Face shape hairstyles: find your shape, then choose a cut

Search for what hairstyle suits you and you will soon meet the face shape chart. It is useful, and it is also more confident than it has any right to be.

Face shape advice comes from hairdressing tradition. It has real practical value, since it gives you and your stylist a shared language for proportion. But the published work we could find is mostly small surveys and measurement studies, and we did not find any controlled test showing that matching a cut to a chart makes people look better. So use it the way a good stylist does, as a starting point rather than a verdict.

How to identify your face shape

Tie your hair back and off your face. Use a mirror, or better, a straight-on photo with the camera at eye level, because tilting your head or holding a phone at an angle changes your proportions.

Look at, or measure with a soft tape:

1. Forehead: across the widest part.
2. Cheekbones: across the widest part, from just below the outer corner of each eye.
3. Jaw: from the point below one ear, around to the chin, then double it. Or just judge the width by eye.
4. Length: from the centre of your hairline to the tip of your chin.

Then find the closest description.

• Oval: longer than it is wide, with the forehead a little wider than the jaw, and a gently rounded chin.
• Round: length and width are about equal, with full cheeks and a soft jaw.
• Square: forehead, cheekbones and jaw are similar widths, with a strong, angular jaw.
• Heart: a wider forehead and a narrower jaw, with a pointed or delicate chin.
• Long or oblong: clearly longer than it is wide, with fairly even widths from top to bottom.
• Diamond: cheekbones are the widest point, with a narrower forehead and jaw.
• Triangle: the jaw is the widest point, with a narrower forehead.

Most faces do not fit neatly. If you are between two shapes, read both rows of the table below. A hairline, weight changes and even your expression can shift which one seems right.

Haircut for my face shape: a table of cuts

The cuts below all appear in the try-on catalogues, so you can test them directly. The logic behind them is simple: add what the shape has less of, whether that is height, width or softness.

The columns follow the two try-on catalogues, and nothing stops you reading across them.

Why the rules bend

Your hair decides what is possible. A long layered cut on fine, straight hair behaves very differently from the same cut on dense curls, and a shape that needs weight will collapse on hair that has none. Density and thickness are separate things, and both matter here. If yours is fine, the fine hair guide explains why some shapes will not hold.

Curl changes the outline. Curly and coily hair gets wider as it gets shorter, and it shrinks as it dries. A cut that looks balanced in a chart may land much higher or wider on you. Curl type charts tell you only part of this, so find a stylist who cuts your texture regularly.

The rest of your face counts. Your nose, your forehead, your neck, your glasses, your facial hair and how you carry yourself all affect the picture. A chart looks at an outline and none of these.

You may not want to "correct" anything. The whole system assumes that an oval face is the goal and that everything else needs balancing. That is one convention, and you are free to reject it. A blunt bob that frames a strong jaw can be exactly the point.

Upkeep is part of suiting you. A cut that needs twenty minutes with a hot brush only suits you if you will spend twenty minutes with a hot brush. Ask how it will look when it dries on its own, and how soon it will need a trim. If it needs regular heat, check your temperatures too.

What hairstyle suits me? A way to decide

1. Find your shape, or the two closest.
2. Pick three cuts from the table that also suit your hair type. If you are not sure of your hair type, the two-minute hair test will help.
3. Rule out anything that needs more styling than you will really do.
4. See your shortlist on your own face.
5. Bring your favourite picture to your stylist, and ask what they would change for your hair.

That fourth step is the one the chart cannot do for you. The face shape rule is a prediction, and seeing the cut on your own face is a better check, though still not the real thing.

Hairstyle try on: see the cut on your own photo

The free hairstyle try on on this site lets you upload a photo, choose from 30 cuts and see the chosen style on yourself. There is one free try-on, then another three days later, with no account, no email and no card. There is a men's version too.

It will not tell you your face shape or recommend a cut. There is no face detection, and your photo is deleted from our storage as soon as the render finishes. It is a preview rather than a promise, because real hair behaves differently from a render. It works best with a straight-on photo in even light. Start with the cut you are most curious about at the free hairstyle try on.