Nasal flaring is controlled by a small muscle called the nasalis, which has two parts: one that compresses the nostrils and one that pulls them open. The alar portion of this muscle widens your nostrils when it contracts, and it can fire automatically during strong emotions, heavy breathing, or simply out of habit. Stopping it depends on what’s triggering it, whether that’s an involuntary response to anger, a breathing pattern, or a cosmetic concern about the resting width of your nostrils.
Why Your Nostrils Flare
Nostril flaring serves a basic biological purpose: pulling more air into your lungs. During exercise, stress, or any moment your body demands more oxygen, the alar portion of the nasalis muscle contracts to widen the nasal passages. This is completely normal and happens to everyone.
Emotions are a major trigger. Research from the University of California, Santa Barbara, identified flared nostrils as a core component of the universal “anger face,” a facial expression that evolved to signal physical formidability during conflict. Alongside a lowered brow and thinned lips, nostril flaring is part of an automatic threat display, similar to a frog puffing itself up. This means flaring during frustration, intense focus, or heated conversation isn’t a quirk. It’s hardwired. Anxiety and surprise can also trigger it.
For some people, nasal flaring becomes a repetitive habit that persists even when they’re calm and breathing normally. They may not notice it until someone points it out or they catch it in a mirror. This type of habitual flaring is different from emotional or respiratory flaring, and it responds well to behavioral techniques.
When Flaring Signals a Medical Problem
In infants and young children, persistent nasal flaring is a recognized sign of respiratory distress. If a child’s nostrils flare with every breath, especially alongside bluish discoloration of the lips, nail beds, or skin, that signals a serious breathing difficulty requiring emergency care. In adults, sudden onset of noticeable flaring at rest that wasn’t there before can also indicate an underlying respiratory issue like asthma exacerbation or pneumonia.
Behavioral Techniques for Habitual Flaring
If your nostrils flare out of habit rather than emotion or exertion, habit reversal training is one of the most effective approaches. This is a structured behavioral therapy originally developed for tics, hair pulling, and other repetitive behaviors, and it works well for any unconscious muscle movement.
The process has two main phases. First is awareness training: you learn to catch yourself flaring in real time. This might mean practicing in front of a mirror, asking a trusted person to point it out, or setting periodic reminders to check your facial muscles throughout the day. The goal is to move the behavior from unconscious to conscious. Many people find that simply becoming aware of the habit reduces its frequency significantly.
Second is competing response training, where you practice a replacement action that physically prevents the flaring. For nasal flaring, this could be gently pressing your lips together while breathing slowly through your nose, or lightly pressing the sides of your nostrils with your fingers for a moment to “reset” the muscle. The competing response should be something subtle enough to do anywhere, sustainable for at least a minute, and physically incompatible with the flaring motion. A therapist trained in habit reversal can help you design the right competing response for your specific pattern.
Breathing Exercises That Reduce Flaring
People who flare primarily during breathing, whether at rest or during activity, often benefit from retraining how they breathe. The Buteyko method is a structured approach that teaches slower, calmer nasal breathing through breath retention exercises.
A basic Buteyko exercise called the Control Pause works like this: sit upright, breathe normally for a few minutes, then after a relaxed exhale, gently pinch your nose closed and hold your breath. Wait until you feel the first natural urge to inhale (often signaled by a small diaphragm movement), then release and breathe normally for at least 10 seconds. Repeat several times. Over weeks of practice, this trains your body to tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide, which reduces the drive to over-breathe and the nostril widening that comes with it.
Research on breathing modes during high-intensity exercise found that nasal breathing reduced hyperventilation and was more metabolically efficient than mouth breathing. The same amount of physical work could be completed at a lower metabolic cost. However, exclusive nasal breathing during maximal exertion increased heart rate, suggesting greater cardiovascular strain. For everyday life and moderate activity, training yourself to breathe calmly through your nose without flaring is realistic. During intense exercise, some flaring is your body doing exactly what it should.
Botox for Nasal Flaring
For flaring caused by overactive nasalis muscles rather than structural anatomy, botulinum toxin injections can temporarily reduce the movement. A systematic review in the Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery found that small doses, typically 2 to 4 units per side injected into the alar portion of the nasalis muscle, reduced nostril flaring mobility by roughly half. In one study, alar flaring mobility dropped from about 10% to 5% after treatment.
The injection targets the muscle fibers that pull the nostrils outward and is placed at the center of each alar rim (the curved lower edge of each nostril). Some practitioners also treat the muscle that runs from the nose down to the upper lip if it contributes to the flaring. Results typically last 3 to 4 months before the muscle activity gradually returns, meaning repeat treatments are necessary to maintain the effect.
This option works best for people whose nostrils look normal at rest but flare dramatically during speech, smiling, or breathing. It won’t change the resting width or shape of the nostrils.
Surgical Options for Permanent Changes
When the concern is the resting width or shape of the nostrils rather than movement, surgery is the only permanent solution. The procedure is called an alarplasty, or alar base reduction, and it addresses the structural tissue rather than the muscle.
There are three basic techniques. An alar wedge excision removes a small ellipse of tissue from the crease where the nostril meets the cheek, reducing the vertical height and outward curve of the nostril. A nostril sill excision removes tissue from the floor of the nostril to narrow the distance between the nostrils. A combined approach does both. The specific technique depends on whether the issue is flaring (nostrils curving outward), a wide base (distance between nostrils), large nostril openings, or some combination.
Recovery is relatively quick compared to a full rhinoplasty. Redness and swelling typically subside within 1 to 2 weeks, and stitches come out after about a week. Full healing takes 1 to 3 months. Because the changes involve removing tissue, results are permanent.
Matching the Solution to the Cause
The right approach depends entirely on what type of flaring you’re dealing with. If your nostrils flare mainly during strong emotions, awareness and breathing techniques are the most practical starting point. If you flare constantly without realizing it, habit reversal training can break the cycle. If the muscle is simply overactive and behavioral approaches haven’t helped, Botox offers a temporary but effective reduction. And if your concern is the permanent shape of your nostrils at rest, alarplasty is the only option that changes the anatomy itself.
Many people combine approaches. Breathing retraining paired with awareness exercises, for example, addresses both the respiratory trigger and the habitual component at once. Starting with the least invasive option and escalating only if needed is a reasonable strategy, since many cases of bothersome flaring improve significantly with behavioral work alone.