can read entirely from a selfie. It measures the distance across your nostril wings against the gap between your inner eye corners: wider than 1.15 times that gap reads wide, and wide with wings that flare out or a long nose reads Nubian. For a fair reading, hold the phone as far away as you can, or have someone take the photo from a few steps away, square on.
Frequently asked questions
How wide is a wide nose?
A common rule of thumb compares the base of the nose with the gap between the inner eye corners: about equal is average, and clearly wider reads wide. There is no single cutoff that everyone uses.
Are wide nostrils the same as a wide nose?
Not quite. A wide nose is wide across the nostril wings. Wide nostrils, the openings themselves, often come with it, but a nose can have a broad base and fairly small openings.
Does nose width change over time?
Slowly. Noses keep growing through adult life, as the button nose guide explains, so the base can measure a little wider in later decades; day to day, swelling from a cold or an allergy can broaden it for a while.
