The best men's hairstyles for an oblong face with curly hair

These top picks put curls where they can help balance a long outline:

• Messy fringe: covers part of the forehead, shortening the visible face.
• Curtain fringe: also reduces the visible forehead while keeping a broken-up outline.
• Afro: adds side width, but needs attention to height because your face is already long.

A French crop is another good option because its fringe covers part of the forehead. A textured crop is neutral: forehead coverage helps, but added height pulls the outline in the other direction.

A taper fade, skin fade or buzz cut exposes the full outline, putting its width on show. Discuss how that changes the balance before choosing the cut. These styles need a tweak for this face shape.

A man bun, crew cut, undercut or side part can add height that an oblong face doesn't need. A quiff and curly top fade carry the same tradeoff. Their soft, broken-up lines can take the edge off a strong jaw, but extra height still adds length.

The hairstyle guide lets you compare these effects. For long-face hairstyles with curls, judge the finished outline rather than assuming every curly style adds useful width.

Ask for width at the sides, forehead coverage and no extra height. Explain that you want the curls to balance the face's length. Short sides remove cheek-level width; longer sides keep more of it.

The common mistake is choosing a cut made for another hair type and expecting the barber to force it with product. Start from how your hair dries naturally. Use that to choose your hair type.

The free face-shape finder names the closest face-shape prototype from one selfie, on your device. It doesn't read hair type, so you need to choose that yourself.