How to glow up: the tips with evidence behind them

A glow up is not a new face. The skull, the jaw, the cheekbones, the eye spacing and the nose are set, and no routine, exercise or supplement changes them in an adult. What changes is everything laid over the bone: the skin, the fat under it, the hair around it, the brows and beard that frame it, the teeth, and how the face is lit and photographed. That turns out to be most of what people react to. The research on facial attractiveness keeps finding the same cues: skin that is even in colour and texture, a face that is not carrying extra fat, signs of health and rest, and grooming. Most of those are workable.

Every lever below is tagged the same way the full rating tags it. If a tip promises to move something in the right-hand column, such as mewing for the jaw or exercises for the cheekbones, it is selling something. The mewing article goes through the most common one.

Order matters because some levers show in a day and some take months. Start the slow ones on day one so their clock is running, then stack the fast ones on top.

• Sleep first. In a controlled study, observers rated the same people as less healthy and more tired after a short night, with darker circles, hanging lids and paler skin. It is the cheapest lever there is and it shows within a week. The sleep and hydration article covers what counts.
• Sunscreen every morning. A randomised trial found less visible skin aging in daily users over several years. It will not show as an improvement next month; it stops the damage that undoes every other skin lever. See sunscreen, the cheapest upgrade.
• A retinoid at night. The best-studied topical for texture, fine lines and evenness. Controlled studies report change from about twelve weeks, and the first month is usually worse; start slowly, stop if skin becomes raw, and skip retinoids if you are pregnant, trying to conceive or breastfeeding. The retinoids article has the schedule.
• Body fat, slowly. Facial fat is one of the strongest cues observers use, for health as much as looks. A slow deficit shows under the chin first, in one to two months, and across the face in three to six. The body fat and facial definition article explains why the jaw appears when the fat goes.
• A haircut that fits your face shape. Same-day change, no evidence needed, and the one lever that reshapes the outline. Find your shape with the face shape detector, then use the hairstyle by face shape guide.
• Brows and beard. Tidying the brow and placing the beard neckline correctly change how the eyes and jaw read. The eyebrows, beard and the perceived jaw article shows where the lines go.
• Teeth. Whitening has good evidence for changing the colour, and smile perception follows. It can cause temporary sensitivity, and crowns and fillings do not whiten; a dentist can check first. See teeth whitening and smile perception.
• Hairline, if it is going. Minoxidil and finasteride have the evidence; everything else is weaker. Both are medication with side effects, finasteride is prescription-only, and the decision belongs with a doctor. The hairline article is the honest summary.
• Photos. Light, lens distance and angle move a face more than a month of routine does. Learn to take a fair photo before judging any of the above; the photo guide has the rules.

For men the biggest single lever is usually body fat, because it hides the jaw and the cheekbones that the rest of the face is built around. After that, the haircut: most men wear a cut that ignores their face shape, and fixing it is free. The beard is the third, and it can redraw the jaw: a well-placed neckline and a shape that fits the face can do for the lower face what a haircut does for the upper. Skin is the lever men skip most, and sunscreen plus a retinoid is the whole routine; nothing else has comparable evidence.

What not to spend on: jaw trainers, mewing and face yoga do not change bone in adults, and the forum ranking that sells them is covered in the looksmaxxing guide. The for men page lists the levers the full rating weights most for male faces.

For women the biggest levers are usually skin and sleep, because evenness and rest are what observers read first and makeup can only cover so much of either. Sunscreen and a retinoid do the long-term work; sleep does the short-term. Brows come next: brow shape frames the eyes more than any other feature, and small changes to the tail and the start move how open the eyes look. Hair follows, cut to the face shape rather than the trend.

Makeup is a real lever but a daily one, and it works best on skin that is already even. The eye type pages, such as doe eyes and siren eyes, explain which looks play up the eyes you have. The for women page lists the traits the full rating weights most for female faces.

A month is enough for the fast levers and too short for the slow ones. In four weeks, sleep, a haircut, brows, a beard neckline, teeth whitening and better photos will all show. The retinoid will be in its worst phase, sunscreen will not show at all, and body fat will have moved a little under the chin. Start everything on day one anyway, so the slow levers are running when the fast ones have done their part. The 30-day glow up plan lays it out week by week.

• Same wake time every day, and seven to nine hours of sleep.
• Broad-spectrum sunscreen every morning, on cloudy days too.
• A low-strength retinoid two or three nights a week, building up.
• A plain moisturiser; no ten-step routine.
• A slow calorie deficit if your face carries fat, with protein and training.
• A haircut chosen for your face shape, not a trend.
• Brows tidied below the tail only; beard neckline at the crease under the head.
• Whitening strips or a dentist, if your teeth read yellow in photos.
• A baseline photo in window light at eye level and arm's length or further.
• The same photo again after thirty and ninety days.

Generic lists treat every face the same, but the lever that matters most differs from face to face. One person's biggest gap is skin, another's is body fat under the chin, a third has everything workable in place and only the haircut is wrong. The fastest way to know which is to have your own photo read. The free tools on this site each read one trait on your device: face shape, symmetry, facial harmony and the eye area. The full rating reads the whole face.