You’ve probably heard at some point in your life – either from a well-meaning trivia fan or a malevolent self-esteem hunter – that our ears and noses are the only two body parts that never stop growing.
To be fair, it kind of seems like it’s true, right? If you imagine an old person –perhaps the old guy from Up – they definitely have noticeable facial appendages. But is that just confirmation bias? Are we all doomed to eventually be absorbed by our noses and ears?
Well, the truth depends on what you define as “growing.”
Our ears DO get bigger as we age
Let’s face it: you’ve probably looked at an elderly person or two before and thought “Well, it certainly looks like your ears and nose carry on growing forever.” And before any oldies come at us for that, it’s actually borne out by the data, too: one 1995 study – admirably titled “Why do old men have big ears?” – found that past the age of 30, our ears get bigger by approximately 0.22 millimeters (0.009 inches) per year.
Another study, this one from 1997 (evidently the ‘90s were something of a slow decade in science) found the same: that you can estimate a person’s age fairly accurately by measuring their ear circumference. The figures were very similar, too, with the later analysis putting the average annual ear growth at 1.96 mm (0.077 inches).
Summing up the whole shebang, a 1999 study out of Italy that used electromagnetic digitizers to map facial characteristics in a few hundred people of various ages confirmed what we all suspected: the bigger the ears, the older the bearer.
Oh – and despite what they had assumed back in ’95, that’s true for the ladies, too. Sorry, grammy.
So do our noses
Finding similar data on nose length throughout life is a little more difficult – but by no means impossible. Again, the figures do seem to confirm the common idea that our mid-facial appendage continues to get larger throughout life: one 2002 study, which used data from 2,500 individuals from central Europe aged between zero and 97, even managed to compile growth charts showing exactly where you fall on the nasal distribution for your age.
It’s not just nasal length and height that’s increasing, either (and yes, those are different measurements for a nose). A 2011 study from researchers at the University of Milan found that the total surface area of our noses increases throughout our lives, too – by the time we’re 65-80 years old, they concluded, there’s about 15 percent more nose on our face than when we’re 18-30.
However…
So, you may think, it seems pretty cut-and-dry: our noses and ears do get bigger with age; we have the data to show it. But all is not exactly as it seems.
What do we mean? Well, the key is in the sneaky phrasing: our ears and noses do get bigger as we age… but the question is whether they continue growing. And to that, the answer is (probably) no.
You see, by the age of about 20, we’re about as big as we’re going to get, skeletally speaking. Our bones don’t tend to grow past this point – not even those in our ears and noses (shout out to our pelvises and skulls which actually do continue to grow a little bit, but by such a small amount that it’s barely worth mentioning.)
Our muscles, skin, and cartilage are a different story, however. They continue to change throughout our lives – getting worn down by time, stretched by weight gain or loss, thinned out by pregnancy hormones, or even just impacted by all the random injuries we accrue over the years.
“So, while many complain their noses have gotten larger with age, this is not the case,” explained Ali Sajjadian, a triple board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in rhinoplasty – that is, nose jobs – in a 2022 blog post.
“The skin and structures of the nose lose strength with age, resulting in a nose that stretches out and sags downward,” he wrote. “The glands within the nose skin, especially at the tip, may enlarge, causing a wider, heavier nose appearance. While there is debate if the cartilage itself grows, it can look that way.”
The same is true of our ears. As the cartilage that makes up much of the structure of the external organ breaks down, it can no longer provide the support to our skin that it used to. It may look like our ears are continuing to grow, but what’s actually happening is more of a change in shape than size.
Compound that with other age-related changes to the facial structure – a looser jawline, for example, or thinner lips – and it all adds up to a definite impression of ever-growing facial features.
Can I stop my ears and nose getting bigger?
So, perhaps the knowledge that this ear and nose technically-not-growth happens to us all isn’t all that comforting to you. Perhaps you want to avoid ending up looking like Dumbo when you’re 94. Is there anything you can do to stop the slow march of time?
Unfortunately, outside of undergoing cosmetic surgery, the answer currently is “no, not really.” As depressing as you may find your drooping nose and ears, there’s no escaping the fundamental forces of nature.
Oh – we don’t mean that figuratively, by the way. See, one of the biggest culprits in this otorhinological tragedy? Gravity.
“Gravity will have the same effect on the nose as it does on facial skin around the eyes, cheeks, and jowls,” wrote Sajjadian. So “the illusion of a more prominent nose results from drooping over time.”
The same force does no favors for our ears, either – especially if we’re given to wearing heavy earrings. So stash the hoops for now – and if all else fails, take heart in this: if you’ve big ears, people are more likely to think you look smart and friendly.
And if you have a big nose… well, there’s good news there, too.
All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.
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