Top 9 Ways To Look Better Based On Your Body Shape And Face Shape

Our face shapes and body shapes can help us choose the most fitting hairstyles, clothing and accessories. Here are ten tips to help you accentuate your best features.

Photo by Ianitta (Shutterstock)

How To Change Your Body Shape With Exercise

For most of us, heading into a gym can lead to confusion about what exercises to do. If you want to change the shape of your body, can selecting certain exercises really work? The answer is an emphatic yes.

Read more

9. Figure Out What Face Shape You Have

The first step is to figure out what shape you fit into (more or less). For faces, that's generally oval, round, heart, square, diamond or oblong. This flowchart from the Beauty Department can help you determine your face shape, whether you're a guy or a gal.

8. Pick The Best Hairstyle For Your Face

The right haircut can make your face look thinner, longer, wider, or any other direction you want to go in. This chart suggests haircuts for women, and this is the men's version.

7. Choose The Best Sunglasses (Or Glasses) For Your Face

Your face shape also affects how glasses and sunglasses look on you. If you have a round face, best to go with larger and angular styles, while people with square faces will benefit from frames that aren't too heavy looking.

6. Select Jewellery Most Suitable For Your Face Shape

Anything you wear around your face could either enhance your face shape or work against it — including earrings and necklaces. Mystic Beauty explains which jewellery complements your face shape and why. (Hint: avoid earrings that are the same shape as your face.)

5. Pick The Best Beard Style For Your Face Shape

This one's for the guys. Birchbox recommends grooming your "optimal beard" by making your face shape and beard style work together to create a graduated, oval shape. If you have a square face, for example, you'll want to keep the hair fuller on the chin and shorter on the sides. Check out the guide here.

4. Buy Tops With A Flattering Neckline Or Shirt Collar

Shirt collars and necklines also work with (or against) your face shape. A point collar, where the tips of the collar are not spread too far apart, is best for round faces, while a wider spread collar is best for angular faces, according to this article from Black Lapel.

Likewise, certain neckline styles are more flattering with certain face shapes, as this graphic posted on Gurl suggests:

3. Identify Your Body Shape

As with face shapes, we all fit more or less into different body types. Shop Your Shape has a guide to the women's body types shown above as well as a calculator for you to input your measurements to get a result.

Men can check out this Fashion Beans article describing five categories of body shapes: trapezoid, inverted triangle, rectangle, triangle or oval.

Both sites offer suggestions on the most suitable clothing styles for your body shape.

There's also a theory that there are three main body types — ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph — for both men and women. You can take this test at Bodybuilding.com to find out which you fit into best and how that might impact your diet and exercise.

2. Choose The Right Handbag Based On Your Body Shape

When you carry around a bag, you want it to be proportionate to your body so you look balanced. If you're short, a long rectangular bag might make you look taller, for example, while a round handbag could benefit slim and tall women.

To some extent, these suggestions on bag shapes and sizes could come in handy for men and their briefcases or "man purses."

1. Look Better In Photos Based On Your Body Type

Finally, if you're taking photos and want to look your best, you can trick the camera into making you look taller, shorter, slimmer, or wider just by the way you angle yourself and your choice of clothing colours and backgrounds. These tips might, most importantly, make you feel more comfortable in front of the camera, whatever your body type.

Don't Mistake 'Skinny' For 'Healthy'

We all have that one friend whose eating habits and body shape simply don't add up. While enjoying the unhealthiest of meals and a sedentary lifestyle, somehow they effortlessly retain a slender figure.

Read more

This article first appeared in February 2015. It has been updated since its original publication.