Generally, a guy's voice will start to change somewhere between the ages of 11 and 15 — although it can be earlier or later for some. It all depends on when a guy goes through puberty, and some normal guys enter puberty earlier or later than others.
After puberty and well into older adulthood, some people's voices may change, but not everyone's. Men's voices tend to go up in pitch. Women's voices tend to go down.
Boys experience voice change during puberty, and the change can happen anywhere between the ages of 10 and 15. Typically, voice change begins somewhere around age 12 or 13, or during the middle school years, which can make the experience a tad embarrassing for the child.
During Puberty - Voice gets deeper and Larynx drops. 20s - Somewhat youthful but getting deeper. 30s - Most people go into a complete adult voice somewhere here. 40s - Solid man's voice.
Research shows that both men and women tend to perceive men with deeper voices as more alpha. In a 2020 study published in Scientific Reports, David Puts, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University, and his colleagues revealed that men with lower-pitched voices were viewed as more likely to win a fist fight.
Apparently, the reasoning behind this unconscious reaction is rooted in evolution. The study authors theorize that men's voices instinctively deepen in order to appear more masculine to the opposite sex, but they also implement the varied pitch so they're less threatening.
"However," he says, "evidence suggests men evolved deeper voices mainly for intimidating other men rather than attracting women." Studies show that men with deeper voices tend to have higher testosterone levels (an indicator of dominance) and a more athletic body type.
The biggest changes to your voice will happen during puberty and will usually end by the age of 18. Your adult pitch is then reached 2 or 3 years later. But your voice won't completely stabilise until early adulthood. Your voice can carry on changing through your 20's, and even into your 30's.
Puberphonia (also known as mutational falsetto, functional falsetto, incomplete mutation, adolescent falsetto, or pubescent falsetto) is a functional voice disorder that is characterized by the habitual use of a high-pitched voice after puberty, hence why many refer to the disorder as resulting in a 'falsetto' voice.
What you might be experiencing is called puberphonia, which essentially is the habitual use of a high pitched voice after puberty. Our vocal folds stretch to make pitch higher and contract to make pitch lower.
1. Women are more attracted to men with deep voices – and this attraction is strongest among prettier, more feminine women. In fact, women prefer a masculine voice more strongly and more unanimously to a masculine face.
As your larynx grows, your vocal cords grow longer and thicker. Also, your facial bones begin to grow. Cavities in the sinuses, the nose, and the back of the throat grow bigger, creating more space in the face that gives your voice more room to echo. All of these factors cause your voice to get deeper.
Usually, by age 17, the voice fully stabilizes. If a teen's voice hasn't changed by that time and other secondary sexual characteristics have not developed, hormonal issues may be at play.
Smoking and Swollen Vocal Folds
When your vocal folds swell, it means their water content has increased, and the result is a deepening of the tone of your voice, whether you're singing or speaking. This also contributes the raspy quality heavily smoke-damaged voices get.
Under the influence of sex hormones, the voice box, or larynx, grows in both sexes. This growth is far more prominent in males than in females and is more easily perceived. It causes the voice to drop and deepen. Along with the larynx, the vocal folds (vocal cords) grow significantly longer and thicker.
Diaphragmatic breathing.
Try inhaling deeply through your nose, bringing the air all the way in and as far down as possible; then, while exhaling slowly, say something. You should feel a vibration as you speak. This technique—popular among singers and actors—might be able to help you control the pitch of your voice.
Inhale through your nose and down to your belly, and speak when you breathe out. When you speak from your diaphragm, you'll project more easily, and your voice will be a bit deeper. Try speaking through your mouth, rather than your nose.
Between the ages of 18 and 21, your voice stabilizes because the vocal folds and larynx have reached their full growth. While there can be some changes into your 30s, most people's voices are finished with physical changes due to hormones by the age of 21 or so.
The age at which voice changes begin varies widely between boys. Most often it begins between the ages of 12 and 13 and the changes are mostly complete after ages 15 to 18.
Results showed that men instinctively change their pitch. Men first speak in a sing-song type of voice and then adjust it to a lower tone when they are talking to someone they find attractive.
On the flip side, losing weight may lighten your voice if you're a female and deepen your voice if you're a male. If you're not losing a dramatic amount of weight, likely, you won't notice a difference at all in your voice.
The extent to which puberty will affect your singing voice will depend on your gender and genetics. Males – whose voices are generally much lower – will experience a more extreme change with their larynx (also known as the voice box) and vocal folds growing three times faster than that of a female.
It may not surprise you that genetic factors influence vocal quality. After all, voice qualities are largely determined by the size and shape of your larynx, neck, throat and facial structures all determined by genetics. But the influence of environment is too strong to be ignored.
Healthy testosterone levels positively affect muscle size, sex drive, and more. But past a certain point, consistently high testosterone can cause problems. Signs of high testosterone in men include acne, hair loss, mood swings, and trouble sleeping.
Testosterone is a male sex hormone secreted by the testes in men that controls the physical changes taking place during male puberty such as s deeper voice, mustache, beard, and more body hair (than females).