Nobody comes to a mirror looking for bunny lines. They turn up in a photograph. You are laughing, the nose is scrunched, and there are three or four short diagonal creases running up and out across the bridge that you are fairly sure were not there five years ago.
The name is unserious and the anatomy is not. These lines are the same phenomenon as crow's feet and frown lines, produced by a different muscle in a smaller area, and they follow exactly the same course from dynamic to static. Understanding that course is most of what you need, because it determines what is worth doing and when.
What a bunny line actually is
Sitting across the bridge of the nose is the nasalis muscle. Its transverse part runs from the side of the nose up over the bridge and meets its partner from the other side in a thin sheet of connective tissue. When it contracts it compresses the nose and pulls the skin over the bridge upwards and inwards. That is the scrunch.
Skin folded repeatedly in the same direction eventually keeps some of the fold. In young skin the collagen and elastin network pulls the surface flat again the moment the muscle relaxes. As that network degrades, through time and far more through cumulative ultraviolet exposure, the recovery becomes slower and then incomplete. A line that was only visible during an expression becomes faintly visible at rest.
The sequence matters because it explains the timing of every intervention. A dynamic line is a muscle problem. A static line is a skin problem that a muscle created. Treating the muscle after the line has set will soften it but will not remove it, which is the single biggest cause of disappointment with this treatment.
Dynamic first, static later. Everything about what works and when follows from that one sequence.
Why men are asking about them now
Three things have converged. The first is the front-facing camera, which shows men their own faces mid-expression far more often than any previous generation saw theirs. Bunny lines are almost invisible in a mirror, because you do not scrunch your nose at yourself, and obvious in a video call.
The second is that men have historically had less sun protection applied to the central face over a lifetime, which is the exact area involved. Sunscreen use among UK men remains lower than among women, and the nose is the most exposed structure on the face.
The third is that men squint more in daylight. Sunglasses use is inconsistent, and squinting recruits the nasalis alongside the muscles around the eye. If you drive into low sun without sunglasses five days a week, you are performing the exercise that creates the line several hundred times a day.
What actually works without a clinic
The list is short and the first item does most of the work.
- Stop squinting. Sunglasses that fit and get worn, and an up to date prescription if you need one. Uncorrected long sight and astigmatism produce constant low-level squinting that people stop noticing they are doing.
- Broad spectrum sunscreen, applied to the nose properly. The bridge is the single most reliably missed part of the face, and ultraviolet exposure is the largest modifiable contributor to how quickly skin loses the ability to recover from folding. Our explainer on what an SPF number actually means covers the labelling.
- A retinoid at night, over months. Topical retinoids have the strongest dermatological evidence of any over-the-counter category for fine lines and skin quality. They will not stop the muscle, and they work on the skin's capacity to recover rather than on the fold itself. See retinoids explained for how to start without wrecking your barrier.
- Do not buy a device that promises to relax the muscle. Nothing sold for home use has been shown to reduce nasalis activity, and the marketing in this category is some of the loosest in grooming.
What is missing from that list is anything that removes an established line without a practitioner. Nothing available in a bottle does that, whatever the packaging suggests.
What is done in clinic
The clinical treatment is botulinum toxin type A, placed in very small quantities into the transverse nasalis on each side of the bridge. Reducing the contraction stops the fold forming, and the skin over it flattens over the following one to two weeks. The effect typically lasts three to four months before muscle activity returns.
Two things make this area harder than it looks. The first is dose. The nasalis is a thin muscle in a small area, and the quantity needed is a fraction of what is used on the forehead. The second is proximity. Running alongside the nose are the muscles that lift the upper lip and the nostril. If product diffuses into them, the result is a lip that does not lift evenly, a smile that looks flattened on one side, or a nostril that behaves differently from its partner. It corrects itself as the toxin wears off, but that takes months.
This is why bunny lines are a poor place to shop on price. The margin for error is measured in millimetres and in single units of product, and the difference between a good result and an odd smile is injector experience rather than anything you can read on a menu. Practices working under doctor-led protocols, with the prescriber assessing the patient in person and the consultation held as a separate step, are the model to look for. In west London, Dr Harry Clinic is among the practices structured that way. Wherever you are in the country, that structure is the standard, and a clinic meeting it will not mind being asked about it.
What it costs in the UK in 2026
Bunny lines are usually priced as an add-on rather than as a standalone treatment, because the quantity of product involved is small and most people having them treated are already having the upper face treated.
| What | Indicative UK range, 2026 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bunny lines added to an existing treatment | £50 to £120 | Most common way it is sold |
| Bunny lines treated alone | £120 to £220 | Reflects the consultation more than the product |
| One area, upper face | £150 to £300 | London upper end, lower outside |
| Three areas, upper face | £250 to £450 | Bunny lines often folded in |
Ranges outside London run lower. A quotation well below all of these has removed something from the cost structure, and the things usually removed are consultation time, prescriber involvement and a review appointment.
Where it goes wrong
Four failure patterns account for most poor outcomes, and three of them are avoidable before you book.
- Treating a static line as though it were dynamic. If the crease is visible with a relaxed face, toxin will soften it and not erase it. A practitioner who says so before treating is telling you the truth about the ceiling.
- Diffusion into the lip elevators. The commonest technical complication in this area, producing an uneven smile for the life of the treatment.
- Chasing the line after the upper face has been over-treated. Heavy treatment of the frown and forehead sometimes increases nasalis recruitment, so the bunny lines appear worse after a first course. That is a sign the overall plan needs adjusting rather than another injection site.
- No review appointment. Two weeks is when the result can be assessed and small asymmetries corrected. A clinic that does not offer that has designed away its own quality control.
The verdict
Bunny lines are a small thing, and treating them is a small intervention that is disproportionately easy to get wrong. If they only appear when you laugh, the useful work is preventative and free: sunglasses, an up to date eye prescription, sunscreen on the nose and a retinoid at night if your skin tolerates one.
If they have started to sit at rest and they genuinely bother you, the clinical treatment works, provided the person doing it treats the area as an anatomical problem rather than a menu item. Ask who is prescribing, ask what happens if the smile changes, insist on a review at two weeks, and be suspicious of a price that undercuts the market. Those four habits will do more for the outcome than any choice between clinics on the basis of a photograph.
Sources and further reading
- NHS. Public guidance on cosmetic procedures, including what to check before treatment and what to do if something goes wrong.
- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. The UK regulator for medicines, including the prescription-only status of botulinum toxin and the restrictions on advertising it to the public.
- General Medical Council. The searchable public register of licensed doctors in the United Kingdom, and the professional standards for cosmetic practice.
- British Association of Dermatologists. Patient information on skin ageing, photoprotection and topical retinoids.
- Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners. A voluntary register of practitioners and premises in the non-surgical cosmetic sector, and its published standards.
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