Your “look” depends on your beard style, haircut, sunglasses, etc and these things can be “optimized” by understanding your face shape. Hence, knowing and calculating your face shape is a very important step in your grooming journey. With that, grab a flexible tape measure, follow the guidelines and write down the following measurements (in inches or centimeters).
- Forehead: Measure across your face from the peak of one eyebrow arch to the peak of the opposite arch.
- Cheekbones: Measure across your cheekbones, starting and ending at the pointiest part below the outer corner of each eye.
- Jawline: Measure from the tip of your chin to below your ear at the point at which your jaw angles upwards. Multiply that number by two to get your jawline measurement.
- Face length: Measure from the center of your hairline to the tip of your chin.
Now compare your measurements with the below 4 general face shapes. Note that your face shape can change with weight loss and specific exercises.
Face Shapes:
- Oval:
- Face length is larger than cheekbones and forehead is larger than jawline
- Angle of jaw is rounded, not sharp
- Oblong:
- Face length is largest
- Forehead, cheekbones and jawline are similar in size
- Round:
- Cheekbones and face length have a similar measurement
- They are larger than forehead and jawline which also have a similar measurement
- Angle of the jaw is soft
- Square/Rectangle:
- All measurements are fairly similar
- Angle of the jaw is sharp, not rounded
- Triangle:
- Large jawline, smaller cheekbones and smallest forehead
- Face can be any length
- Diamond:
- Face length is largest
- Then cheekbones, forehead with jawline smallest
- Pointed chin
- Heart:
- Forehead measures greater than cheekbones and jawline
- Pointed chin
