Style Studio Face Shape Analysis

Face shape is determined to select the correct hairstyles, hats, eyewear, earrings, necklines and make up applications for a client.

There are nine categories that the face shape can fall into. They are:

Oval
Rectangular
Oblong
Diamond
Round
Square
Triangular
Heart
Inverted Triangle

As well as using the above guidelines you can also use a rule placed at the outer corner of one eye to determine face shape. This will show you how and where the face protrudes.

In order to ascertain face shape pull back the client’s hair so that the silhouette of the face (hairline, temple, forehead and chin) can be seen.

Be prepared that the client may not fit exactly into one of the face shapes, but rather be a mixture of two. Choose the one that most resembled their face shape. .

Face shape determination comes from a combination of:

The outside silhouette of the face
The length of the face
The width of the face
How close or wide set the facial features are eg, eyes / mouth / nose
How large or small the facial features are

Face Shape: In 2 Easy Steps

Length

1. Is the face:

- Definitely longer than it is wide (A)
- Almost as wide as it is long (B)
- Only slightly longer than it is wide (C)

Oblong, Rectangle
Round, Square
Oval, Diamond, Heart, Inverted Triangle

Chin

2. Is the chin:

- Gently Rounded (A)
- Broad (B)
- Pointed (C)

Oval, Oblong
Square, Round, Triangle, Rectangle
Diamond, Heart, Inverted Triangle

	Very Broad Rounded Jaw line	Very Broad Square Jaw line	Pointed Chin	Square Jaw line	Gently Rounded Chin
Definitely longer than it is wide				Rectangle	Oblong
A little longer than it is wide	Pear	Triangle	Diamond Inverted Tri Heart		Oval
Almost as long as it is wide	Round	Square	Square if accompanied by wide square jaw line	Square

Note:

Hairlines are not as important with face shape determination as overall length, jaw lines and chins
Pear is like a triangular face but has a full round jaw line
Oval also has perfectly sized and spaced eyes, nose and moth. Only approximately 1 person in 50 has a true oval face. They can wear any/all styles of hats, hairstyles, earrings and glasses. Only personality, scale and lifestyle will limit choices.
Extra large or small eyes, nose or mouth may alter the perceived shape of the face – go with the apparent shape e.g., a person with a face length that just made it into the longer than wide category and who has a square jaw line maybe best determined as a square face if she/he has large wide spread eyes or a large mouth.