The 7 Face Shapes Explained
There are seven commonly recognized face shapes: oval, round, square, oblong (rectangle), heart, diamond, and triangle. You tell them apart by comparing four measurements (forehead width, cheekbone width, jawline width, and face length) to see which is widest and how long the face is relative to its width.
No single feature decides your shape. A strong jaw alone doesn't make a face "square," and a long face isn't automatically "oblong". It's the ratio between all four measurements together that determines the category. If you'd rather skip the manual comparison, our face shape detector does this from one photo in seconds.
Face shape chart
The chart below shows all seven shapes side by side, with their defining width and length pattern.
| Shape | Widest point | Length vs. width | Jaw/chin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oval | Cheekbones | Length ≈ 1.5× width | Soft, tapered |
| Round | Cheekbones | Length ≈ width | Rounded, soft |
| Square | Roughly equal (forehead, cheeks, jaw) | Length ≈ width | Angular, strongly defined |
| Oblong (rectangle) | Roughly equal, but overall face is long | Length >> width | Straight, softly squared |
| Heart | Forehead/cheekbones | Length > width | Narrow, pointed (often a widow's peak) |
| Diamond | Cheekbones (forehead and jaw both narrow) | Length > width | Narrow, pointed |
| Triangle (pear) | Jaw (inverted: forehead) | Length > width | Wide jaw (triangle) / wide forehead (inverted) |
Want a downloadable, embeddable version of this chart for your own site or a presentation? See the standalone face shape chart guide.
The 7 face shapes, one by one
Oval face shape
An oval face is roughly 1.5 times longer than it is wide, with a forehead slightly wider than the jaw and a gently rounded, tapered chin, no single feature dominates. It's widely reported as the most common face shape; a 2026 analysis of 3,803 AI face scans found about 46% of results came back oval, though as a self-selected sample of tool users, that figure is indicative rather than a definitive population statistic (FaceAura AI, 2026). Read the full oval face shape guide →
Round face shape
A round face has a length close to its width, full cheeks, and soft curves with no angular jawline. The outline reads more like a circle than an oval. It's often confused with square, but a round jaw is the giveaway: soft and curved rather than sharply cornered. Read the full round face shape guide →
Square face shape
A square face has a forehead, cheekbones, and jawline that are all close to the same width, combined with a strong, angular jawline. The face length is close to the width, similar to round, but the defined corners at the jaw are what separate the two. Read the full square face shape guide →
Oblong (rectangle) face shape
An oblong face is noticeably longer than it is wide, with the forehead, cheekbones, and jaw all fairly similar in width and a straight cheek line running down each side. Oblong and rectangle are the same shape under two different names. This page and its dedicated guide use them interchangeably. Read the full oblong face shape guide →
Heart face shape
A heart-shaped face is widest at the forehead and cheekbones, then tapers down to a narrow, pointed chin, often with a widow's peak at the hairline. The face is longer than it is wide, but the standout trait is the taper, broad up top, narrow at the bottom. Read the full heart face shape guide →
Diamond face shape
A diamond face is narrow at both the forehead and the jaw, with the cheekbones as the clear widest point and a longer-than-wide overall proportion. It's easy to confuse with heart, since both narrow toward the chin, but a diamond face also has a narrow forehead. Heart's forehead is wide. Read the full diamond face shape guide →
Triangle (pear) face shape
A triangle face has a jawline that's wider than the forehead, making it bottom-heavy; the less common inverted triangle is the reverse, with a forehead wider than the jaw. Both are longer than wide, and both are covered in detail (separately) on the same guide. Read the full triangle face shape guide →
How to tell which face shape you have
The fastest manual check: stand in front of a mirror (or use a straight-on photo), pull your hair back, and measure or visually compare four things.
- Forehead width: widest point, roughly halfway between your eyebrows and hairline.
- Cheekbone width, across the top of your cheekbones, from just below the outer corner of one eye to the same point on the other side.
- Jawline width: from below one ear to the chin, doubled (or corner to corner).
- Face length, center of the hairline straight down to the bottom of the chin.
Then ask: which measurement is largest, and is the face length clearly greater than the width? That comparison, cross-referenced against the chart above, points you to your shape. For the fully detailed step-by-step version (including common measuring mistakes) see How to Determine Your Face Shape, or skip the manual work with the face shape detector.
Face shapes for men vs. women
The seven shapes and the ratios that define them are identical for men and women. A square jaw is a square jaw regardless of gender. What differs is styling: hairstyles, facial hair, and glasses recommendations are usually split by gender because hair length, beard coverage, and frame conventions differ.
- For women, styling advice typically covers haircut length, fringe/bangs, and part placement to balance proportions. See hairstyles by face shape.
- For men, advice more often covers haircut plus beard shape, since a beard can visually adjust jawline width, also covered in the hairstyles pillar, with men's sections on every shape page.
Glasses recommendations follow the same principle for both: frame shape is chosen to either contrast or complement your face's natural lines, details on the glasses pillar.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
How many face shapes are there?
Most style guides use seven categories: oval, round, square, oblong (rectangle), heart, diamond, and triangle (including its inverted variant). Some sources merge or split a few of these differently, but seven is the standard, widely used set. Our AI detector classifies the five most common of these (oval, round, square, oblong, and heart) while diamond and triangle are covered here as identify-by-hand guides.
What's the rarest/most common face shape?
Oval is the most commonly reported shape in modern photo-based analyses: a 2026 study of 3,803 AI face scans found about 46% oval, followed by diamond at 22% and heart at 19%. Square (0.8%) and triangle (0.03%) were the least common (FaceAura AI, 2026). Older anthropometric studies put oval closer to 25 to 30%, so treat any single percentage as indicative rather than definitive, since these samples are self-selected tool users, not random population samples.
Can you have two face shapes?
Yes. Many real faces sit between two categories rather than matching one archetype perfectly, for example a face that's nearly oval but with a slightly squarer jaw. When that happens, treat the closer match as a starting point and use both shapes' styling advice as options.
Does face shape change with age or weight?
Weight changes can shift how full or angular a face looks, especially at the cheeks and jaw, and skin and fat distribution change with age, which can soften a jawline over time. The underlying bone structure (the width of the forehead, cheekbone, and jaw at their widest points) stays comparatively stable, so most people's general category is consistent even as the details change.