Your face shape comes down to four measurements: how long your face is, and how wide it is at the forehead, the cheekbones and the jaw. Compare those four and you can place yourself in one of six shapes: oval, oblong, round, square, heart or diamond.
If you want the quick version, our face shape detector measures all four from one photo in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. The rest of this guide shows you how to do it yourself, how to read the result, and the mistakes that send most people to the wrong answer.
The four measurements that decide your face shape
Every face shape chart, whether it comes from a hair stylist, an optician or an app, uses the same four numbers:
- Face length: from the middle of your hairline down to the bottom of your chin.
- Forehead width: across the widest part of your forehead, roughly halfway between your eyebrows and your hairline.
- Cheekbone width: across the widest points of your cheekbones, usually just below the outer corners of your eyes.
- Jaw width: across your jaw at its corners, the points below your ears where the jawline turns towards the chin.
The shape is not about any single number. It is about how the four relate to each other: which width is the largest, and whether the face is long or short compared with how wide it is.
Method 1: a mirror and a measuring tape
This takes about five minutes. A soft tailor's tape works best. A piece of string and a ruler works too.
- Tie your hair back so your hairline, temples and jaw are fully visible.
- Stand in front of a mirror with your face relaxed and your chin level, not tipped up or down.
- Measure the four distances above and write each one down straight away.
- Measure each one twice. If the two readings differ, use the average.
The tricky part is the jaw. Feel for the corner of your jawbone below each ear and measure between those two points, not around the curve of the chin.
Method 2: a photo
A photo is easier to measure than your own face in a mirror, as long as the photo is taken properly.
- Ask someone to take a photo of you from at least an arm's length away, ideally further. Or prop your phone up and use the timer.
- Face the camera straight on, with your head level and a neutral expression.
- Pull your hair back and remove glasses.
- Open the photo on a screen and trace the outline of your face with your finger, or draw it with an editing app.
Look at the outline as a whole. Is it longer than it is wide? Is it widest at the top, the middle or the bottom? Does the jaw end in clear corners or in a smooth curve?
Reading your measurements: the six face shapes
Use this chart once you have your four measurements. Compare the widths with each other, and compare the face length with the cheekbone width.
| Face shape | Length compared with width | Widest part | Jaw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oval | Clearly longer than wide | Cheekbones, with the forehead a little wider than the jaw | Softly rounded |
| Oblong | Much longer than wide | Forehead, cheekbones and jaw all similar | Fairly straight sides |
| Round | About as long as it is wide | Cheekbones | Soft, with no clear corners |
| Square | Only a little longer than wide | Jaw almost as wide as the cheekbones | Strong, angular corners |
| Heart | Moderately long | Forehead | Narrow, often with a pointed chin |
| Diamond | Moderately long | Cheekbones, clearly | Forehead and jaw both narrow |
A few quick tests help separate the shapes people mix up most:
- Round or oval? Look at the length. A round face is nearly as wide as it is long. An oval face is clearly longer.
- Round or square? Look at the jaw. Soft and curved points to round. Corners you can feel points to square.
- Oval or oblong? If the widths are all much the same and the face looks long, it is oblong. If it narrows gently towards the chin, it is oval.
- Heart or diamond? Both have a narrow jaw. If the forehead is wide, it is heart. If the forehead is narrow too and the cheekbones stand out, it is diamond.
Why you might sit between two shapes
Most faces do not match one shape perfectly. The six shapes are reference points, not boxes, and plenty of people land between two of them, for example between oval and round, or between square and oblong.
That is normal and it is not a measuring error. Our face shape detector handles it the same way: it finds the closest shape and the second closest, and when the two are nearly tied it tells you so, for example by showing "Close to Round as well" under an Oval result. In that case, advice for either shape will usually suit you.
Common mistakes that give the wrong answer
Taking the photo too close. A phone held close to the face makes the middle of the face look bigger and the sides look narrower. That can turn a square face into an oval one on screen. Shoot from at least an arm's length away. Our guide to taking an accurate photo of your face explains why distance matters so much.
Tilting the chin. Lifting your chin makes your face look shorter, and dropping it makes it look longer. Both change the length-to-width comparison, which is what separates round from oval and oval from oblong.
Turning the head. Even a small turn makes one side of the face narrower in the photo. Every width changes, so the result changes with it.
Hair over the outline. Bangs hide the hairline and long hair hides the jaw. Two of the four measurements disappear, and you end up guessing.
Smiling. A wide smile pulls the cheeks up and out and changes the lower face. Use a relaxed, neutral expression.
Judging from one photo. Try two or three photos. If they agree, you can trust the answer. If they disagree, you are probably between two shapes.
How our face shape detector measures it
The face shape detector uses MediaPipe FaceMesh, which finds 478 points on your face directly in your browser. From those points it takes the same four measurements described above: face length from the upper forehead to the chin, and the width at the forehead, the cheekbones and the jaw.
It then divides the length, the forehead width and the jaw width by the cheekbone width, so the size of the photo does not matter. Those three ratios are compared with the typical proportions of front-facing faces, and with each of the six shapes, and the closest shape wins.
Two things are worth knowing. First, the measurement starts at the upper forehead rather than the hairline, because the hairline varies so much from person to person. So the tool's numbers will not match a tape measure exactly, but the comparison between shapes works the same way. Second, the detector shows the measurements behind its answer, so you can see why it chose your shape rather than taking it on trust.
What to do with your face shape
Face shape is mainly useful for practical choices: haircuts, beard styles, glasses frames and where to place contour. It is not a measure of how attractive a face is, and no shape is better than another.
For styling ideas by shape, and for what research says about face shape and attractiveness, read what your face shape really means.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most common face shape? There is no reliable count, because face shape charts are a styling convention rather than a scientific classification, and different charts draw the lines in different places. Oval is often described as the most common, but many faces sit between two shapes.
Can my face shape change? Your bone structure does not change much in adulthood, but the soft tissue over it does. Weight gain or loss and ageing can change how full your cheeks and jaw look, which can move you from one shape towards another, for example from round towards oval.
Can I have two face shapes? Yes, in the sense that many faces fall between two shapes. If two methods or two photos give you different answers, you are probably a mix of both.
Why does my face shape look different in selfies? Selfies are taken close to the face, and a close camera distorts proportions: the centre of the face looks larger and the sides look narrower. Measure from a photo taken from at least an arm's length away.
Is the face shape detector free? Yes. It is free, it needs no account, and it runs in your browser, so your photo is never uploaded or stored.
References
- Ward, B., Ward, M., Fried, O., & Paskhover, B. (2018). Nasal Distortion in Short-Distance Photographs: The Selfie Effect. JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, 20(4), 333–335. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamafacial.2018.0009
- Bryan, R., Perona, P., & Adolphs, R. (2012). Perspective Distortion from Interpersonal Distance Is an Implicit Visual Cue for Social Judgments of Faces. PLoS ONE, 7(9), e45301. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0045301
- Kartynnik, Y., Ablavatski, A., Grishchenko, I., & Grundmann, M. (2019). Real-time Facial Surface Geometry from Monocular Video on Mobile GPUs. CVPR Workshop on Computer Vision for Augmented and Virtual Reality. https://arxiv.org/abs/1907.06724
- Rhodes, G. (2006). The Evolutionary Psychology of Facial Beauty. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 199–226. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190208