hair

HAIR TALK: PEAR SHAPED FACES

post: Kristin Ess graphic design: Eunice Chun

No one owns the pear face shape better than lil Miss Kelly Osbourne. A pear-shaped face means that the widest points of your jaw are slightly wider than the widest points of your hairline. Although it’s a beautiful shape, the pear-shaped face can be a difficult one if  you don’t know which styles are most flattering. Most emails I get about pear-shaped faces ask how to minimize the width of the jawline. While that’s not always the goal, I give you plenty of ideas on how to either balance a pear face shape or just show ’em what your momma gave you. Here we go!

• DEEP SIDE PART: A deep side part on a pear-shaped face will diffuse the width of the jawline if that’s what you’re trying to accomplish. Always pull a little hair near the ear out on the less heavy side like Kelly does in the bottom left photo to balance the deep side part and soften the look.
• FULL TOP KNOT: Often times it’s just best to let that beautiful face shine! Pull all of your hair up into a voluminous top knot. The tighter the top knot is the wider the jaw will appear. Adding some fullness to your top knot will even out the overall silhouette of your head shape and that puts less focus on the width of the jaw– more focus on the face and hair together.
• GO SHORT: Obviously Kelly has a great neck for short hair. If you and your hair stylist agree it’s suiting for you to go short, you should consider it. A bob, whether it’s styled straight, wavy or curly, tends to cut off the width of a wider jaw and it’s one of the most flattering cuts for pear gals. A bob (or even a lob) puts the focus in all the right places. I know not everyone can pull off a lob or bob, but if you have a pear-shaped face and you can, it’s a great way to find easy balance.
• MEDIUM-LONG HAIRCUTS: Pear-shaped face girls should always keep a chin length layer or “long bang” that falls somewhere around the chin just in case you’re having “one of those days”. We all do! One of those days where you’re rushing and you just want to throw our hair up in a high pony or bun. Pulling those long bang pieces out can soften the look a great deal. Girls with pear-shaped faces should follow the same “KEEP THE PIECE” rule as round-faced girls when getting haircuts because you want the option to be able to diffuse the width or just pull it back and embrace what you’ve got. While I would say short-medium lengths are the most flattering for a pear-shaped face, longer lengths look amazing too. Make sure to keep some long face framing layers so you don’t get buried in hair.
• VOLUME: Pear-shaped face beauties should always try to keep a little volume (unless you’re going pin-straight). Again, remember that the goal is to even out the “overall silhouette”. In other words, you want to keep the top portion of your head looking a little fuller in order to balance out the width of the lower portion.
• STYLING: Curls are a great way to diffuse the width of a wide jaw. Classic curls, deep parted Veronica Lake waves, or even just simple beachy waves with texture.
• FLAT IRONING: A super sleek head of hair with a center part can make a pear-shaped face appear more oval– but the key is not to hide behind your hair. Try flat ironing and make sure you don’t tuck the pieces near your ear. Leave those sections untucked and instead push back the bang area a little more. That will make the jaw appear more narrow and the forehead will appear a little wider balancing things out.

Never hide behind your hair! Be proud of your face shape and learn to love it. Lots of my clients have a pear-shaped face and have learned how to balance instead of over-crowding the face with hair. If you have any personal tips and trick for your fellow pear-shaped face girls, please feel free to leave them in the comments below! We stil have diamond, inverted triangle and heart shaped to go so stay tuned! xo