Why Your Haircut Never Looks Right (It's Not You)

Do you ever wonder why some people can pull off almost any haircut? You bring in the exact same inspo photo. Your stylist technically gives you the same cut, but something about it still feels off. You get angry, blame the stylist or worse, you blame yourself and start questioning your own beauty. But after 19 years as a hairstylist, I can tell you the problem isn't always your stylist and it's certainly not your own looks. It's simply that you've never been told how to pick the right haircut. And in order to do that, you need to understand your dominant features and your facial thirds, something most of us were never really taught how to identify. So today we are changing that so you can save your money on the wrong haircuts and finally request the layers, parts and links that will flatter your face hair type and hair density. Are you ready? Let's go. Now it's pretty common to feel confused by your face shape as you aren't always able to look at yourself objectively. What you may see as a flaw others might not even notice and your shape is not determined by one single specific trait. Your face shape is determined by how much length and width your face holds the proportions of your facial thirds and how narrow angled or wide your hairline and jawline are. A good haircut is meant to balance your unique face length to width ratio and enhance your features. If you diagnose your shape incorrectly, you may end up asking for a haircut that fights against your natural balance and knowing the difference is what separates a flattering haircut from one you regret. So we're going to quickly break down the eight primary face shapes, their length to width ratios, and what to look for within your own hairline and jawline to see what shape you fall into. Let's start with the oval face shape. The dominant trait of an oval is actually the lack of a dominant trait. You have a nice egg like shape. Your hairline isn't too wide or too narrow and the face gently tapers at the jaw. Everything is proportionate and nothing is visually overpowering. Oblong faces are all about vertical dominance. When you look in the mirror, length is the first thing you notice much more than your width. Your forehead, cheeks and jawline are all quite narrow. They are not wide. Square faces are defined by angular width and you tend to have less length in your overall shape. So you have a strong jaw, a broad forehead and there is this almost invisible line, so to speak, that goes from your hairline down to your jaw. Rectangular shapes are similar to oblong shapes where you have a noticeable length, but like a square shape, you also have noticeable width. So you're essentially just an elongated square and both your hair and jawline have prominence. Next up round faces. If your overall face shape has no real definition at the corners and screams circular and you feel like you lack length, that is your standout feature. Round faces are dominated by width across the cheekbones paired with a delicate chin and a gentle hairline. Heart shaped faces. You'll find that the forehead either has a straight hairline with width or a widow's peak in a pointed chin. Your forehead or your chin is a dominant feature that stands out in your shape. Diamond shapes. Your faces are defined by a narrow hairline and a narrow jawline with more width in your cheekbones. So both the hair and jawline have to have that narrowness to them for you to fall in line with the diamond shape. And I would say that a diamond is probably one of the most uncommon shapes. And finally we have pair, which I feel like pair is probably one of the least talked about shapes when it comes to haircut conversations. But pair faces you guys carry the most width through your jawline and then your forehead is more narrow. So the jaw is wider than your hairline. So your hairline and jawline are your two main points that you want to take a look at when assessing your face. And you want to consider also how long or short your faces and then make note of how wide, narrow or angled your hairline, cheeks and jawline are. Oval heart, diamond and pair shapes. You guys tend to have a length to width ratio that falls between 1.4 and 1.5. Meaning that your face is a 1.4 or 1.5 times longer than it is wide. Square and round shapes. Your length to width ratio is 1.4 or less and oblong and rectangular shapes. You tend to be 1.5 or more. If you're still confused, don't stress. It can take time to look at your face from this lens. I've been doing this for 19 years, so it's a bit easier for me. I do have a ton of videos here on the channel that go over face shapes that you can watch after this video or you can always come back here when you need to so you can figure it out at your own pace. And I also want to share that I do offer a digital face shape analysis where you send in photos and I personally measure your face length, your facial width and more to give you your exact facial proportions. And then based on that, I give you custom haircut suggestions that will work best for your exact features. So if you are still feeling unsure, you can check out my website that's linked below in the description and pinned comment. I would love to be able to personally help you out even more with good haircut suggestions. Now that you know more about your face, you now need to know what hair lengths tend to be ideal for your shape. So a haircut, it acts like a frame around your face and that frame changes a bit based on your shape. So the whole idea of a haircut is to draw the eye to the right places, create balance where there's an imbalance and make it beautifully compliment your features. The goal is to never fix your face, but to create visual harmony and the way we do that is through illusion. So for example, if you have an oblong or rectangular face, we usually want to avoid a haircut that adds even more length downward. Your hair's job is to create the illusion of more width through the sides, which is why curtain bangs, layers soft waves and styles with volume at the sides are great tools to sort of break this vertical line and it gives the eye a reason to travel sideways rather than further down because you naturally already have a longer face length. You want to avoid overly long styles with little to no layering round and square faces. The dominant feature here is width. So our styling goal is to add the illusion of length in your shape and this can be done by creating height at the crown or picking styles that fall past the chin and jaw, which really helped to elongate the face and offset that horizontal width square and rectangular shapes. You also benefit from softer framing that gently just diffuses your strong angular features, especially around your jaw line shoulder lengths with face framing or soft waves starting below the chin are a great way to add curved lines and counteract the