How to Find Your Face Shape—and What to Do Next

Start with a Clear View of Your Face

To find your face shape, compare your face length with its width, notice where it is widest, and look at the outline of your jaw and chin. Those observations will help you choose a close match among common shapes. A mirror or a clear photo is enough to begin.

Pull your hair back enough to see your hairline and the sides of your face. Look straight ahead, with your head upright and your expression relaxed. If you use a photo, choose one without a face-altering filter and with enough light to see both sides clearly.

Skip the close-up selfie as your only reference. In one study, researchers modeled how a nearby camera makes the nose look wider relative to the cheekbones. Step back from the camera, and check the picture against your mirror view.

Compare Your Face Length, Widths, and Outline

Start with four observations. Warby Parker's face-shape guide uses forehead, cheekbone and jaw widths, plus the distance from the middle of the hairline to the chin, as reference points.

1. Length: Look from the middle of your hairline to the bottom of your chin. Does your face look noticeably longer than it is wide, or closer in length and width?
2. Forehead: Compare the visible width of your forehead with the rest of your face. Keep the hair itself out of the comparison.
3. Cheekbones: Look across the upper cheeks. Is this the widest area, or are the forehead and jaw about as broad?
4. Jaw and chin: Follow the lower outline. Does it curve gently, form clearer corners, or narrow toward the chin?

You can mark these areas on a photo if that helps. Use the same picture for every comparison — the marks are a visual reference, not a measurement.

Write a short description before choosing a label — something like “Longer than wide, widest around the cheeks, with a softly rounded jaw.” A note like this stays useful even if two guides give you different names.

Find the Closest Match Among Common Face Shapes

Compare your notes with these broad styling descriptions. The outlines below follow the features in Zenni's face-shape guide; the longer and jaw-wider patterns are also covered in Warby Parker's guide. Treat them as loose styling vocabulary and a starting point.

Closest outline	Features to look for
Oval	Longer than wide, with gently rounded contours rather than a strongly angular jaw.
Round	A rounded outline, soft jaw and relatively little difference between overall length and width.
Square	A more angular jaw, with similar breadth through the forehead, cheeks and jaw.
Oblong or rectangular	Length is the strongest feature. A rectangular outline has clearer corners; a softer long outline is often called oblong.
Heart or inverted triangle	A broader upper face tapering toward a narrower chin. These names overlap in many guides.
Diamond	The cheekbone area is widest, with a narrower forehead and jaw.
Triangle or pear	A jaw that appears broader than the upper face. Check the description: some guides use “triangle” to mean the opposite orientation.

If you are between round and square, look at the jaw's curve or corners. If you are between oval and oblong, consider whether length is a particularly noticeable feature. If heart and diamond both seem possible, compare the forehead with the cheekbones.

Lookplan offers a free face-shape reference on the homepage. Its estimate runs on your device and can be inaccurate. Compare it with your own notes.

What If Your Face Fits More Than One Shape?

Plenty of faces sit between shapes. “Mostly oval, with a more angular jaw” is a perfectly good answer.

If a photo and your mirror view seem different, repeat the exercise with a clear, straight-on view. Check for hair covering the forehead, a tilted head, or shadows obscuring the jaw. Compare what you can actually see rather than averaging labels from several tools.

Also check the vocabulary. One guide may group heart and inverted triangle together while another separates them — Lookplan displays those as separate reference labels. A difference in naming does not, by itself, tell you which hairstyle you will prefer.

What to Do After You Find Your Face Shape

Turn your observations into a styling question. Would you like to show more of your forehead, frame your cheeks, try a clearer jaw-length outline, or keep the overall shape while changing the finish? The label gives you words for what you see; what you actually try is up to you.

For hair, shortlist two or three directions and compare their length, fringe, parting and volume. Try to name the change you like: “I prefer the side part” tells you more than “This one suits oval faces.” A stylist can work from that description even without a label — just bring your current length, texture and everyday routine into the conversation.

The AI hairstyle simulator can help you explore different looks on your own photo. A preview gives you something concrete to show your stylist, though your hair's texture and thickness still decide what is achievable.

In this public hairstyle sample report, short blonde curls become a longer, side-parted brown style in the AI preview. Look at where the ends sit and how the curls frame the face. The color changes too, so you may like one detail and want to keep another as it was.

For makeup, choose one detail to compare: softer eye definition, a different lip emphasis, or a gentler overall contrast. You can try those directions in the AI makeup generator.

Save your favorite reference photo with one thing you want to keep and one thing you would change, and bring it to your next haircut or makeup session. Oval, round, somewhere in between, or still not sure — you have a concrete next step.