Where to Place Hair Highlights for Your Face Shape

Discover where to place hair highlights for your face shape to enhance your natural features. Learn how to create balance and dimension with personalized highlighting tips for round, square, oval, heart-shaped, and long faces. Hair highlights are a great way to refresh your look and add depth and dimension to your hair. They can be the perfect addition to any hairstyle, whether you’re looking for a subtle change or something bold. However, finding the proper placement for your highlights is essential to complement your face shape and enhance your natural features. The wrong placement could make your features appear out of balance or unflattering, while the right highlights can highlight your best features and create a harmonious look.

The placement of highlights is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each face shape requires a specific approach to highlighting, ensuring that the highlights accentuate the natural beauty of your face. Knowing where to place hair highlights for your face shape can affect your overall look. Here’s a guide to help you determine the best placement for your face shape.

For Round Faces: The Art of Lengthening

For those with round faces, the goal is typically to create the illusion of length and structure. A round face tends to have equal width and height, making it look wider. Placing highlights in strategic areas can visually elongate the face to offset this. Focus on the top and sides of your head with lighter hues. The best areas to place your highlights would be around the crown of your head and near the cheekbones. By doing so, the highlights add dimension, drawing the eyes upward and away from the roundness of the cheeks.

When highlighting a round face, avoid placing light shades near the jawline or around the sides of your face, as this can create a wider appearance. Instead, using highlights closer to the crown helps make the face look slimmer and more elongated. You can also use a few strategically placed highlights around your temples to soften the fullness of the cheeks and create a more angular, structured look. Putting the highlights high on the head and away from the face can create balance and harmony.

For Square Faces: Softening the Angles

Square faces are known for their strong, angular jawlines and broad foreheads. When placing highlights for this face shape, the goal is to soften the sharpness of the angles and add a bit of warmth and roundness. A good technique is to put the highlights around the hairline, especially around the temples and above the ears. These areas naturally add softness to the features and make the face appear more oval-shaped, counteracting the harshness of the jaw and forehead.

For square faces, it’s essential to focus on vertical highlighting techniques. Highlights placed strategically along the crown or in a way that flows downward help create the illusion of a softer, more oval shape. Avoid putting too many highlights near the edges of the face of the jawline or the sideburn area, as this can emphasize the squareness. The aim is to balance out the strong lines and bring attention to the center of the face, creating a more balanced, flattering appearance.

For Heart-Shaped Faces: Enhancing the Chin and Jawline

A heart-shaped face typically features a broad forehead and a narrow chin, so highlights can be used to bring balance to these features. To enhance the lower portion of your face, focus on placing your highlights around the jawline and chin. This draws attention downward and creates the illusion of a more proportional face shape. For added dimension, put a few highlights in the middle of the hair, especially around the cheekbones and the area just below the ears. These will create a beautiful contrast with the lighter highlights around the chin, giving your face an oval or diamond-like appearance.

When placing highlights for heart-shaped faces, it’s important not to go too heavy on the top section of your hair. Adding too much lightness near the forehead can accentuate the width, which might not be the desired effect. Instead, focus on areas that create a well-rounded appearance, bringing the highlights down to balance the face shape. This creates a more harmonious overall look that complements the face’s natural contours.

For Oval Faces: Creating Depth and Balance

Oval faces are considered the most versatile for hair highlights because their proportions are naturally balanced. With this face shape, highlights can be placed in almost any area without the risk of overwhelming the face. However, to add depth and enhance natural symmetry, it’s beneficial to place highlights around the middle or ends of the hair, focusing on the areas that frame the face. This can accentuate the eyes and cheekbones, giving a bright and lively look without overpowering the face.

The key to highlighting oval faces is to maintain the balance and natural flow of the features. You can experiment with highlights throughout the hair, from the crown to the tips, to create movement and dimension. If you prefer a more subtle effect, consider focusing on the lower portions of your hair to add depth without distracting from the natural harmony of your face. Overall, the flexibility of the oval face shape means you can get creative with placement while ensuring your highlights are both flattering and balanced.

For Long Faces: Adding Width and Softness

For individuals with long faces, the goal is to create width and balance out the length of the face. To do this, highlights should be placed in ways that add volume and dimension to the sides of the hair. Focus on placing highlights around the cheekbones and the lower portions of the face to add width. Lightening the hair near the temples can create the illusion of a broader face, helping to reduce the elongation of the face shape. These areas will reflect light, making the face appear shorter and more balanced.

It’s crucial to avoid placing too many highlights at the crown of the head, as this can make the face look even longer. Instead, softening the look with highlights near the ears and jawline will bring a more balanced and proportional appearance. Additionally, soft, blended highlights can add texture hair and volume to the hair, further enhancing the desired effect of reducing the appearance of length. Knowing where to place hair highlights for your face shape, especially for long faces, will help you achieve a flattering and balanced style that complements your natural features.

Conclusion

Knowing where to place hair highlights for your face shape is essential in creating a flattering and well-balanced look. Whether you have a round, square, heart-shaped, oval, or long face, the key is to focus on the areas that enhance your natural features while minimizing those that might create imbalance. By choosing the right placement, you can transform your hairstyle into a reflection of your unique face shape, making your highlights not just a trend but a tailored enhancement.