angular jaw structure. Side swap bangs are also a clever option because the diagonal line across the forehead helps to visually break up that horizontal width. Oval heart diamond in pear shapes. You tend to have a bit more wiggle room when it comes to haircuts due to your length to width ratio being more balanced. You can pull off various lengths with less concern of whether or not it's going to drag your face down. However, you will want to be more aware of your facial thirds when deciding on haircuts. This of course is important and something that every face shape needs to know as it can help set the tone in where you part the hair or where you want your layers to begin and if bangs are going to work well for you as well. Your face is divided into three vertical sections known as your facial thirds. So your top third goes from your hairline to right in between your brows. Your middle third goes from in between your brows to right under your nose and your lower third goes from under your nose to the bottom of your chin. So most people have one third that is longer or shorter than the others and then some of you are blessed to have balance between each third, which I'm very jealous of, but the relationship between each third helps determine which haircuts and parts work best for you. So my face falls in line with the heart shape. I have a soft widow's peak and my jawline comes down to a point. So my lower third holds the most vertical length of my facial thirds. It makes up 38% of my facial length and my top third makes up only just 30% of my facial length. So long chin, short forehead with my shape and proportions. I like to avoid links that land above my jawline and I like to avoid certain things. Now I want you to ignore the color of this wig as it does not suit me at all, but it does help give an example of what I'm talking about as far as the cut goes. Because my forehead is naturally my shortest point, I don't need to close it off by covering it with a full bang. Pair this with the length landing above my jawline. It directs the eye to focus solely on my mid and lower third. It brings more attention to an area that already just dominates my shape. So this cut, it closes off my face entirely and something about it, it just really kind of feels off. When I opt to wear a bob that is a little longer and without bangs, it allows for my entire shape to be seen. It keeps my top third that is short open and it keeps balance in my shape, even if the length is landing at or just below my jawline. Now with how long my hair is right now, I like to have soft layers cut into the hair to sort of help draw the eye up to my middle third to balance the extra length of my hair. And even though my face frame, it is subtle, it still creates movement to help add the illusion of width in my lower third to balance the natural length and point that I have here. So my hair texture, it's very fine and I have a low to medium density and my current length and layers I think work well for both my hair type density and face shape. I want to keep growing my hair out a bit longer, but I do think that the current length that is now is sort of the sweet spot for my overall ratios and hair type with my hair type and density longer lengths. I'm not going to be able to create as many layers as I would like, which is going to end up leading to a greater chance of my face being dragged down in my shape loss. So we'll kind of see how it goes as I grow it out. If I did want to try out bangs, a curtain style bang would be most ideal for me as it allows for visual movement in my top third and it doesn't fully cut off that visibility paired with my pointed chin. It gives me a little bit of a diamond vibe to my face. So within your own face shape, you need to think about which of your facial thirds naturally draws in the most focus. If your face shape has a dominant top third, you'll want styles with bangs and face framing that bring focus to your mid and lower third round oval and pear shapes. You'll do better with blunt cut ends to strengthen your softer jaw square and rectangular shapes. You are going to want probably softer ends to balance the bold jaw, heart diamond and oblong shapes. You will probably want blunt ends in your hair if it's fine and in a lower density, softer ends are okay. If you have a really thick hair, if you have a dominant lower third layers that bring focus to your eyes and cheekbones and keep your top third exposed is ideal. Layers that gently flow down past your jawline help to keep balance and add the illusion of width here as well. And finally we have to talk about the importance of where to part your hair. You may be thinking that partings are just based on trends or habits, but there is an actual proportional reason behind why you may feel like one is more flattering than the other. So looking at yourself in the mirror, you want to take a look at your hairline to find your best part placement. You need to determine what your top third needs. Does it need more visual length, more openness, or does it need less of that? Because of my widow's peak, when I wear a center part, it significantly closes off my already compressed top third. This is because it's parted at the shortest point of my forehead and because of that, my face starts looking a little shorter and I feel like it just closes off my face entirely. When I switched to a side part, the entire balance changes for the better. The asymmetry it creates across my forehead makes my top third feel more open, visually longer, and it allows my face to look true to its natural shape as it should. And I do feel my best when my hair is parted on the side when it's parted down the middle. I don't know. I just don't feel like myself at all. If your forehead is quite broad and you want to narrow its width, opting for a middle part is going to close off your corners and soften your natural width because it's going to bring the eye right into the center of your top third. If you have a narrow hairline or you want to create the appearance of more angles in your shape, the side part will create those angles and can help add the illusion of more width because it exposes a little bit more of your forehead. Remember understanding what your proportions need and making strategic styling choices will always flatter your face best. So next time you see a picture of a haircut you like, think about your own facial proportions and length to width ratio to make sure it will work for you just as well. Don't forget that if you want more help figuring out what cuts suit your face best, don't forget that I offer a face shape analysis and you can always check out this video right here next that dives in a bit deeper into your face and what lengths work best for it. I so hope you enjoyed this week's video. Drop a heart emoji in the comments if you did. Thanks for watching and I will see you on the next one. Bye.