Hairstyles to suit different face shapes Part 1 - Find your face shape

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Editorial credit: Arisa_J / Shutterstock.com

We founded The Chapel salons on a dedication to ensuring our guests always leave us both looking and feeling fantastic. Seasons change, and fashions come and go, but the essential truth about style remains the same - because style is all about discovering what works best for you. With this in mind we felt it was high time we let you in some of the fundamentals we always consider when advising each of our guests on which styles will work for them -  and one of the most important is identifying the cuts that work with your personal face shape.

As a rule our face shapes fall into six main categories; oval, round, square, long (oblong), heart and diamond. In this series of four blogs we're going to take an in depth look at which styles and cuts provide the most flattering compliments to each shape, not to mention what you definitely won't get away with (no matter how 'on trend' it might be right now). But first off, lets get down to the nitty gritty with a simple method for finding out which shape category your face falls into, one that happily doesn't involve bandaging your head in ten feet of tape measure!

To begin, find a mirror large enough to accommodate a full head and shoulders portrait of yourself when standing 2-3 feet away, then pin back your hair so that your ears and forehead up to the hairline are clearly in view. Look at yourself head on, and do try to be serious - smiling distorts your true face shape! You now have four comparative measurements to make; the length of your face from hairline to chin, the width of your face between the hairline at each temple, your face width from ear to ear beneath the eyes and your face width from jaw to jaw just above the upper lip.

Editorial credit: 3xy / Shutterstock.com
Image credit: Editorial credit: 3xy / Shutterstock.com

Image copyright: 3xy / Shutterstock.com

The four measurements you need to compare to identify your face shape

We'll go into more refined detail later on, but essentially if the length of your face is roughly one and a half times its width from ear to ear (and your temple and jaw-line measurements are slightly smaller) then you have a classic oval face. If the width from ear to ear is nearly the same as the length, then your face is a round, and if the length is nearly twice the width ear-to-ear you have a long (oblong) face shape. Those whose facial length, ear-to-ear width and jaw width are all roughly equal fall into the square category, while those whose widest facial width is between across the forehead, with widths between ears and across the jaw gently tapering away beneath are referred to as heart shaped. Finally, anyone whose ear-to ear widths are conspicuously wider than their jaw and forehead widths are classed as a diamond shape (and are often blessed with a pair of killer cheekbones!)

All these face shapes offer their own special brand of natural beauty, as these pics of celebrities that define each prove. Yet some shapes are more adaptable than others, and as we'll discover, when it comes to finding the most flattering hairstyles and cuts, each face shape has it's own special set of do's and don'ts.

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