How To Be More Approachable And Look More Friendly

Perhaps someone’s remarked that you look angry or aloof. Or, you wonder why people approach your friends but not you. Here’s how to go from looking unapproachable and stand-offish to approachable and friendly.

Sections

Being more approachable

1. Have a friendly facial expression

This includes avoiding frowning, having a friendly smile, making eye contact, and being expressive. We talk more about how to look friendly in the next section.

2. Use an open body language

Use an upright posture: Straight back and arms uncrossed. If you tilt your head back, you can come off as intimidating or stuck-up. If you tilt it down, you might come off as insecure or aloof. Therefore, keep your face vertical and your gaze horizontal.

3. Avoid covering up

Avoid sunglasses, hoodies, big scarves, or other things that cover you up. People get uncomfortable when they can’t see someone’s eyes or facial expressions clearly. Therefore it’s good to avoid obscuring your face. Covering your neck can signal that you’re uncomfortable: Since it’s a vulnerable area, exposing it or covering it (with clothing or a hand) has historically been an indicator of how comfortable we are.

4. Angle yourself toward people

Don’t look straight at strangers at mingles and parties, but in their general direction. If they, in turn, look in your general direction, you can make eye contact and give them a friendly smile. If you don’t look in people’s general direction, you won’t notice if they try to make contact with you.

5. Ask a trusted friend of their opinion

Tell a friend you trust that you think that you look unapproachable. Ask them why they think it could be. They might notice things about you that you had no clue about.

Be clear to your friend that you don’t want supporting words but their honest opinion on what you could do differently.

6. Keep a bit of extra eye contact

Look people in the eyes. When you greet people, keep a second of extra eye contact after you’ve shaken hands.

Eye contacts make friendly situations more friendly and hostile situations more hostile. Therefore, it’s important to keep eye contact with a relaxed face. Pro tip: Blink once while you keep eye contact to make it feel less like a stare.

7. Avoid acting busy when you’re not

Be present in the moment and avoid your phone when you’re around people. Practice looking at bypassers rather than at your phone. If you look busy, people will assume that you don’t want to be bothered.

8. Avoid standing too far away from others

When we feel uncomfortable, we often try to put distance between us and those around us (without even being aware of it). One example is if we share a couch with someone and we start leaning away from that person. Another example is if we’re in a group conversation but don’t feel included so we stand one step outside of the group. If you notice that you stand far away from others, move a bit closer so that you are within a normal distance.

9. Choose to see people as old friends

Imagine that everyone you meet is an old friend. How would you react? How would you smile? What would your face and body language be like?

10. Make the most out of your looks

Look your best and take care of your appearance. Here are some examples: Make sure that your hair looks good and get regular haircuts. Wear clothes that make you look good. If you are very pale, spend 20 minutes in the sun daily. If you’re overweight, look up a sustainable weight loss diet. It’s a good mindset to always do something to make your future you a little better than the current you.

11. Make a positive remark if you want to talk to someone

Making a positive remark signals that you’re open to interaction. It can be obvious and doesn’t have to be clever. Simply saying a few words is enough to let people know that you’re friendly.

“I love this view”
“The bread smells so good”
“This is such a nice house”

Here’s more advice on how to start a conversation.

Looking more friendly

Follow these steps to learn how to look more friendly:

1. Relax your face

Nervousness can make us tense up without noticing. Remind yourself to relax the muscles in your face if you think that you might look tense. Make sure your lips and teeth don’t press together: You want your jaw to be just slightly open.

Unapproachable:

1. Head tilted down
2. Wrinkle because of tense eyebrows
3. Tense jaw

Approachable:

1. Smile in the corner of the mouth
2. Slight crows feet in corner of eyes
3. Relaxed jaw

2. Practice a casual smile

Smile slightly with the corners of your mouth if you usually frown. It will feel weird before you make it a habit, but that’s normal. The smile can be very subtle – it’s more about canceling out the frown than grinning.

Having a resting facial expression that looks bored or angry is called RBF or Resting Bitch Face. For some reason, it’s associated with women, but it’s as common for men as it is for women.[1]

Test if you have RBF here.

3. Smile with your eyes

Smiling with only the mouth and not the eyes can look insincere.[5] You know that you smile with your eyes when you get a little wrinkle in the outer corner of your eyes that has the shape of a crow’s feet. Ease up a stern face by smiling slightly with your eyes together with a smile in the corners of your mouth.

