The original Persian face — a normal-length muzzle and open nostrils rather than the flat, peke-faced show type, giving a gentle 'doll-like' expression and easier breathing.
- Origin
- Iran (Persia)
- Category
- longhair
- Lifespan
- 12–17 yrs
- Size
- Medium
- Weight
- 3.5–7 kg
- Coat
- Long, dense double coat
- Colours
- All colours and patterns
😺 Temperament
🏡 Best suited to
📊 Personality ratings
📜 History & origin
Before the mid-20th century every Persian looked like the doll-face: a long-coated cat with a moderate muzzle and the nose set below the eyes. A spontaneous mutation in the 1950s produced the flatter 'peke-face', and show standards gradually favoured that extreme look. Breeders who valued the traditional profile kept the doll-face going, and today it is prized precisely because its normal facial structure spares the cat many of the problems of the ultra-flat type.
🧼 Care & grooming
The luxurious coat demands the same commitment as any Persian — daily combing to prevent mats, regular bathing, and attention to the eyes and hindquarters. The advantage of the doll-face is its normal-length nose, which reduces tear-duct overflow and makes eye cleaning far less of a daily battle than with peke-faced cats.
🩺 Health notes
The open facial structure avoids much of the brachycephalic airway disease and severe tear staining seen in flat-faced Persians. The breed still carries a risk of polycystic kidney disease (PKD) — buy only from breeders who DNA-test their lines — along with the usual longhair concerns of dental disease and heat sensitivity.
📸 Doll-Face (Traditional) Persian photos
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons, used under their respective licences.