I am shallow.
Yup, you read that right, and I’m not sorry.
Here’s the thing: everyone is shallow whether they admit it or not. I’m just verbalizing it.
See, evolution has wired us to subconsciously look for certain traits in the opposite sex to choose the healthiest mate for our offspring.
Healthy people want to f*ck other healthy people.
Sorry, not sorry.
If you’ve spent any time on my website, you’ve probably seen this:
Becoming attractive is as simple as developing the following:
Normal body fat percentage (sub-15% for men, sub-22% for women)
Figure to enhance secondary sex characteristics (v-taper for men, hourglass figure for women)
Positive health indicators (thick hair, clear skin, full lips, etc.)
All of this is within your control.
So this week, I'm bringing in two of my good friends, BowTiedFighter and Marcel to tell their glow-up stories and teach you about building a jawline.
You can read my glow-up story here:
Marcel’s post will go out on Thursday - stay ‘tooned because it’s great.
Without further ado - here’s Fighter:
BowTiedFighter
“Oh man he’s sucha Chad!!”
“Look at him! He’s a Chad!” (READ BOTH with an inflection)
Right now, maybe you are a Melvin
But you want to become a Chad
First off, Chad is a mindset. Part of embodying that mindset though is having the looks to match it.
Your physiognomy influences the way people perceive you & interact with you.
Your jawline is part of that.
Many men with a weak jawline fret because they believe it is stuck like that.
In reality? This is what we call: COPE
I can say this because, I too once had a weak jawline.
No sharpness, no definition, absolutely no SAUCE.
I did not set out specifically to get a nice jawline though, it was a byproduct of my lifestyle & daily habits.
How did I go from the top photo, to the bottom photo?
Let’s chew on that:
In this post we are going to cover what I consider to be the most important factors to building the jawline of your dreams:
Body Fat %
Chewing
Breathing Modality
There are other things that can go into it, like mewing for example.
But I’m not including that in this post. Why?
Because I am tongue tied.
I personally can not mew very well due to this so it has been a non factor to my jawline progress.
It is also important to note that while mewing is effective to improve breathing health the greatest benefits of mewing are present in childhood & early teen years.
If you mew & it works for you, great. I love that for you & am thankful you have seen results.
So no need to hit me with the “akshully you can mew too!”
I am very aware of this my brother.
Body Fat %
I choose this one first because it is bar none the most important factor.
You can do all the stuff we will talk about in this post to a T & still not be able to see your jawline if you have excess body fat.
Believe it or not, I used to be fat.
I was a Division One wrestler, got a hip surgery & then gained 40+ pounds.
I went from 135 lbs up to about 185 lbs at my heaviest on a 5’6 frame.
Obviously, this increased my BF% SIGNIFICANTLY!
This isn’t a straight on photo but you can see here, my jawline is in shambles, nonexistent, covered by fat on my face:
Sheeeeesh…. Melvin…
Noticeable change started by losing weight.
I am currently 145 lbs & my BF% is about 10 or 11% I’d estimate. Not perfect, not sub double digits, but enough to make me not be FAT FACE FIGHTER (FFF).
Lose your excess body fat. Not just for your jawline, but for your entire quality of life.
Trust me my Brother.
Breathing Modality
If you follow my account, you know I take a very loud anti-mouth breathing stance.
I NEED YOU TO BREATHE NASALLY!
The way you breathe affects your facial structure. It is no coincidence that as I started to study & practice breathing, my facial structure started to change.
Mouth breathing not only affects facial structure it also is a cause of many ailments that modern humans suffer from: asthma, ADHD, snoring, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer & even alzheimer’s/dementia!
When you breathe through your mouth, you are altering the shape of your airways.
This happens because of the way the mouth is designed. The back of the throat is lined with flabby soft tissue.
When inhaling, this tissue flexes inward which creates less space in airways over time & makes breathing more difficult.
As you mouth breathe consistently, you are led to mouth breathe even more consistently.
Mouth breathing is inefficient & leads to over breathing. Modern humans have narrow airways due to our modern facial structure.
A small mouth has a hard time supporting wide & open airways.
Over the course of time, our diet has shifted which is what has caused the shrinking of our mouths & faces.
If you want to read more about Over Breathing/Mouth Breathing (discusses bone loss due to poor breathing), I have a thread for you here to read:
Chewing
The part you all have been waiting for.
