Glasses for a long face: deep frames, a bold top bar and aviators

The short answer

For a long face, choose deep frames, frames with a bold top bar, or aviators. All three break up the face's length: depth covers more of the face from top to bottom, and a strong top line adds a horizontal across the middle. Avoid small, narrow frames, which leave a lot of face showing above and below them and make the length more obvious.

This is the optician's contrast rule applied to proportions rather than outline. It is a trade convention, not a finding from a controlled trial, but the logic is straightforward: glasses are the biggest shape across the middle of the face, and they can either interrupt its length or leave it alone.

How to tell if your face is long

Use a photo from about 1.5–2 metres away, straight on, at eye level, hair off the forehead, glasses off. A close selfie is unreliable in the other direction from what you might expect: at arm's length the camera enlarges the centre of the face (a 2018 paper in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery modelled this and estimated about 30% extra apparent nose width at around 30 cm), which can make a long face look wider and shorter than it is. A camera held above you and angled down, on the other hand, stretches the forehead.

From a level, distant photo, check three things:

1. Length against width. The face, hairline to chin, is clearly longer than it is wide — often around one and a half times as long.
2. Straight sides. Forehead, cheekbones and jaw are close in width, so the sides of the face run fairly straight rather than curving in and out.
3. The thirds. A tall forehead, a long distance between nose and chin, or a long chin. One or more of these usually accounts for the length.

If the face is only slightly longer than wide with curved sides, you are closer to oval. The hair side of this shape is covered in haircuts for a long face.

What suits a long face, and why

Deep frames

Frames with more lens height from top to bottom cover more of the face vertically. With less bare forehead above and less cheek below, the length reads in shorter sections. Deep rectangles, squares with some height, and rounder deep shapes all do this.

A bold top bar

A browline (clubmaster) frame, or any frame with a thick or contrasting top rim, draws a strong horizontal across the upper face. That line interrupts the vertical, and its weight at the brow makes the face read a little wider at that point. Decorative or contrasting arms, where they meet the front, add width the same way.

Aviators

Aviators combine a straight top bar with a deep teardrop lens that reaches lower on the cheek. They add both a horizontal and depth in one frame, which is why they suit long faces so well. They work as everyday optical frames and as sunglasses.

What to avoid, and why

Small, narrow frames. A shallow or small frame covers very little of the face, so the forehead above and the cheeks and chin below all stay visible. The face's length becomes the main thing the eye reads. The narrower the frame, the stronger the effect.

Related choices that push the same way:

• Very shallow rectangles, which add a horizontal but are too thin to break up the length.
• Frames narrower than the face, which leave bare cheek at the sides and make the face look narrower and longer.
• A high-set bridge with lots of nose showing below the frame, which lengthens the middle of the face.
• Rimless or very light frames, which are neutral: they add little either way, so they do not help with length.

Getting the size right

• Width. About as wide as your face at the temples, or a touch wider. Extra width is more forgiving on a long face than on most others, because it adds width across the middle.
• Depth. The more the better, within reason: the frame should still sit comfortably on the nose and not rest on the cheeks when you smile.
• Bridge. A lower-set bridge visually shortens the nose and mid-face. Try the same shape with two bridge positions and compare.
• Height on the face. The top rim should sit close to the eyebrows, so the frame does not leave a band of forehead between brows and rim.

Most frames carry their size on the inside of an arm as something like 52□18 145: lens width and bridge in millimetres (measured on the boxed system defined in the international standard ISO 8624), then arm length. Lens depth is not always printed, so ask the optician or check the retailer's listing.

What to say to the optician

"My face is on the long side, so I'm looking for deeper frames, something with a strong top bar, or aviators. Nothing small or narrow. Could you show me frames with a lower bridge, and check the width is right for my face?"

If your prescription is strong, say so. Deep frames mean larger lenses, and the optician can suggest a lens material that keeps the edges thinner and lighter.

Not sure of your shape? Find it from one photo.

Colour

A darker or contrasting frame makes the horizontal line stronger, which helps here. Black, dark tortoiseshell, navy or a two-tone browline with a dark top all work. Choose the colour family by undertone: warm skin suits tortoiseshell, brown and gold; cool skin suits black, silver, navy and grey.

Sunglasses

Sunglasses that suit you follow the same frame shapes. Aviators and deep wayfarer-style sunglasses are strong choices; small, narrow sunglasses are the shape to skip.

Trying them on properly

Take a phone photo of each pair from about a metre away, with the camera at eye level rather than above you. A high camera stretches a long face further and makes every frame look less effective than it is. Compare the photos, not the shop mirror.