Your Face Shape Matters

If you’re shopping for glasses, you need to know your face shape so that you can buy glasses that compliment the natural shape of your face. As an example, I analyzed the shape of my face by taking a digital photo and tracing the outline of my face in a simple image-editing program (Microsoft Paint will work). You can also trace your face on a mirror with a dry-erase marker or lipstick. This is what I came up with. As you can tell, my face shape is a slightly oblong rectangle (almost a square).

 Other common face shapes are square, round, oval, or triangle ("angular"). With my face shape, which features a chin of similar width to my cheeks, and a face that is longer than wide, it is important to minimize the length of my face by selecting a pair of eyeglasses that is wide enough to extend the entire width of my face.

Another good rule-of-thumb is that you should choose a frame shape that is the opposite of your face-shape or jawline. I have an almost squared jaw-line, so I should have slightly curved glasses. If you have a round face, you should look for a more squarish pair of glasses. If you are lucky enough to have a nice oval face, any eyewear will look good on you. Finally, if you have a very angular or triangle face, or a very pronounced jaw-line, rimless frames are an excellent choice.

My face, which has a somewhat pronounced jaw-line and is taller than wide, calls for a slightly rounded, fairly wide frame with a minimal rim. Your results may vary and you may not fit neatly into a given face shape, but take on aspects of several. If you’d like me to analyze your face shape and recommend a general frame-type, shoot me an e-mail and attach a picture. Make sure to include a descriptive subject line. Be warned, I’ll post my analysis and your picture for everyone to see. Resources: A glossary of face shapes.

Here is a video on the subject: