Best Hairstyles

Best Hairstyles For You - 6 Steps to Finding Your Best Hairstyle

Best Styles 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 Next What is your hair type and texture?

Step One: What is Your Face Shape?

You can look at hairstyles galleries all day and come up with a list of the top hairstyles out there. But what does that really mean for you?

What works for a certain celebrity might not work for you. For starters, most celebrities have their own personal hair stylist that travels with them everywhere. There's no need to worry about waking up and having a bad hair day if you are a celebrity.

We have developed a 6-part series on finding the best hairstyle for you. The six steps are very methodical and will help you find the right fit when it comes to hairstyles. Even if you have a trusted hair stylist, you should read this series to capture even more great points and ideas for styling your hair.

Look Young

Your hairstyle can take 10 years off if you pick the right one. Most hairstyles that fall between the chin and shoulders are the most flattering. Face framing layers can soften any look, as well as adding some sort of bangs, such as side swept bangs.

Cameron Diaz, see photo right, is wearing a hairstyle that is very young looking with long side swept bangs.

Celebrity Hair Styles and Your Face Shape

Before you seriously consider cutting your hair just like one of your favorite celebrities, you will need to start with your own face shape. Just because you find a celebrity hair style that you like does not mean that it will look good on you.

Determine Your Face Shape

To determine your face shape, pull all of your hair back into a ponytail or clip. Stand in front of a mirror and trace the outline of your face onto the mirror using something removable (i.e. a bar of soap, washable marker, etc.). Next, stand back and look at the shape that you drew. Does it look more oval, round, square, heart shaped or oblong? It could be the combination of any of these shapes. There are 5 basic face shapes that we will cover, oval, round, square, heart and oblong. Most of us have combinations of these face shapes.

Oval Face Shape

This is the ‘wannabe’ face shape, similar to the hourglass body shape. Oval face shapes are highly desired and envied. All other face shapes attempt to create the illusion of having an oval face. The oval face shape suits any hair style, including long, short, medium, layered, straight or even curly. Bangs can be added to emphasize the eyes or add a little change.

What to avoid: Blunt cuts for thick hair, short curly hairstyles

Celebrities with oval face shape include:

Round Face Shape: A round face is as wide as it is long with rounded edges. The nose is the center guide. In trying to maintain the appearance of an oval face shape, hair for round face shapes should be kept close to the sides of the face, while the crown will need height and volume.If you want your face to appear slimmer, make sure hair is showing below the chin. Layers from the lips down remove bulk and weight from the sides. Tapered ends will draw attention away from the roundness by allowing hair to fall close to the head.

What to Avoid: Avoid short hair and volume at the sides, one length cuts.

Celebrities with round face shapes:

Kyra Sedgwick

Kate Winslet

Square Face Shape: The square face shape is as wide as it is long and has strong angles. This face shape needs a hair style with softness to lessen the effects of the angles.Long hair styles should fall past the shoulders, with face-framing layers to soften the jaw line. Shorter styles should be kept round and soft with height in the crown area. Wispy bangs are great, as well as fluffy, wispy curls.

What to Avoid: Avoid one-length hair styles; especially chin length and blunt-cut bangs. These styles will accentuate the square-ness of your face shape.

Celebrities with square face shapes include:

Demi Moore

Gwyneth Paltrow

Geena Davis

Sandra Bullock

Heart Face Shape: The heart-shaped face is wide in the eye and cheekbone area with a narrow or pointy chin. Many heart-shaped faces also have a high forehead.For long hair styles, add long, wavy layers around your cheekbones that fall in the neck area. For shorter hair, add top layers that are long and soft, but remember not to go too heavy in the crown area. Heavy layering in the crown will give the appearance of a longer and narrower chin. Side-swept bangs are a great technique to lessen the width and height of the forehead area.Avoid blunt-cut bangs, short hair, ponytails and choppy layers. Subtle layering is much more flattering.

Celebrities with Heart Shaped Face include:

Long Face Shape: Long faces are described as oblong- long and narrow. The goal with this face shape is to create the illusion of more width by adding fullness at the sides and having a smooth top with bangs of some sort. Curls and waves can also add width to your face and make it appear more oval.Avoid extremely long, straight styles, one-length cuts, short layers that add volume in the crown area and styles without bangs as these will make your long face much more pronounced.

Celebrities with long face shapes include:

After you have determined your face shape, you will need to look for celebrity hair styles that are on celebrities with similar face shapes. Stay tuned for Part 2 of Best celebrity hair styles for your face.

Go to Best Celebrity Hair Styles for Your Face Part 2