4. Relax your eyebrows

Relax your eyebrows if you tend to lower them. Lowered eyebrows and the wrinkle between the eyebrows signals anger, even if we just do it because we’re uncomfortable or think about something that bothers us.[2]

5. Think of something that makes you happy

Think about something specific that makes you happy. Tap into that happiness and try to feel it in your entire body. I, for example, get happy when I think about meeting up with a specific friend for coffee. I can visualize the walk to the café and focus my attention on the positive feeling. This makes me feel – and look – happier and friendlier.

6. Avoid intimidating clothes

Avoid dressing in all black or in clothes that might make people uncomfortable approaching you. I love people who express themselves with their clothes and I often dress in all black, but when I have the goal of being approachable, I always avoid extremes.

Showing a lot of skin doesn’t necessarily make you more approachable. The same thing here: If you look TOO different from those around you, it can be intimidating.

On the flip-side, you can also stand out in a good way: Having a colorful or unusual item on you or wearing an eye-catching outfit that enhances your looks and isn’t intimidating.

To know the difference, ask yourself if your outfit signals that it could be a positive or negative experience to approach you.

7. Be close to laughter

Sometimes it can be hard to laugh if we feel uncomfortable. If you are often stern around people, practice being a little more generous with what you laugh at.

8. Use a mirror to see how you look

Try out the examples above in a mirror. Compare the difference with and without adjusting your smile, eyebrows, and tension.

Use the mirror to make sure that you don’t over-do it. Even better is to take a video of yourself with your phone. At least for me, this felt more natural than looking at yourself in a mirror.

Being more friendly when you interact with someone

1. Dare to be warm first

It’s common to be standoffish if we’re a bit uncertain what the other person might think of us. To avoid rejection, we wait for the other person to be friendly before we dare to be. That’s a mistake because the other person is probably thinking the same thing.

Dare to meet the person like you would if you’d assume that they’ll like you:[3] Smile, be friendly, ask sincere questions, make eye contact.

2. Ask a personal question to signal that you’re friendly and open to interaction

Ask how people are and what they do. It signals that you’re open to interaction. The conversation can be very simple and what you ask isn’t that important. It’s just about signaling that you’re friendly.

– Hi, how are you doing?
– Good, how are you?
– I’m good. How do you know people here?

3. Use a friendly tone of voice

Use a tone that’s a bit friendlier if you usually sound harsh. Feeling nervous can tighten your throat and give you a stern voice. Ease up by practicing different ways of talking when you’re by yourself. One trick to sound friendlier is to use tonal variation: Varying more between your low and high tones.

Here’s an example:

4. Be positive

Avoid talking about negative experiences or complaining, especially when you initially meet someone. Even though it may feel like you’re not negative toward the person you’re talking to, you might be seen as a negative person overall.

Dealing with underlying reasons for looking unapproachable

For some of us, there are underlying reasons for why we look unapproachable, such as anxiety or shyness.

1. Examine if you tense up because of nervousness

If you tense up, it could be because of underlying shyness or social anxiety. Read our guide here on how to stop being shy and how to stop being nervous.

2. Change the way you talk to yourself

Negative self-talk like “people won’t like me” obviously makes us more hesitant to approach people. Ironically, this hesitation makes us look unapproachable, and when we don’t get interacted with, we think it’s because people don’t like us.

Change this by challenging your critical voice. If the voice tells you that people won’t like you, remind yourself of times where people did indeed like you.[4]

Being approached more

This part is relevant if you want to be approached in a dating or flirting context.

“I’m relatively good-looking but my friends get approached way more. I’m afraid that I look unapproachable. How do I get approached more by guys?”

– Jen

The advice you’ve received so far in this guide is relevant here as well. Here is some additional advice specifically for being approached more.

1. Keep eye contact and smile

If you make eye contact with someone, keep that eye contact a second extra and smile. You can blink once to avoid coming off as staring. Subtle flirting like this signals that you’re friendly and makes it much less scary for someone to come up to you.

2. Avoid only going out in large groups

Large groups make it scary for someone to approach. The social shame is naturally much higher if the approach doesn’t go well when there are more people to observe it. You’re likely to be approached more if you’re by yourself.

3. Behave more like you do when you’re relaxed even when you’re in public

When we get nervous we tend to restrict ourselves. Think about how you are when you’re with close friends in a safe environment. If that’s more like you, your authenticity will make you more attractive.

4. Dare to take up more space

When we feel uncomfortable, we tend to take up less space, both in conversations and physically.

When you’re out, you can practice taking up more space by taking a walk around the venue without having a specific goal other than to “check it out”. It can feel uncomfortable at first but helps you expand your comfort zone. In a conversation, practice sharing your opinion on a subject even if it feels uncomfortable to have everyone’s eyes on you.Don’t be overly loud or overly dominant. That can come off as over-compensating and signal insecurity.