The human diet has changed drastically over the course of time.
Our ancestors ate foods that required them to chew A LOT. This worked the muscles in their jaws & face extensively. Which allowed for a fuller facial structure, more suited to hold WIDE & OPEN airways.
This is why our ancestors breathed primarily through their noses.
Now?
The modern diet consists of an overwhelming amount of soft processed food. Modern humans can now go their entire lives without eating real food.
Soft food requires less chewing which means our jaws get less work.
How do we alleviate that?
Well, we can start by shifting our diets to foods that require more chewing. Avoid processed food (wow, mind blowing), eat more meat that requires more effort to chew.
BUT you can also supplement with:
Mastic gum. MASTIC GUM BABY!
Mastic gum is a supplemental tool & should be treated as such.
“Fighter, all I need to do is chew this gum & I can get a CHAD jawline right!?”
Not exactly.
Mastic gum works best when used in conjunction with the above two points. When I do breathing consults with people I start them on mastic gum as a SUPPLEMENT to improve their overall breathing ability.
FIRST & FOREMOST this is how you should think about using the gum.
Mastic Gum is made from tree sap resin from the Mastic Tree (Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia) that grows on the island Chios.
It is strenuous to chew and gives the jaw a great workout when used properly.
There are also risks to mastic gum chewing that anyone interested in using needs to be aware of.
The Jungle’s resident dentist BowTied Gator DDS has a GREAT thread highlighting mastic gum & its potential risks from an oral health perspective.
You can & SHOULD read it here:
OVER CHEWING IS A SERIOUS RISK! Many people start using mastic gum & chew their way into a date with TMJ. If your jaw HURTS - STOP!
Personally, I chew for 30 minutes after each meal I eat. Totaling no more than an hour a day. I feel anything past this is kind of unnecessary.
REMEMBER: No amount of mastic gum chewing is going to make up for a high BF%. FIX THAT FIRST!
BONUS: Beard Styling to Accent Jawline
“If you have a nice jawline you don’t need a beard” “Beards are cope for bad facial structure” - 1000’s of Greek PFP accounts on Twitter
Yeah, they’re not wrong. You don’t need one anymore.
But my dogs, let’s be for real, some people just got a face that’s meant for a beard.
I do not need a beard, but I personally prefer having one. So I trim mine in a way that doesn’t shadow my jawline.
We are gonna keep this part short & sweet.
I wanted to include a video tutorial of this but Substack doesn’t let me post videos without making them a YouTube link. So we work with what we got, ya dig?
Having a massive biker style beard will obviously… hide your jawline. So I keep mine short, closer to the skin. It’s a clean look & still gives the added sauce of having a beard.
Here’s how I line mine up (images first):
So what I am pointing out here is the line I follow. You grow extra hair on your neck? We need to get rid of that.
I shave at an angle underneath that jawline in a STRAIGHT LINE down to my Adam’s apple. I stop there & then do the other side.
After both lines are done, I clean up the little arc under the chin to get rid of any neckbeard status (NO FEDORAS BOYS)
After this, the rest of the beard is up to you.
Use an attachment to keep it closer to the skin (the actual meat of the beard).
PRO TIP: use an attachment to shave the mustache line (so you have a line of skin above your upper lip).
Mustaches always look better when they aren’t scraggly & hanging over your lip. You don’t want to be eating your own hairs.
But if you want your jawline to be visible you HAVE to handle those neck hairs & draw that line with your shaver yo, trust me on this one.
TL:DR
1.) Get your BF% down
2.) Nasal Breathing ONLY
3.) Chew MORE, within reason
Thanks for following along, I dropped this for YOU.
I want you to go from Melvin, to CHAD!!!!
In reality, I want you to set out not to get a jawline, but to improve your health from a holistic level.
Lowering your BF% increases your quality of life & ability to be the man you are meant to be.
Nasally breathing improves your ability to focus, improves your bodys ability function, improves your metabolic health, decreases your risk for many ailments & provides you IMMENSE energy.
Chewing more improves your airway health & ability to breathe.
This is the way my brothers.
I’m Fighter, you can follow me on Twitter here: BowTiedFighter
You can learn introductory breathwork & mindfulness from me directly here: Fighter Consult Call
And you can subscribe to my newsletter on breathing and holistic health here.
STAY BLESSED & Keep ya nose to the grindstone!
Any recommendation on a good mastic gum brand?