Two head lines on your palm: the double head line

What counts as a double head line?

A double head line is two separate head lines, each running across the middle of the palm, one just above the other. Both are long, clear lines of their own, not a short mark beside the main line. Cheiro’s Palmistry for All (1916) describes a common form: one line starts at the life line, the other higher up, under the index finger.

Three other shapes are easy to mistake for it.

Two lines or a fork?

A forked head line is one line that splits into two branches, usually near its end. It is often called the writer’s fork. The books read it as two ways of thinking at once, the practical and the imaginative, which gives range but can make choosing harder. Cheiro counts a line that splits mid-palm as another form of it, one more under the control of the will. Most books treat a fork as its own shape. If your two lines meet at one end, read about the forked head line instead.

A sister line

A sister line is a short, fine line that runs beside part of a main line. It is much shorter and fainter than the head line itself. Two long, separate lines count as a double head line; a short line alongside one does not.

A simian line

A simian line is one single line across the palm, where the heart and head lines would normally be. It is the opposite case: one line instead of two. The simian line guide covers it, starting with the medical facts.

How common is a double head line?

It is uncommon. No study we know of gives a reliable figure, so we don’t quote one. Cheiro only compares it, writing that double head lines are “as rarely found as are cases of the single line right across the hand”. Cheiro’s Language of the Hand (1900) also calls it very rarely found. How it compares with other uncommon forms is in rare palm lines.

What do palmistry books say about two head lines?

Cheiro reads a double head line as a dual mentality: a mind with two sides, capable of “an enormous amount of mental work”. When one line starts at the life line and the other under the index finger, he reads two sides to the nature. One is sensitive and careful; the other is self-confident, with a strong wish to lead and see its ideas carried out.

Cheiro’s Language of the Hand reads it as a mark of mental power, with great versatility and command of language. It also describes a double nature, one side sensitive and gentle. We leave out its harsh words for the other side, as the PalmSays app does with every character judgement in the old books. Cheiro also passes on an old belief that two distinct head lines point to an inheritance. That is a money prediction, so we don’t repeat it.

Benham has no separate double head line. He reads a forked head line as versatility: practical and imaginative ideas together, giving a double point of view. Whichever branch is deeper, he says, shows which side tends to lead.

Either way, the books read two ways of thinking held side by side, not how clever anyone is.

Two head lines on one hand or both?

A double head line can appear on one hand only, or on both. Tradition reads the hand you write with as the life you are making, and the other as what you started with. So if the second line shows on only one hand, the tradition reads that as a change from where you started. The books we use give no separate reading for having it on both hands. Which hand to read explains how the two hands are compared.

Can a photo show a double head line?

Sometimes, but it is easy to get wrong. In a photo, two parallel creases can look like a fork. A fork can also look like two lines when its branches run close. A crease made by bending the palm, or a shadow, can also pass for a second head line. Check your open, flat hand in daylight. A true double head line runs a long way as two separate lines, not only where the palm folds.

The PalmSays app reads one head line from your photo. It does not read a double head line.

Not sure which you have? Match your line to the drawings above, or see every type under head line meaning.