How to find your face shape: the proportions and how to measure them

Face shape describes the outline of a face: how long it is against how wide, and how the forehead, cheekbones and jaw compare. It is a working vocabulary for practical choices (haircuts, glasses frames, beard shapes) and it is quick to measure. The face shape detector does it from a short camera scan in your browser; a mirror and a soft tape measure make a good cross-check.

The four proportions

Every method, a stylist’s eye or a landmark model, compares the same four things:

1. Length against width. Hairline to chin, against the width across the cheekbones, which is the widest part of most faces.
2. Forehead against jaw. Whether the top of the face is wider than the bottom, narrower, or about the same.
3. Jaw angle. How sharply the jawline turns below the ears: a defined corner or a soft curve toward the chin.
4. Cheekbone width. Whether the cheekbones clearly stand out as the widest point, or line up with the forehead and jaw.

The detector takes these from the 478 landmarks MediaPipe places on your face, using the median of 8 frames from the front view, and matches them to the closest of six shapes with documented thresholds.

The six shapes

• Oval: about one and a half times as long as wide, forehead slightly wider than the jaw, a rounded jawline.
• Round: length and width close, cheekbones widest, a soft jaw angle.
• Square: length and width close, forehead, cheekbones and jaw of similar width, a defined jaw angle.
• Heart: a wide forehead and cheekbones tapering to a narrow jaw and pointed chin.
• Oblong: clearly longer than wide, with the three widths similar. Also called long or rectangular.
• Diamond: cheekbones clearly wider than both forehead and jaw.

No shape scores better than another. The attractiveness score never uses the shape name, although it does use some of the same ratios, such as jaw width against cheekbone width.

Falling between two shapes

Faces vary continuously and categories don’t, so many faces sit near a boundary: a little long for round, a little wide for oval. The detector reports a confidence from 0.5 (a tie between the two closest shapes) to 0.95. Near 0.5, read about both shapes; their styling advice overlaps heavily. The thresholds are conventions, and stylists draw them differently. Treat the label as a starting point.

What changes the result

• Hair. A fringe hides the hairline and shortens the measured length. Hair over the cheeks or jaw narrows the width. Pull it all back.
• Lens distance. A phone held close enlarges the centre of the face and shrinks the edges, so the face reads narrower and longer than it is.
• Head pitch. Chin up or down changes the apparent length and how much of the jaw corner shows. The scan only measures the front view when your head is level.
• Expression. A smile widens the lower face and softens the jaw angle.
• Time. Soft tissue over the cheeks and jaw changes with age and weight, so a result can drift to a neighbouring shape over the years.

Scanning for the detector

1. Prop the phone at eye level, an arm’s length away or further.
2. Pull your hair back off your forehead, ears and jaw; a headband helps.
3. Keep a neutral expression with your mouth closed and jaw relaxed.
4. Take off glasses.
5. Face soft, even light, such as a window.

The scan checks distance, light and expression before it captures, and only takes the front view when your head is straight. The same habits give a clean reading of your eyes; see positive vs negative canthal tilt.

Measuring by hand

A soft tape and a mirror make a useful cross-check, especially when the detector’s confidence is low. Pull your hair back, face the mirror squarely, and keep the tape straight across rather than wrapped around the curve of the face, so the three widths are comparable.

1. Forehead: straight across the widest part, halfway between brows and hairline.
2. Cheekbones: straight across the most prominent points, just below the outer eye corners.
3. Jaw: straight across between the jaw corners, just below the earlobes.
4. Length: from the centre of the hairline straight down to the bottom of the chin.

Then read them like this:

• Length clearly greater than cheekbone width: oval or oblong.
• Length close to cheekbone width: round or square.
• Forehead the widest of the three widths: heart.
• Cheekbones clearly wider than forehead and jaw: diamond, or round if the face is short.
• The three widths similar: the jaw angle decides, defined for square or oblong, soft for round or oval.

Using the result

Face shape is most useful as a brief for practical choices: frames that contrast with the outline, haircuts that add height or width where the face needs it, a beard that squares or lengthens the jaw. The Full Face Report ($9, once, built on your device) gives the four ratios behind your result with hairstyle, glasses and beard advice for your shape.

Run the face shape detector, then compare it with your tape measurements.