Diamond Face Shape: How to Confirm It, Plus the Hairstyles That Work

Every source we read describes the same pattern. Celebrity hairstylist Paul Labrecque, quoted by TODAY: “You have wider cheeks with a narrow forehead and jawline.” Barber Matty Conrad, in GQ Middle East: “Widest at the cheekbones, and slightly more narrow at the forehead and chin.” Optometrist Dr. Catherine Ong, for Zenni: “A diamond face shape features a narrow forehead, high cheekbones, and a small, defined chin.” Opticians at All About Vision say “narrow at the forehead and chin,” and the optical trade journal Eyecare Business puts it as “narrow at the eyeline and jawline.”

So there are three checks. The cheekbones are the widest point. The forehead is clearly narrower than the cheekbones. And the jaw is clearly narrower too, usually ending in a narrow chin. Diamond faces are often moderately long, but length is not what defines them.

This is one of the most common diamond questions, and the answer is that the two shapes share their widest point. On both, the cheekbones are wider than the forehead and the jaw. The difference is how much. On an oval face the forehead and jaw are only a little narrower and the outline curves smoothly; on a diamond face both are clearly narrower, so the cheekbones stand out as a corner on each side.

Several everyday things blur that difference. Hair worn loose over the temples fills in a narrow forehead and makes the outline look oval. A fringe does the same. Fuller cheeks soften the cheekbone corner. And a photo taken close to the face, or from below, changes the widths you see. If someone who knows you says oval and an app says diamond, both may be describing the same face in different conditions.

On FaceCheckup the forehead-to-cheekbone ratio decides it. Our reference value is 0.92 for oval and 0.86 for diamond, and 0.77 against 0.73 for jaw-to-cheekbone. These are our own model values, built on Google's canonical face model, because no stylist source gives a numeric cut-off. If your result shows diamond and oval close together, you are on the boundary, and the advice that suits both (soft fringes, length past the cheekbones) is the safe choice.

Heart and diamond both have a narrow, often pointed chin, so they get mixed up from the bottom. Look at the top instead. On a heart face the forehead is the widest part, or about as wide as the cheekbones; L'Oréal Paris's quick test is that “if your brows are noticeably wider than your jaw, you have a heart-shaped face.” On a diamond face the forehead is clearly narrower than the cheekbones.

On a photo, compare the top and middle lines on the Widths layer. If the top line is close to or longer than the middle line, read the heart-shaped face guide. If it is clearly shorter, diamond is the better description. The styling advice differs mainly at the forehead: heart faces are told to soften a wide forehead with side-swept or long curtain bangs and to avoid heavy blunt ones, while diamond faces are told to add width there.

Stylists approach a diamond face with one goal: add visual width at the forehead and the jaw so the cheekbones no longer stand out alone. Every cut below is a stylist convention from our rulebook, each backed by at least two professional sources (TODAY, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Revlon Professional, Huda Beauty and The Art of Manliness among them).

For short hair, the chin-length bob is the classic recommendation, because it ends where the face is narrow and adds fullness there. For medium hair, a side-parted lob or shoulder-length cut is the safest single choice: the off-centre part softens the symmetry of the cheekbone corners, and length past the cheekbones carries weight down to the jaw. For long hair, keep it, but add a fringe or face-framing pieces that start below the cheekbones.

How to ask for it at the salon: rather than naming a face shape, describe where you want the weight. Say you want the cut to sit fuller around the jaw or chin, softer and fuller at the temples, and with no short layers ending at the cheekbones. If you want a fringe, ask for one that is longer at the outer edges so it widens the forehead instead of covering it as a narrow block. Bringing a screenshot of your Widths layer helps here: a stylist can see at a glance that your middle line is the longest, which is the whole reason for the advice.

Hair texture changes how much help you need. Curly and wavy hair adds width on its own, so a shoulder-length curly cut often balances a diamond face with no further changes, as long as the volume starts below the cheekbones rather than at them. Very fine, straight hair falls flat at the temples, so a fringe or a side part does more of the work. These are applications of the same stylist convention, not separate rules: put width where the face is narrow.

Two habits work against the shape. The first is short layers that end right at the cheekbones; Cosmopolitan's stylists and barber Matty Conrad both warn against them, because they put volume exactly where the face is already widest. The second is flat hair or tight sides at the temples, which makes the narrow forehead look narrower still.

Brow and beard choices have similar traps: sharp, peaked arches make the cheekbone width more angular, and a pointed chin beard narrows an already narrow jaw. Neither is wrong if you like the look; they just pull in the opposite direction from the balancing advice.

Updos follow the same logic. Hair scraped tightly back from the temples shows the full cheekbone width against a narrow forehead; leaving a few face-framing pieces loose in front of the ears, or pulling the hair back softly rather than flat, keeps some width at the top.

Opticians agree on curves and on detail at the top. The table gives the three frame conventions from our rulebook with the reason and the sources behind each. Whatever the shape, the frame should not be much wider than your cheekbones, or it adds width where you have the most.

Brows (makeup-artist convention): use a rounded or gently curved brow rather than a sharp peak; curves soften the widest point at the cheekbones. HighBrow Beauty and Maybelline both recommend it.

Contour (makeup-artist convention): contour lightly on the outer cheekbones and along the temples and hairline, and keep highlight in the centre of the forehead and chin. Patrick Ta, e.l.f. and Maybelline give the same pattern, which shades the widest point and brightens the narrow ends.

Blush (makeup-artist convention): apply it on the tops of the cheekbones and blend outward toward the ears. This rule has only one strong source so far, L'Oréal Paris's Roberto Rodriguez, with Trinny London's makeup artist describing the same placement, so treat it as a starting point.

Beard (stylist convention): grow fullness at the chin and lower jaw while keeping the cheeks lighter, and avoid a pointed chin beard. The Art of Manliness, Pall Mall Barbers and FashionBeans agree. Philips suggests a shorter Van Dyke or Balbo instead, which keeps the same idea of weight at the chin with less bulk.

Take a straight-on photo with the phone propped about 1 to 1.5 m away at eye level, hair pulled back off the temples and jaw, glasses off, mouth closed. Hair over the temples is the biggest single reason a diamond face reads oval, so tie it back fully for the measurement.

Run the face shape detector and switch on the Widths layer. You are looking for a middle line (cheekbones) that is clearly longer than both the top line (forehead) and the bottom line (jaw). Then read the two closest shapes and their percentages. Diamond with a clear lead confirms it. Diamond and oval close together means a softer diamond: use the fringe and below-cheekbone length advice, which suits both. Diamond and heart close together means your forehead is wider than a typical diamond; compare the heart-shaped face guide and choose the cuts both pages share, such as a chin-length bob or long side-swept bangs.

Take three photos and check the ± range beside each ratio. If the top shape holds across all three, you can take the result to your stylist with confidence. The main scan on the homepage also measures cheekbone height, which tells you whether your widest point sits high or low.