Chin, jaw and cheeks
The cleft chin, the strong jaw, high cheekbones and the double chin. 6 face guides on EveryFaceShape so far.
The lower face is shaped by the jaw, the chin and the cheeks. Jaws may be broad and angular, narrow and tapered, or softly rounded; chins may be pointed, broad or cleft; cheekbones may be high and prominent or set lower. These bones set most of a face's outline. All of these forms are normal and found among people everywhere.
Bone and muscle
The jaw is the mandible, the only movable bone of the skull. Its angle below each ear, the gonial angle, makes a jaw look square or round, helped by the masseter, the chewing muscle over it. Humans are the only living animals with a true bony chin. The cheekbones are the zygomatic bones, which form the lower outer rim of each eye socket.
Dimples, clefts and fullness
A cleft chin has a dimple or Y-shaped line where the two halves of the jaw or the chin muscle did not fully fuse. It is often called a dominant trait, but its inheritance is not simple. A double chin, a fold of soft tissue under the jaw, can come with weight, age or simply inherited build. Barbers shape beards and necklines around the jaw.
Famous jaw and cheeks face guides
Still to be written: Jaw, Cheek.
Further reading
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Chin: User:Tizio cropped the original to show just the cleft chin, to be sho, Public domain, source
- Zygomatic bone: Anatomography, CC BY-SA 2.1 jp, source
- Chinstrap beard: B. D. Maxham, Public domain, source