What is thumb pulling?
Thumb pulling is the practice of pressing your palate to enhance your face. Your palate is the roof of your mouth. With thumb pulling, you press upward on the palate with your thumbs to enhance your jaw and pull your upper jaw forward, in theory giving you “better” bone structure. It’s part of the looksmaxxing and orthotropics trends, which is where people try to change their facial structure through facial massaging and regular exercises. It’s hard to say where the practice of thumb pulling began, but it likely started with the rise of looksmaxxing, which began in the mid-2010s.
How do you do thumb pulling?
Press your thumbs up on the roof of your mouth for 60 seconds at a time. According to looksmaxxing influencers, all you need to do is place both thumbs in your mouth, then gently but firmly press upward on the roof of your mouth while breathing through your nose and tucking your chin toward your chest. They say to do it for 4 sets, 1 minute each, 3 times a day: morning, noon, and night. That’s how you perform the exercise, but we can’t actually recommend you do it. It’s probably nothing to worry about if you only do it once or twice a week, but regular thumb pulling might negatively affect your facial structure, eventually requiring corrective surgery.
What does thumb pulling do?
Thumb pulling is said to make your face wider and more attractive. Specifically, it’s said to put pressure on the sutures, or seams, in your skull, particularly the suture at the top of your mouth. Supposedly, this “loosens” the connective tissue in your face and makes the bones more “malleable” while sculpting your face to become wider, more square, and as a result, more attractive. That sounds interesting, but is it true? The whole idea comes from something called joint suture theory—an unproven theory that states that cranial bone growth happens at the “sutures” of your skull, and by applying pressure on those sutures, you can manipulate that growth.
Does thumb pulling work?
No, there’s no scientific evidence that thumb pulling works. Looksmaxxing and orthotropics are trendy practices full of sketchy science that “looksfluencers” say is the best way to improve your facial features. But here’s the thing: basically none of the exercises involved in looksmaxxing—like mewing, “zygo pushing,” hunter eye exercises, and others—are proven to work. In fact, studies show that doing them on the regular can have negative effects on your facial structure that may require corrective procedures like surgery or orthodontics to fix. So if you’re looking to change your face structure, looksmaxxing exercises like thumb pulling can actually be counterproductive and pretty costly down the line.
Better Ways to Enhance Your Face
Try gua sha to shape your face in a non-invasive way. Gua sha is a holistic East Asian medicine that involves scraping a smooth object, like a jade scraper, across your face. Practitioners say that it helps increase circulation and relieve pain. Some say that it can also help sculpt your face by relaxing the muscles, but like looksmaxxing, this is unproven. Still, it’s generally seen as gentler and less risky than things like thumb pulling. To do gua sha, slowly scrape your gua sha tool upward along your jawline, across your cheeks and forehead, and out from your eyes for 10 minutes each day. For more alternatives to looksmaxxing techniques, check out our article on mewing alternatives.
Use makeup like bronzer and highlighter to change the look of your face. Makeup can make you look more masculine and get the look you want. For more pronounced cheekbones, for example, makeup artist Yuka Arora recommends just a simple bronzer application. She says to “try out a bronzer that’s just a few shades darker than your skin tone,” then brush it onto the hollows of your cheeks to make them look slimmer while accentuating your cheekbones and jawline. Apply your bronzer with a fluffy makeup brush and use light, gentle strokes. Start with just a little, and build it up until you’re satisfied with the look. Makeup artist Christin Birckhead says that you can add to the effect by using a brush to apply a light stroke of highlighter on the tops of the cheekbones.
Diet and exercise to lose fat in your face and make it more sculpted. Studies show that diet and exercise are two of the most effective ways to drop fat and alter the look of your face. Keep in mind, though, that you can’t pick and choose where on your body you burn fat from. To slim your face and make its structure more apparent, aim for 30 minutes of moderate exercise, like speed walking, per day. Also focus on these dietary goals: Eat more fruits and veggies, aiming for at least 3 servings of each per day. Trade refined grains like white rice and white bread for whole grains. Ditch foods that have added fats and sugars, like sodas and sweets. Ditch processed, packaged foods, and instead reach for fresh foods as much as possible. Aim for a calorie deficit—when you burn more calories than you eat each day.
Consider cosmetic surgery for a more permanent solution. Surgical procedures like cheek implants can permanently change the structure of your face, making it wider, narrower, or more dramatic, depending on your wants. Cheek implants in particular average about $9,000 and are a fairly common and safe procedure, but of course, any facial surgery comes with risks. There are many different kinds of cosmetic and plastic surgeries that can add shape to your face, remove fat, and alter your appearance. Which kind is right for you depends on your aesthetic goals. For more info, check out our Expert Q&A with plastic surgeon JoAnna Nguyen, MD.
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