The Different Face Shapes (2)

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Round:

The Round face shape is considered by many women to be the least desirable, and is often confused with excess weight. While many women may develop a round face because of weight gain, there are many women who don’t have weight issues whose faces are round naturally.

The round face is noted by being less than 60% longer vertically than horizontally and by having rounded lines in the forehead and jaw areas.

Our celebrities, Lisa Rinna of “Veronica Mars” and Christina Ricci of “Grey’s Anatomy” are both classic Round faces. While Ms. Ricci’s look is obvious, some might argue with the classification of Ms. Rinna as a round face. We chose to include her as a round face shape because of the softness of her facial contours. Her specific facial type shows the similarity between the round and square types and how easily one can become confused.

Both women have followed good habits in dealing with the shape of their faces – each has chosen hairstyles that offer low volume on top, and longer, close-in sides and vertical lines, which help to create the appearance of a longer face.

Inverted Triangle:

The Inverted Triangle is named so because it is the face shape that features a much wider appearance at the top of the face than at the bottom.

While the proportions may very well be ideal with regard to the horizontal and vertical dimensions, the width of the upper section of the head compared to the jaw area is what makes the determination for this face shape. In dealing with this face shape, the key is to minimize the upper portion of the head while creating volume and a horizontal line at the jaw area for width.

Our celebrity choices, Jennifer Love Hewitt of “The Ghost Whisperer” and Tyra Banks of “The Tyra Banks Show”, are classic representations of the Inverted Triangle. Both have wider foreheads than jaw areas, and have pursued different styles to cope with their face shape.

Ms. Hewitt’s hairstyle uses side-swept fringe and low volume styling on top to minimize the forehead, while the added volume and wave at the ends of the hair draw the eye outward and give an illusion of balance. Ms. Banks, on the other hand has chosen a sleek, asymmetrically-aligned up-style to draw focus away from the shape of the face and create the illusion of more width in the lower portions of the head.

Triangle:

As a contrast to the Inverted Triangle, the Triangle face shape is characterized by a wider jaw are and a narrower forehead.

In most cases, the best course of action to deal with this face shape is to create a style with fullness and volume in the fringe area. The style should also taper to minimal volume at the lower areas of the face, or otherwise camouflage the width of the jaw line.

Oscar-winner, Geena Davis of “Commander-in-Chief”, has a classic Triangle-shaped face (also referred to as a ‘pear-shaped face’). While the hairstyle she is shown with in the photo does create an overall silhouette of a balanced head shape, I think Ms. Davis would be better served if the style included loosened fringe in large soft sweeps to hide the narrow confines of the hairline.

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