Oval face shape: signs, best haircuts, and frames

How to tell if you have a oval face

Pull your hair back, look straight into a mirror in even light, and check these:

• With your hair pulled back, your face looks a bit longer than it is wide, but not strikingly long.
• Your cheekbones are the widest point, and your forehead is only a touch narrower.
• Running a fingertip along your jaw from ear to chin, you feel one smooth curve rather than a corner.
• Your chin is rounded, neither pointed nor broad and flat.
• If you trace your reflection on a steamy mirror, the outline looks like an egg standing on its narrow end.

Forehead

Slightly narrower than your cheekbones and slightly wider than your jaw, with a gently curved hairline.

Cheekbones

The widest part of your face, but only by a little, so the outline flows without a sudden bulge.

Jaw

Narrower than the forehead, with corners that curve rather than turn a sharp angle.

Chin

Softly rounded and a bit narrower than the jaw, without a point.

Length

Clearly longer than the cheekbone width, though not so long that length is the first thing you notice.

Oval or oblong or round?

Hairstyles for a oval face

1. Chin-length blunt bob

   A straight hemline at the chin shows off the gentle taper from cheekbones to jaw, and since your proportions are already even, the cut needs no corrective angles.

2. Long layers with face-framing pieces at the cheekbones

   The shortest layer lands at your widest point and points to it, while the length keeps the outline smooth. On wavy hair, the layers also stop the ends from bunching into a triangle.

3. Textured crop or short taper

   With no wide zone to disguise, you can go very short: close sides and an inch or two of texture on top keep the outline clean.

4. Rounded curly or coily shape, cut dry

   Curls shaped to be fullest around cheekbone level echo your outline instead of stretching it. Cutting dry lets your stylist shape each curl where it actually sits.

5. Sleek high ponytail, bun, or braids pulled up

   Taking all the hair off your face shows the whole outline, and unlike most shapes, yours needs no hair at the sides for balance.

6. Shoulder-length shag with curtain bangs

   Choppy layers add movement at the cheeks and jaw without changing your proportions, and the bangs frame your eyes.

Bangs

You can wear almost any bang, so let your hair and your forehead decide. A full blunt fringe suits an average or tall forehead; if yours is short, go wispy so the top of your face does not look cropped. Curly bangs should be cut dry and slightly longer than you want them, because they spring up.

What to skip

• Tall volume at the crown with flat sides, such as a high pompadour or a teased top: it stretches your face toward oblong.
• Heavy hair hanging over both cheeks: it hides your natural balance and can make the face look narrow and long in photos.
• Frames much wider than your face: lenses that overhang the temples throw off proportions that are already even.

Glasses for a oval face

• Wide rectangular frames. Match the frame width to your cheekbones, your widest point. The straight top and bottom lines add a crisp contrast to your soft curves.
• Geometric frames (hexagon or octagon). A few angles give structure to a face with no strong corners, without fighting its balance.
• Browline frames. The bold upper bar sits along your brows and the thin lower rim leaves the cheeks open, so the look is defined rather than heavy.
• Classic aviators. The teardrop lens tapers downward the way an oval face tapers toward the chin.

Makeup, brows, and beards

Contour and blush

You are not correcting anything, so keep contour minimal: a soft shade just under the cheekbones, blended toward the top of the ear, adds definition. Sweep blush from the apples toward the temples, and highlight the top of the cheekbones, the center of the forehead, and the chin to catch light along your natural shape.

Brows

Follow your natural shape with a soft arch that peaks about two-thirds of the way out from the inner corner. A very high, sharp arch can lengthen an oval face, and a flat, heavy line can shorten it.

Beards and facial hair

Almost any facial hair works, from stubble to a full beard. Keep the sides a little shorter than the chin so the beard follows your outline instead of boxing it in.

How the detector reads it

Oval is the detector's default: every face starts with a small lead for oval, and another shape needs a stronger signal to beat it. In practice you get oval when your length sits between about 1.24 and 1.5 times your cheekbone width and your forehead and jaw land near the typical readings of about 90% and 77% of cheekbone width (the landmark points sit just inside your outline, so these read lower than a tape measure would). Very soft jaw corners, with an angle wider than 160 degrees, add a little to the oval score. A sharp jaw corner (under 148 degrees) on an otherwise oval face usually shows up as "Oval, with some square traits".

Try the free face shape detector. It measures your face from one photo, and the photo never leaves your device.