Style: January 05, 2018

42 STYLE | men’s grooming
CUT & STYLE
Put your best face forward
in 2018 by making sure
your haircut brings out
your best features.
Words Gilbert Wealleans
With Yuletide past and the holiday
memories fast fading, the time is ripe
to talk to the ‘man in the mirror’, as the late
Michael Jackson put it. If the looking glass
presents a casualty of festive excess and selfneglect
wearing the various badges of shame:
a sinister blue chin, scalp looking like a chewed
hedgehog corpse and neck hair resembling
Western Front barbed wire circa 1917, it is
high time for a tonsorial spruce up.
In achieving the perfect haircut there are two
key factors: communication and face shape.
Talk to your barber! Don’t just park yourself
in the chair expecting him or her to read your
mind. The result may be grim! Discuss your
requirements and show a picture of styles you
like, to determine which suits best based on
the shape of your face.
ROUND: Almost as wide as tall, the round
jawline and cheekbones benefit from styles
square or higher on top and at the front but
less full at the sides. A side/off-centre parting
helps break up the roundness as will waves or
a cowlick. Consider a ’50s pompadour. Avoid
full, round and sticking out styles, these can
make a round countenance resemble a church
sunburst monstrance (another word for your
Scrabble lexicon!).
SQUARE: As with round, square works best
with shorter, leaner sides with the top higher
and longer. Keep things neatly trimmed and
clean around the ears as too much fullness
covering the lugs could make your face look
too wide, or as if you are wearing a WW2
German helmet!
OVAL: Trumpeted as the ideal face shape,
oval can wear almost any style. Longer than
wide and combining elements of both round
and square faces, this pleasantly egg-shaped
dial is both strong and youthful due to the
absence of pronounced angularity. Wear your
thatch as you desire, you fortunate fellows.
LONG: Considerably longer than wide,
balance is essential for this face, therefore
a layered cut masking the forehead hairline
compliments well, as do styles longer at the
sides and shorter on top. If you have a beard,
don’t let it grow too long or your face may
end up resembling a violin case. Remedy this
with a good shave (refer Style October 2017).
TRIANGULAR: Wide temples and
cheekbones above a tapering jaw and chin,
need a style that narrows the forehead to
balance the face. Offset side partings and hair
swept to the side will usually do the trick.
DIAMOND: A complex shape with wide
cheekbones placed between a narrow, often
slightly conical crown and tapering jaw and
chin. Longer cuts or “messy” styles can work
for this face.