The most attractive face shape for men and for women

Face-shape labels help you choose haircuts and glasses. They describe the outline, not everything inside it. Research instead examines symmetry, proportions, skin and other features; no outline guarantees an attractive face.

Oval is a common styling reference because its outline is balanced and easy to frame. That makes it versatile, not a winner over round, square or heart-shaped faces.

When people say a man has a great face shape, they usually mean the lower third: a jaw whose edge is visible from the ear to the chin, a chin that does not recede, and cheekbones that read under the skin. Those are the traits that make a face get called square or oval-with-a-strong-jaw. What the research supports is narrower than the forums claim. A defined jaw and cheekbones read as lean and healthy, and facial fat is one of the most reliably perceived signals in face studies. Strong masculinity on its own, a heavy brow and a very wide jaw, is a mixed bet: some studies find raters prefer it, others prefer a slightly softer male face, and the result shifts with the rater and the context.

So the honest answer for men is: no shape, but a lean, symmetrical face with a visible jaw edge, whichever outline it has. A long oblong face with a clear jaw rates better than a square one hidden under fat. The jawline score measures the jaw from a photo, and sexual dimorphism explains why more masculine is not automatically better.

For female faces the research is more consistent. Feminine features, fuller lips, higher brows, fuller cheeks and a smaller lower face, raise ratings across studies far more reliably than masculine features do for men. Those features are what make a face get called heart-shaped or oval: a tapering lower face under cheekbones that sit high. That is likely why heart and oval top lists of attractive female face shapes.

Again the shape is the summary, not the cause. A round face with high cheekbones, even skin and good symmetry is rated well, and a heart outline with uneven skin is not rescued by its shape. The parts worth checking are the zygomatic bones, how even the skin is and how balanced the facial thirds are.

fWHR, the facial width-to-height ratio, is the forum's favourite number for male face shape: cheekbone width divided by the height of the midface, from the eyelids to the upper lip. A high fWHR describes a broad, short midface, which is what a wide square face looks like. The research behind it is about perceived dominance and aggression, not attractiveness, and even that link replicates unevenly. fWHR also rises with facial fat, because fat over the cheekbones adds width without changing the bone. Getting leaner usually lowers it slightly while making the face read sharper.

If you want the number anyway, the fWHR calculator measures it from one photo in your browser and shows whether the width or the height drives it. What is a good fWHR explains why there is no target value, and the facial ratios tool reads it next to the other common proportions.

The framing column is a set of style rules of thumb, not research. They work by adding visual width where a face is narrow, length where it is short, or softening strong angles. Glasses follow the same logic; see glasses by face shape.

• Facial fat. It rounds the jaw and widens the cheeks, which can move a face from square or oval towards round. It is the one part of the outline an adult can change; see body fat and the jawline.
• Hair and beard. They change the outline the eye sees without touching the face. A beard can square a round jaw or lengthen a short chin; the beard style tool suggests one for your shape.
• The photo. A phone held close makes the middle of the face look bigger and the sides smaller, which turns a square face oval on camera. Shoot from arm's length or further, at eye level; photo quality, light, angle and lens covers why.
• Bone. Cheekbone width, jaw width and face length are set by the skeleton. Nothing non-surgical changes them, and BecomeTen does not recommend surgery.

1. Take one photo straight on, at arm's length or further, in even light, with a neutral expression and hair off the face.
2. Run the face shape detector to get the label, as a starting point for hair and glasses.
3. Run the fWHR calculator and the facial harmony tool to see the proportions the label summarises.
4. For a rating of everything the research actually weighs, symmetry, skin, jaw, eyes and proportions together, use the full scan.