What Glasses Suit My Face?

By Vik Malhi, optometrist and founder of J.HYDE

The short answer: the glasses that suit you are the ones that fit your proportions, work with your colouring, and send the signal you want. Face shape is the least reliable guide there is.

Why face-shape charts get it wrong

Round, square, oval, heart. Online charts sort millions of people into four boxes and hand everyone in a box the same frames. But two "round" faces can differ completely in width, features and colouring. A chart can't see your fit, your skin tone, your prescription or who you are, and those are what decide it.

What actually decides it

1. Fit. The frame should match the width of your head, neither pinching at the temples nor sticking out past your face. The bridge should sit without sliding, and your eyes should sit roughly in the centre of each lens. No style survives a bad fit.

2. Brow line. The top of the frame should follow your eyebrows, not cut across them.

3. Scale. Strong features can carry a bolder frame. Finer features suit something lighter. Get the scale wrong and the frame wears you.

4. Colour. Warm skin tones suit tortoiseshell, honey and gold. Cool skin tones suit black, grey, crystal and silver. Your hair and eyes matter too.

5. Prescription. This is where most guides stop helping. A strong short-sighted prescription gives thick lens edges, so smaller frames and solid acetate hide them better than thin metal. Strong long-sighted prescriptions suit smaller, rounder shapes. Varifocals need enough lens depth. The wrong frame can make a good prescription look heavy.

6. Signal. This is the part no chart asks about: what do you want people to read before you speak? Authority, warmth, creativity, calm? The right frame says it for you.

A quick mirror check

• Are your eyes centred in the lenses?
• Does the frame stop at the edges of your face?
• Do your eyebrows sit just above the frame, or follow its line?
• Does it stay put when you look down?
• Do you look like you, or like you're wearing glasses?

So should I ignore my face shape?

Use it as a tiebreaker, never a starting point. If you want the detail, see our guides for round, oval, heart-shaped and square faces.

Let us read you properly

We start with fit, then work out who you're becoming, in a free style consultation with one of our style experts.

Quick questions

Can a round face wear round glasses? Yes, if the scale and fit are right.

Do I need a prescription? No. Looking good in glasses is for everyone.

Is the consultation really free? Yes. No obligation.