Diamond Face Shape
A diamond face is widest at the cheekbones and tapers in both directions: a narrow forehead above, a narrow chin below. It is the least common of the seven and the one most often misread as heart or oval.
Drop a photo into the panel and it will say whether your four measurements read as diamond.
Click to choose a photo, or drop one here
Straight-on, even lighting, at arm's length gives the most comparable reading.
No photo to hand? Try one of these and see what the tool returns.
Runs in your browser. Your photo is never uploaded.
How a diamond face is measured
Cheekbone width exceeds both forehead width and jaw width by more than ten per cent — the widest point sits in the middle of the face rather than at the top or bottom.
- Cheekbones are the widest point of the face
- Forehead is narrower than the cheekbones
- Jaw narrows to a defined, often pointed chin
- Face length is usually greater than face width
The name comes from the outline you get by joining the four widest points: narrow at the top, wide across the middle, narrow again at the chin. It is the rarest of the seven because it needs cheekbones measurably wider than both the forehead and the jaw, and most faces are widest at one end or the other rather than in the middle.
Also called: Rhombus face, Kite face.
How to tell if you have a diamond face
A diamond shape is decided by three widths, and you can take all three with a soft tape measure in front of a mirror.
- 1Pull your hair back completely and face the mirror square on, at eye level.
- 2Measure across your forehead at its widest point, roughly halfway between your brows and your hairline.
- 3Measure across your cheekbones, from the outer corner of one eye straight across to the other.
- 4Measure your jaw from the point below one ear to the point below the other, following the bone.
- 5If the cheekbone figure beats both the forehead and the jaw by more than about a centimetre, the shape is diamond. If the forehead wins instead, it is heart.
A tape measure held against your own face is accurate to maybe half a centimetre, which is enough for the clear cases and not enough for the borderline ones. The tool above takes the same three widths from 478 landmarks instead.
Diamond vs Heart face shape
Both taper to a narrow chin, so they look alike in a photograph. The separating measurement is at the top: a heart face is widest at the forehead, a diamond is widest at the cheekbones. Measure forehead width against cheekbone width and the answer is immediate — if the forehead wins, it is heart.
The heart face shape in full →Diamond vs Oval face shape
An oval face also narrows toward the chin, but its widths step down gently and its forehead is not noticeably narrower than its cheekbones. A diamond has a forehead that is clearly narrower, by more than ten per cent. Borderline cases usually get called oval, which is part of why oval is assigned so often.
The oval face shape in full →Hairstyles for a diamond face
The goal with a diamond face is nearly always the same: add apparent width at the forehead and jaw, take it away from the cheekbones.
Works
- Side-swept fringes and curtain bangs, which add width where the forehead is narrow
- Chin-length bobs that put volume at the jaw
- Layers starting below the cheekbone rather than at it
Fights the shape
- Volume concentrated at the cheekbone, which exaggerates the widest point
- Slicked-back styles that expose the narrow forehead with nothing to balance it
- Blunt centre partings, which lengthen an already long face
Beard styles for a diamond face
Search volume for a diamond-face beard is small, but the principle is worth stating: a beard is the fastest way to add width at the jaw, which is one of the two narrow points of a diamond face.
- Fuller at the sides of the jaw, trimmed short at the chin
- A short boxed beard, which squares off a pointed chin
- Avoid a long goatee, which extends the taper the shape already has
Makeup for a diamond face shape
The aim is to soften the middle and add apparent width at the two narrow ends — the reverse of the advice given for a round face.
- Bronzer or shadow just under the cheekbone, blended back toward the ear rather than forward
- Highlight on the centre of the forehead and on the chin, where the face is narrow
- Blush placed slightly higher and rounder than the cheekbone edge, to break the hard line
- Brows extended a fraction wider than usual, which widens the top of the face
Glasses for a diamond face
Works
- Oval and rimless frames
- Frames wider at the top — cat-eye, browline
- Soft curves that offset angular cheekbones
Avoid
- Narrow frames that sit exactly at the cheekbone width
- Very angular rectangles that echo the taper
The diamond face shape on men
On men the diamond outline reads as high, prominent cheekbones with a narrow temple area, and it is the shape most often mistaken for oval in male faces because a short haircut removes the visual cue at the forehead. The styling problem is the same in both cases: the narrow forehead is what needs width, not the cheekbones.
Diamond face shape celebrities
Celebrity diamond-face lists are everywhere and this site does not publish one. A face shape is decided by three widths measured on a straight-on photograph, and press photos are shot at every angle and lens length there is — assigning a shape from one of them is a guess dressed as a fact. Measure your own instead; the tool above needs one photo and no account.
Procedures that change a diamond face
If the narrow forehead or the pointed chin is what you want to change, these are the simulations that touch the same geometry.
- Temple FillerChanges hollowing at the temples.
- Chin FillerChanges chin projection, without surgery.
- Buccal Fat RemovalChanges cheek fullness below the cheekbone.
A simulation is a visualisation, not a surgical plan, and nothing on this page is medical advice.
Diamond face shape — frequently asked questions
Is a diamond face shape rare?
Yes, it is the least common of the seven. It requires cheekbones measurably wider than both forehead and jaw, which is a narrower condition than the other shapes.
What hairstyle suits a diamond face shape?
Anything that adds width at the forehead and the jaw while keeping volume away from the cheekbones. Side-swept fringes and chin-length cuts do both at once; slicked-back styles and cheekbone-level layers do the opposite.
Are high cheekbones the same as a diamond face shape?
No. High cheekbones describe where the bone sits vertically; a diamond face is about how wide it is relative to the forehead and jaw. You can have prominent cheekbones on any of the seven outlines, and plenty of diamond results have cheekbones that are wide rather than high.
Is a diamond face shape attractive?
There is no measured ranking of face shapes by attractiveness, and any article that gives you one is quoting a preference as a finding. What the research supports is averageness and symmetry, neither of which favours a particular outline.
Can I change a diamond face shape?
The outline is bone, so hair, framing and facial hair are what actually move it day to day. Fillers at the temple or chin change the same three widths the measurement uses, which is why they appear in the simulations above.