Face Form Finder

Triangle Face Shape: The Three Widths, and Which One Leads

A triangle face is decided by which of three widths leads, not by how long the face is. The table below puts all three widths on the same divisor, before anything else.

A dash means no separate cut-off is given for that reading on that shape, so nothing is filled in as a guess. The last three rows carry the same value in every column on purpose: they describe an adult face in general, not one shape, and they are the yardstick the three widths are read against.

How each reading is taken

Three of the six rows are widths, and all three are measured across the front of the face with a soft tape, held level, at the widest point of that band.

Temple width runs between the two points where the temple ridge rises on either side of the forehead, just above the outer end of each eyebrow. It is the same two points the top row calls forehead width; the two names are used for one measurement.

Cheekbone width runs between the outermost points of the cheekbones, which is usually the widest place on an adult face. Jaw width runs between the two jaw corners, the angles you can feel with a fingertip about a finger's width below and in front of each earlobe.

Face height is the fourth measurement these rows need, and it runs from the hairline to the bottom of the chin. Put the tape down the middle of the face for that one rather than around it.

The gonial angle is the only row you cannot take with a tape. It is the angle formed where the back edge of the jaw's upright branch meets the underside of the jawbone, and it is read from the side, either on an X-ray or by tracing the two edges on a photograph of your own profile.

The three rows that describe everyone

Divide each width by face height and an adult face lands near three values: about 0.65 at the temple, about 0.75 at the cheekbone, about 0.66 at the jaw. Those are population figures, not targets, and they are the same in every column because they describe an adult face rather than one shape.

Read them in order and they describe a profile. The cheekbone band is the widest, the temple band is the narrowest, and the jaw band sits just above the temple. An adult face is normally widest across the cheekbones and narrowest across the temples, with the jaw close to the temple.

A triangle face moves the jaw to the top of that order. The jaw is the widest point of the face, so it has to pass the temple first and then the cheekbone.

Those two steps are not the same size. The jaw starts 0.01 above the temple, which is nothing, and 0.09 below the cheekbone, which is about one part in seven of the jaw's own width. A jaw that has grown enough to overtake the cheekbone has done most of what makes a triangle read as a triangle, and it has done it without the face getting any longer.

The top row says the same thing from the other direction. Temple width divided by jaw width normally comes to 0.65 ÷ 0.66, or about 0.98, which sits inside the square band. A triangle face is below 0.82 on that reading, roughly a sixth below where an average face sits. That distance is what the label records.

Why face length cannot place a triangle

The band for face length against cheekbone width on a triangle face runs from 1.00 to 1.60. It is the widest bounded band on that row, more than twice the width of the round band, and it overlaps almost everything else on the row. Round runs 0.90 to 1.15, so the triangle band starts inside it. Square runs 1.00 to 1.30, oval 1.40 to 1.60, heart 1.20 to 1.65, diamond 1.20 to 1.75.

Only oblong, above 1.60, sits outside the triangle band. A face that measures 1.20 is inside four bands at once. So a length reading can rule out one label on that row and cannot pick a winner from the rest, which is why the first row of the table puts a width against a width instead.

It is worth knowing before you measure, because most face shape quizzes ask for length first and width second. A length reading in the middle of the range has told you almost nothing about whether the jaw leads.

The jaw corner separates a triangle from a pear

Two labels get used for the same downward taper: triangle and pear. They describe the same direction of widening, and the difference between them is the jaw corner. A sharper corner reads as a triangle; a softer, rounder one reads as a pear, and the jawline is the feature the two are told apart by.

The gonial angle is the number behind that impression. It opens to roughly 160 degrees at birth and closes to about 120 by adulthood, which is the ordinary reading on a grown jaw. Below 100 degrees, down as far as 90, the corner is defined enough to be seen from the front as well as the side.

The angle and the width move in opposite directions. A sharper corner goes with a wider jaw, so a face that already reads wide across the jaw corners tends to read angular there as well.

Measuring the three widths at home

Take all three widths on the same day, with the head level and the eyes looking straight ahead. A soft tape held level is enough; you do not need calipers.

Find the temple points first by sliding two fingers back from your eyebrows along the side of your forehead until the surface turns away toward the ear. Measure between those two points. For the cheekbones, find the outermost point on each side by pressing gently and following the bone back until it stops being the widest point. For the jaw, feel for the corner below and in front of each earlobe.

Then divide. Take jaw width, divide it by face height, and put the answer beside the temple figure and the cheekbone figure. If the jaw number is the largest of the three, the profile is leading from the bottom.

Two things move the numbers more than the face does. A tape that sits higher or lower on the side of the head changes the temple reading by more than the gap between the temple and jaw bands, and a photograph taken closer than about a metre flattens the height of the face while leaving the widths alone. Stand back and keep the camera at eye level.

Measure each width twice and use the average of the two. The difference between your two attempts is the honest error bar on everything below.

What the numbers cannot do

The width rows leave one gap between the triangle band and the square band. Triangle stops below 0.82 and square does not start until 0.90, so a face that measures 0.85 on forehead against jaw sits outside both. Nothing on that row places it. What settles a face in the gap is the jaw corner, which is why the gonial row is in the table.

They also cannot settle the temple against the jaw at home. Those two population figures sit 0.01 apart, and no tape placed by hand on the side of the head repeats to within 0.01 of face height. The cheekbone reading is the one worth trusting; it is the widest band on an adult face and the easiest of the three to find twice.

And they cannot tell you where the extra width comes from. A jaw that measures wide can be wide because of bone, or because of the chewing muscle that runs over the corner, or because of soft tissue along the lower cheek. A tape across the jaw corners measures all three together and cannot split them apart.

Nor can they tell you what to do about it. The width readings say which band leads. Whether that is something to soften, something to keep, or nothing to think about at all is a decision about how you want the face to read, and no number here answers it.

The width-by-width view of all seven shapes is set out in Face Shape Chart. The two long labels are separated in Oval vs Oblong, and the length readings are worked through in Square Face Shape and Round Face Shape. For the four readings most guides ask for, and why one head can read two shapes, see What Is My Face Shape?.