Why Does One Side of My Face Have More Wrinkles Than the Other?

By S. C. Aris — about the author

Last updated: 24 July 2026

First, some reassurance: no face is symmetrical

Before hunting for a cause, it helps to know that facial asymmetry is the norm, not a flaw. Almost everyone has a slightly larger and a slightly smaller side, one eyebrow that sits a touch higher, and a dominant side they smile and squint with more. Because each side moves a little differently every time you talk, laugh and frown, the lines etch in at slightly different rates. So a modest difference between your two sides is expected and shared by practically everyone.

What people usually notice — and what this article is really about — is when the difference is marked: one cheek visibly more creased, one nasolabial fold clearly deeper, or crow's feet heavier on one eye. That kind of gap is rarely random. It almost always traces back to one or more forces that have been landing on one side far more than the other.

The six real causes of one-sided wrinkles

1. Sun through glass — the biggest and most overlooked cause

This is the one most people miss. Ultraviolet A (UVA) — the deeper-penetrating, ageing wavelength — passes straight through ordinary window glass, while UVB (the burning wavelength) is mostly blocked. So even fully clothed inside a car, the side of your face nearest the window is being aged by the sun through the glass, day after day, for years.

The most striking evidence is a single clinical photograph published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012. A 69-year-old man who had driven a delivery truck for 28 years showed dramatically more wrinkling, thickening and sun-damage on the left side of his face — his window side — than the right. The authors attributed it directly to chronic UVA exposure through the driver's-side window (Gordon & Brieva, NEJM, 2012). It's the clearest real-world demonstration that one-sided sun exposure produces one-sided ageing.

Why does this dominate? Because sun is the biggest single contributor to how visibly aged facial skin looks in the first place. In a large clinical study of Caucasian skin, researchers found that sun exposure accounted for the large majority of the visible signs of facial ageing — wrinkles, loss of firmness, uneven pigment and texture — especially after age 50 (Flament et al., Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol, 2013). If one side of your face gets even a little more of that exposure over decades, the difference compounds.

Which side? It depends on where you drive. In right-hand-traffic countries (the US, most of Europe) the driver sits on the left, so the left side of the face catches more window sun. In left-hand-traffic countries (the UK, Australia, Japan) it's reversed — the right side. A window seat you always take on a commute, a desk beside a sunny window, or a favourite chair in a conservatory can do the same thing.

2. Sleeping on the same side every night

If you're a dedicated side- or stomach-sleeper who always favours the same cheek, that cheek spends thousands of hours a year pressed and folded against a pillow. Over time those mechanical creases — "sleep wrinkles" — can etch in. In a 2016 review in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, plastic surgeons Anson, Kane and Lambros described how the face is compressed, sheared and stretched against the pillow during side and stomach sleeping, and how the resulting creases tend to run vertically or diagonally, cutting across the usual expression lines — often on one side only (Anson et al., Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 2016). We cover this in depth in are sleep wrinkles permanent?

Tell-tale sign: the heavier lines are on the cheek and near the corner of the eye/mouth on your preferred sleeping side, they look most obvious first thing in the morning, and they fade a little as the day goes on.

3. Your phone hand (and phone ear)

If you take most calls against the same ear, that side of the face gets repeated pressure, folding and warmth from the handset, plus the head-tilt posture you hold during a long call. Over years, that repeated one-sided compression can deepen the folds on that side.

4. Leaning your face on the same hand

The classic "thinking pose" — resting your cheek or jaw in one hand at a desk — presses and drags the skin of one side for hours a day. Because it's the same hand and the same spot every time, it preferentially deepens the nasolabial fold (the line running from nose to mouth) and the cheek on that side.

5. Chewing mostly on one side

Many people favour one side for chewing, often because of an old dental issue on the other. The chewing muscles on the favoured side get more of a workout and the lower-face movement pattern becomes lopsided, which can contribute to a slightly different line pattern and fullness between the two sides.

6. Natural asymmetry and your dominant expressions

Finally, the baseline asymmetry we started with. If you consistently raise one brow, squint more with one eye, or smirk to one side, those repeated movements lay down deeper dynamic lines on the more-used side. This is the "expression wrinkle" contribution — and unlike the others, it's driven by muscle movement rather than an external force.

How to tell which cause is yours — a diagnostic table

Most articles simply list the causes. The more useful question is: which one is doing it to you? Use the pattern of your own asymmetry to narrow it down. Match where your worse side is, and how the lines behave, to the most likely culprit and the fix.

Information-gain note: the last row matters most. Slow, gradual asymmetry that built over years is a cosmetic/lifestyle issue. Sudden one-sided facial changes — especially with weakness or an inability to move part of the face — are a medical red flag and need prompt review, not a serum.

A five-minute self-audit

1. Photograph both sides in even light. Turn your head so each cheek faces the camera in the same flat, indirect light. Comparing photos is far more objective than a mirror, where your brain "corrects" asymmetry.
2. Map your worse side to your car window. Which side do you drive on, and which cheek is worse? If they match, sun-through-glass is high on your list.
3. Note your default sleep position. Which cheek hits the pillow? Do the lines look worst in the morning?
4. Watch your daytime habits for a day. Which hand do you lean on? Which ear takes calls? Which side do you chew on? Small, unconscious, repeated — those are the ones that matter.
5. Move your face in the mirror. If a line only deepens when you make an expression and vanishes at rest, it's a dynamic expression line rather than accumulated surface damage.

What actually helps even out how your skin looks

The most powerful move is removing the one-sided force: wear broad-spectrum SPF every day (including for driving), consider a UV-blocking window film, sleep on your back with a silk pillowcase, and break the phone-and-hand habits you spotted in the audit. Prevention is far easier than catching a side back up once lines are established.

Alongside that, the right topical support can help both sides look smoother and more even, and give the more-damaged side more help where it needs it. You can't undo years of accumulated sun exposure from a jar, but you can support the appearance of firmer, more resilient, more even-toned skin — and keep the surface hydrated so lines look softer. Several plant lipids studied in cosmetic research are relevant here.

Bakuchiol, a gentle plant alternative to retinol, matched retinol for the look of wrinkles and pigmentation with less irritation in a 2019 randomised trial, and — importantly for sun-side damage — it's photostable, so it can be used morning and night without adding sun sensitivity; gene-expression studies show it boosts collagen types I, III and IV (Dhaliwal et al., Br J Dermatol, 2019). Coriander seed has been studied for inhibiting the collagenase and elastase enzymes that break down collagen and elastin, helping defend the firmness you still have (Scientific Reports, 2022). Cosmetic argan is one of the few plant lipids with a randomised human trial behind it: a 2015 study found it improved skin elasticity in postmenopausal women (Boucetta et al., Clin Interv Aging, 2015). Pomegranate seed stimulates keratinocyte renewal in the epidermis, supporting a smoother-looking, more even surface (Aslam et al., J Ethnopharmacol, 2006), and rosehip seed — a natural source of trans-retinoic acid, sometimes called "natural tretinoin" — rounds out the renewal story, with small studies suggesting modest improvement in the look of wrinkles.

Related reading

• Are sleep wrinkles permanent? How to prevent sleep lines
• The anti-aging myth: why your serum evaporates before it works
• What is the best anti-aging serum for mature skin?
• Rosehip vs retinol for ageing skin: a scientific comparison
• Crow's feet: what they are and how to treat them