Face shape test

Face shape is shorthand for the outline of your face: how long it is compared with how wide, and whether your jaw and brow line are about as wide as the widest part of your face or narrower. Hairstylists, glasses shops and barbers use it as a starting point.

Real faces sit on a continuum, not in six boxes. The labels are lines drawn across that continuum, so many faces land close to the line between two shapes.

A landmark model places 68 points on your face, including 17 along the jaw outline and five along each eyebrow. From those points Pheno takes four distances:

• Length: from the brow line to the bottom of the chin. Your hairline cannot be located reliably in a photo, so forehead height is left out.
• Width: between the outermost points of the face outline, at about ear level.
• Jaw width: between the two angles of the jaw.
• Brow width: between the outer ends of the eyebrows, used in place of forehead width.

The shape follows from how those compare:

• Oblong: clearly longer than wide.
• Round: short, with a jaw nearly as wide as the face.
• Square: short to medium length, with a wide jaw and a wide brow line.
• Diamond: narrower at both the brow line and the jaw than at the widest point of the face.
• Heart: wide at the brow line, tapering to a narrower jaw.
• Oval: balanced proportions that fit none of the above.

It tells you how the outline of your face reads in this photo, using fixed rules you can check against the list above.

It is not a judgment of your looks, and it is not an anatomical or medical finding. The landmark model has no points on the cheekbones or the hairline, so cheekbone and forehead width are estimated from nearby points. Anything that changes the outline the camera sees (a turned head, hair across the jaw, a full beard, a big smile) can change the label.

• Face the camera straight on, head level, chin neither raised nor tucked.
• Pull hair back from your jaw and temples so the outline is visible.
• Use even, bright light from the front. Avoid strong shadows on one side.
• Keep a neutral expression with your mouth closed.
• Hold the camera at least an arm’s length away, or have someone else take it.
• Remove glasses and anything else covering your face. Only your face in the frame.

The free scan shows your face shape next to a model attractiveness score, letter grade, capture range and percentile. The full report (one time, $14.99) adds the measurements behind it, drawn on your photo: facial thirds, width-to-height ratio, eye spacing, lip and jaw ratios, and left-right symmetry.