What Face Shape am I ?

What face shape am I? This can be challenging to answer truthfully for yourself as we often pick the face shape we want to be... Stop, take a deep breath and celebrate the wonderful, amazing face shape you have been created with. When you work with your wonderous self, you can then choose the perfect hair style, hat, accessories that flatter and enhance your own perfect self. Stand in front of a mirror and pull back your hair, if its too hard to make a visual analysis, then using at tape measure will help work out the widest part of the face and the length in comparison to the width.

Oval Face Shape: This is the ‘wannabe’ face shape, similar to the hourglass body shape. By no means is it the perfect shape, but those with an oval face can wear any style hats, hairstyles and earings.

Oval face shapes are highly desired and envied. All other face shapes attempt to create the illusion of having an oval face. The oval face shape suits any hair style, including long, short, medium, layered, straight or even curly. A frings can be added to emphasize the eyes or add a little change. Celebrities with oval face shape include: Jessica Alba, Charlize Theron, Halle Berry.

For the oval face, the length is greater (about one and a half times), with the forehead usually wider than the chin, and the face tapering to the narrow chin. This face suits most hairstyles - you can basically call the shots. Watch out for a heavy drapery of bangs, as this makes your face look heavy, and covers up the elegance of the oval.

Round Face Shape: A round face is as wide as it is long with rounded edges. The nose is the center guide. In trying to maintain the appearance of an oval face shape, hair for round face shapes should be kept close to the sides of the face, while the crown will need height and volume.

If you want your face to appear slimmer, make sure hair is showing below the chin. Layers from the lips down remove bulk and weight from the sides. We don't want to make the face any wider but inceasing volume on the sides of the head. Tapered ends will draw attention away from the roundness by allowing hair to fall close to the head. One length cuts tend to widen the face. Avoid short hair and volume at the sides. Celebrities with round face shapes: Cameron Diaz, Kyra Sedgwick ( Joan Kirner with her round face, round hair, round necklines and round polka dot fabrics)

A round face, the good old pieplate cheery face, has equal length to width, or at least very close. Compare the cheekbone to cheekbone measurement with the hairline to chin measurement. Fuller and higher hair will adjust the appearance of dimensions, giving you a narrower look. The sides can be kept longer and flatter to make your face appear more oval. Avoid the page boy that widens at the sides and chops below the chin, or this will complete the appearance of a pie-plate face. It's okay to smile, but don't go around looking like the man-in-the-moon, with a big grin all the time. (You're doing it again. Stop that!)

Square Face Shape: The square face shape is as wide as it is long and has strong angles. This face shape needs a hair style with softness to lessen the effects of the angles.

Long hair styles should fall past the shoulders, with face-framing layers to soften the jaw line. Shorter styles should be kept round and soft with height in the crown area. Wispy bangs are great, as well as fluffy, wispy curls.

Avoid one-length hair styles; especially chin length and blunt-cut fringes. These styles will accentuate the square-ness of your face shape. Celebrities with square face shapes include: Demi Moore, and Geena Davis.

The square face has equal width to length, with the jawline squared.The square face is characterized by a strong square jaw and ofen square forehead to match. No, this doesn't make you a blockhead, as it is the position of the eyes, nose, and lips that defines the beauty. Hard work is required here to avoid that tough look. Try for waves, curls, soft bangs, anything that can soften the edges. Watch out for long straight hair with blunt bangs to avoid magnifying the square look

Heart Face Shape: The heart-shaped face is wide in the eye and cheekbone area with a narrow or pointy chin. Many heart-shaped faces also have a high forehead.

For long hair styles, add long, wavy layers around your cheekbones that fall in the neck area. For shorter hair, add top layers that are long and soft. Side-swept bangs are a great technique to lessen the width and height of the forehead area.

Avoid blunt-cut fringes, super short hair, ponytails and choppy layers. Subtle layering is much more flattering. Celebrities with Heart Shaped Face include: Brittany Murphy, Reese Witherspoon and Scarlett Johannson.

** Sometimes you can be a mix of face shapes and mine is a mix of heart and oblong.**

The extreme version of the oval is the heart-shaped face as frequently portrayed by Japanese Anime with the wide eyes and forehead tapering to a pointed chin, giving that Pixie look. Short hair, either chin-length bobs or short shags, complete the cute look. A few bangs can assist, but don't raise the hair and leave too much weight up top, or the face will be unbalanced. It'll be like looking at a top.

Diamond

The diamond-shaped face has a narrowed forehead and jaw width, with the greatest width at the cheekbones. Adjust your head to give some weight to the top, and smoothing down to the cheeks. The jaw is already narrow. Mostly, keep the hair short with fullness at the temples. You can also experiment with shags and off center parts, making sure you've left enough layers to expand the upper part of the face. Avoid fullness at and below the jawline.

Long Face Shape: Long faces are described as oblong or rectangle- long and narrow. The goal with this face shape is to create the illusion of more width by adding fullness at the sides and having a smooth top with bangs of some sort. Curls and waves can also add width to your face and make it appear more oval.

Avoid extremely long, straight styles, one-length cuts, short layers that add volume in the crown area and styles without bangs as these will make your long face much more pronounced. Celebrities with long face shapes include: Hilary Swank and Sarah Jessica Parker. Wacth SJP, she changes her hair, when its worn straight down her face is so long, even with layers ad curls, her face is still long. However, its in our perceived imperfections where beauty lies.

With the oblong face, the length is slightly greater than the width, but the width measurements are almost equal (cheekbones, jaw, and forehead). When the chin is prominent, this can be most impressive. Many styles are possible, though when the jaw is prominent, the hair needs to be longer or fuller. A shortie style will look odd. Too much length could make your face look longer, so you are really attempting to get some layering and fullness at the side. Think of this as a streched out oval.

After you have determined your face shape, you will need to look for celebrity hair styles that are on celebrities with similar face shapes.

If you would like assistance with determining your face shape, Jayne is the Image Professional

Email photo to admin@theimageprofessional.com.au