The style that's right for you flatters your face shape, is easy to manage and earns you compliments. The secret of great styling is in the mixture of your ideas and the expertise of your hairdresser in interpreting what you want and being able to follow it through. First you come up with the way you would like to see your hair, based on your lifestyle and the image you have of yourself. Then your hairdresser considers how the look you love will work with your hair, head and face shape. Sometimes there has to be compromise, occasionally it's a straight 'no' when hair is too damaged to be permed or coloured. There's usually some alternative if you can't have what you want right away.
Your face
Its shape will dictate, to a large extent, which styles you can consider and those you should rule out. Draw your hair off your face and consider whether it is round, square, oval or heart shaped and decide whether you have a long or short neck, as this can also affect styling.
Your features
Everyone has good points they wish to emphasise and others they prefer to disguise, and these can affect your choice of hairstyle as much as your face shape. For instance, particularly large and beautiful eyes can distract from a round and chubby face, while otherwise even and perfect features may need a little extra help from the hair if they also include a prominent nose. Assess your pros and cons the strength of your bone structure and jawline together with the size of your nose, ears and eyes by checking your face from all angles in the mirror.
Your style
Though you may be one of those lucky people who can successfully change their whole appearance at the drop of a hat, most of us feel more at home with a hairstyle that settles into our own established ideas of how we should look. Although we may be quite happy to lop centimetres off the length, or add some curls or colour, few of us are really happy with a style that makes us feel we've undergone a complete personality change thus the punk rocker with the red and purple mohican cut will no more welcome the sleekly subtle blonde highlights adopted by the Princess of Wales than Her Royal Highness would opt for that outlandish look. It is also worth considering the time, effort and expense you're prepared to put into maintaining a hairstyle there is no point in setting your heart on a look that requires endless blow drying, gelling, tonging or teasing if you're the wash and wear type.
Also
avoid cuts or colourings likely to need regular, costly touchings up if ye on a limited budget.
Your shape
Do bear in mind your physical dimensions when choosing a hairstyle instance, a close crop may look out of proportion with a large or broad physique while a very dramatic style may overwhelm a very small figure.
Some tricks of the trade.
Here are some guidelines used by hairdressers when assessing a client's hairstyling requirements:
Round face to disguise a broad or chubby face, choose a style that gives height on top, while keeping fullness to a minimum at the sides.
Long face to disguise length, create a style with fullness at the sides of the face and perhaps some hair around the forehead. Some faces may benefit from a fringe.
Square face the solidity of a square face needs some softening, so it makes sense to break the line of the jaw, the cheeks or the forehead.
Low forehead the slightly squat appearance created by a low forehead can be disguised with a style that conceals the hairline. Starting a fringe from the top of the head, near the crown, can also give the impression of a higher forehead beneath.
Large nose a prominent nose can be minimised by adding fullness and fluffiness to the crown of the head, yet narrowing the way the hair falls onto the neck.
Flat crown where hair flattens off the top of the head, more height can be artificially created by gelling or moussing it into a spiky style or leaving it longer and perming it for extra body, The rest of the hair is best kept short.
Fall away chin a flat crown and hair styled for fullness at the nape of the neck should go a long way towards disguising a receding chin.
