Heart Face Shape
A heart face is widest at the forehead and tapers to a narrow, often pointed chin. A widow's peak is common but not required — the shape is defined by the forehead-to-jaw ratio, not the hairline.
Drop a photo into the panel and it will say whether your four measurements read as heart.
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 heart face is measured
Forehead width exceeds jaw width by more than twenty per cent — the face is widest at the top and narrows steadily to the chin.
- Forehead is the widest part of the face
- Cheekbones sit close to forehead width
- Jaw narrows sharply toward the chin
- Chin often pointed
A heart face is widest at the forehead and narrows steadily to the chin. The name suggests a widow's peak and a great many articles treat the hairline as part of the definition — it is not. The shape is a forehead-to-jaw ratio, and a straight hairline with the same ratio is still a heart face.
Also called: Inverted triangle face.
How to tell if you have a heart face
The heart shape is decided by comparing the top of the face to the bottom, so both ends need measuring.
- 1Pull all hair off your face — a fringe makes the forehead measurement impossible.
- 2Measure across your forehead at its widest point.
- 3Measure your jaw from below one ear to below the other.
- 4If the forehead beats the jaw by more than about a fifth, the shape is heart.
- 5Check the cheekbones as well: if they beat the forehead, you are looking at diamond instead.
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.
Heart vs Diamond face shape
Both narrow to the chin. The forehead decides it: a heart face is widest at the forehead, a diamond is widest at the cheekbones. If your forehead measurement beats your cheekbone measurement, it is heart, regardless of how pointed the chin is.
The diamond face shape in full →Heart vs Triangle face shape
These two are exact inverses, which makes them easy to separate and easy to confuse in words. A heart face is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom; a triangle face is narrow at the top and wide at the jaw. Every styling recommendation for one is reversed for the other.
The triangle face shape in full →Hairstyles for a heart face
Heart and diamond need opposite things at the forehead, which is why misidentifying one for the other leads to styling advice that makes the imbalance worse.
Works
- Styles with volume at or below the jaw, to balance the narrow chin
- Side-swept fringes that reduce apparent forehead width
- Long bobs ending just below the jawline
Fights the shape
- Volume at the crown, which widens the already-wide top
- Very short pixies that expose the full forehead
- Tight ponytails that pull all width upward
Beard styles for a heart face
A beard adds mass exactly where a heart face is narrowest, so it is one of the more useful shapes for facial hair.
- Fuller along the jaw and cheeks rather than concentrated at the chin
- A short full beard squares off the taper effectively
- Avoid a narrow goatee, which sharpens the point the shape already has
Makeup for a heart face shape
The work is at the two ends: take width off the forehead, put apparent width at the jaw.
- Contour along the hairline at the temples to narrow the top of the face
- Blush low and blended outward, which broadens the middle and lower face
- Highlight along the jaw rather than down the centre of the chin
- Softer, less arched brows, which stop the eye from being drawn to the width above
Glasses for a heart face
Works
- Frames that are wider at the bottom
- Rimless and light-coloured frames
- Oval and round frames to soften the taper
Avoid
- Heavy top bars, which add weight where the face is already wide
- Cat-eye frames, for the same reason
The heart face shape on men
On a male face the heart outline shows up as a broad brow and temple area over a narrower chin, and it is often read simply as a strong forehead. Beard growth changes the balance more here than on any other shape except round, because the narrow end of the face is the end a beard fills out.
Heart face shape celebrities
Heart is one of the three most searched shapes for celebrity examples. The lists disagree with each other constantly, which is the tell — the same person is filed as heart on one site and diamond on the next, because neither measured anything. Run your own photo instead.
Procedures that change a heart face
The chin is the end people ask about with a heart result. These simulations change that geometry.
- Chin AugmentationChanges chin projection and length.
- Jawline FillerChanges definition along your jaw.
- Hairline LoweringChanges the height of your forehead.
A simulation is a visualisation, not a surgical plan, and nothing on this page is medical advice.
Heart face shape — frequently asked questions
Is a widow's peak required for a heart face shape?
No. The shape is measured from forehead width against jaw width. A widow's peak often accompanies it but plenty of heart-shaped faces have a straight hairline.
Is a heart face shape rare?
It is middling — more common than diamond or triangle, less common than oval or round. The condition is a forehead more than a fifth wider than the jaw, which a reasonable share of faces meet.
What hairstyle suits a heart face shape?
Styles that put weight at the jaw and take it off the forehead: chin-length cuts, side parts, soft layers starting at the jaw. Height at the crown and severe centre parts both emphasise the widest part of the face.
Does a fringe suit a heart face shape?
Yes, and it is one of the few places a fringe is doing real work rather than decoration: it covers part of the widest measurement on the face. A soft, side-swept or curtain fringe works better than a blunt one, which draws a hard horizontal line across the width you are trying to reduce.
What is the difference between heart and inverted triangle?
They are the same shape under two names. Some charts split them by whether the hairline peaks, which is a hairline distinction rather than a measurement one, so this site treats them as one category.