Face and proportion
The seven face shapes
Each one is a region of a continuous space rather than a type of thing. Here is where the boundaries sit, what separates each shape from its neighbours, and how far from typical a measurement has to be before it is worth naming.
Measure yoursWhat a face shape actually is
Four widths and one length, reduced to three ratios. The forehead, the cheekbones and the jaw are compared with each other, and the length of the face is compared with its width. Everything else — softness, angularity, how a face photographs — is outside what these categories describe.
A typical face measures 1.15 times as long as it is wide, with a forehead at 0.86 of the cheekbone width and a jaw at 0.8. Those three numbers are the reference every shape below is a departure from. They come from measuring real faces rather than from styling guides, which is a distinction that matters: published guides put the length ratio nearer 1.5, because they measure a different length.
The seven, in the order they are tested
Order matters in a rule chain. A face satisfying the triangle conditions would often satisfy the square ones too, so whichever is tested first wins — and the sequence is arranged so the most distinctive fact about a face is the one that names it. Oval is last because it is what remains when nothing else fires.
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Triangle (pear)
A jaw wider than typical and more than 2% wider than the forehead, so the widest part of the face sits at the bottom.
Tested first. Also called pear.
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Heart
A jaw under 89% of the forehead, and narrow in its own right — both conditions, not one.
Tested second. Also called inverted triangle.
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Diamond
Narrow at the forehead and the jaw, wide at the cheekbones — both ends, by a measurable margin.
Tested third.
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Oblong (rectangle)
Length more than 1.22 times the width, against a typical 1.15 — the clearest-cut of the seven categories.
Tested fourth. Also called rectangle, long face.
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Square
A jaw that holds its width down the face and turns a corner, rather than tapering away.
Tested fifth. Also called angular.
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Round
Length close to width, with no single measurement far enough from typical to place the face elsewhere.
Tested sixth. Also called circle.
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Oval
The category a face lands in when no other rule fires — which is a statement about the measurements, not a compliment.
Tested last — it is the result when no other rule fires. Also called balanced, egg-shaped.
Where the boundaries sit
Published as numbers rather than described, because a threshold you cannot see is a threshold you cannot disagree with.
| Boundary | Value | Decides |
|---|---|---|
| Length over width, upper | 1.22 | Above this, oblong |
| Length over width, lower | 1.12 | Below this, round or square |
| Jaw above typical | +4 points | A wide jaw |
| Jaw over forehead | 1.02 | Above this, triangle |
| Jaw over forehead | 0.89 | Below this, heart |
| Both ends below typical | −4 points | Diamond |
| Jaw fullness against an ellipse | 1.04 | Above this, square |
Why the categories are softer than they look
Faces vary continuously across every one of these measurements. There is no gap in nature between an oval face and a round one — there is a line at 1.12, and faces either side of it differ by less than the measurement error of most methods.
That is not an argument against the categories, which are useful shorthand. It is an argument against treating a result as a fact about you rather than as a description of where your measurements fell. Both of our tools report the runner-up shape when the call was close, for exactly this reason.
Measure rather than guess
- Face shape detector — from a photo, in millimetres, with every ratio and threshold shown. Nothing is uploaded.
- Face shape from a tape measure — four measurements and no camera, with the uncertainty stated per ratio.
- What a haircut does to these proportions — geometry rather than a verdict.
Nothing on these pages scores, ranks or assesses anyone's appearance, and no shape is presented as preferable to another. The categories describe proportions; what anyone wants to do with that is their own business.