Facial thirds divide the face from top to bottom into three parts, hairline to brows, brows to the base of the nose, and nose to chin. The classical ideal is three equal parts, but real faces usually have a slightly longer lower third. Measure yours below, or see every proportion with our free golden ratio face test.
What facial thirds are
The rule of thirds for faces goes back to artists of the Renaissance, who used it to draw balanced faces. Doctors, dentists and orthodontists still use it as a reference when they describe the proportions of a face.
- Upper third. From the hairline down to the point between the eyebrows.
- Middle third. From the point between the eyebrows down to the base of the nose, where it meets the upper lip.
- Lower third. From the base of the nose down to the bottom of the chin.
Measure your facial thirds
Add a straight on selfie with your hair pulled back from your forehead. The tool finds your brows, nose and chin, reads your hairline from your hair, corrects for any head tilt and shows how long each third is. It runs entirely in your browser, and your photo never leaves your device.
Measure your facial thirds
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If your hairline is hidden by a fringe or a hat, the tool estimates it and says so. For a measured upper third, pull your hair back.
How to measure facial thirds by hand
- Take a straight on photo at eye level, with your head level and your hair pulled back.
- Mark four points along the middle of your face, the hairline, the point between your brows, the base of your nose and the bottom of your chin.
- Measure the three distances between them on the photo.
- Divide each by the total to see what share of your face each third takes.
The hardest point is the hairline. It is often uneven, and it moves with age. The point between the brows is also a judgment call, which is why two people measuring the same face by hand often get slightly different results.
What balanced facial thirds look like on real faces
The classical ideal says each third should take a third of the face. Real faces are rarely that neat. Studies that measured real faces have found that the lower third is often a little longer than the middle third, and that proportions vary between people, between women and men, and between groups.
We measured 201 straight on faces from public photo sets, using the same method as the tool on this page.
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Middle third against lower third, average | About 91 percent |
| Middle 80 percent of faces | About 81 to 104 percent |
| Upper third share, where the hairline was visible | About 29 percent of face length |
So a lower third slightly longer than the middle third is the usual pattern, not an exception. In our faces it tended to be a little longer in men than in women, which is one reason our attractiveness test compares thirds with the typical balance of real faces rather than three equal parts.
Thirds and attractiveness
Research on attractive faces points mostly to symmetry and to closeness to the average face. When researchers moved features up and down on faces, people preferred positions close to the population average. Since the average face does not have three exactly equal thirds, the classical rule is a useful drawing guide rather than a target. Our guide to symmetrical faces covers the other side of that research.
What changes how your thirds look
- Hairline. A high or receding hairline lengthens the upper third, and bangs shorten it visually.
- Brows. Brow shape changes where the eye reads the top of the middle third.
- Teeth and jaw. The bite and the height of the teeth change the lower third.
- Beards. A beard can make the lower third look longer or shorter depending on its shape.
- Camera angle. A camera below the face stretches the lower third, and one above stretches the upper third. Always measure at eye level.
The lower third, split again
Clinicians often divide the lower third into its own smaller thirds. The distance from the base of the nose to the line between the lips is usually about one third of the lower face, and the distance from the lips to the bottom of the chin about two thirds. That split is useful for describing the balance of the lips and chin, and our golden ratio face test includes a related measure, the nose to chin distance against the lips to chin distance.
Facial thirds in women and men
In our 201 measured faces, the middle third was on average about 93 percent of the lower third for women and about 91 percent for men. The difference is small and the ranges overlap almost completely, but it matches what clinical studies describe, a slightly longer lower face in men on average, mostly from the jaw and chin.
Common patterns and how to style them
| Pattern | What it looks like | Styling ideas |
|---|---|---|
| Longer upper third | A tall forehead | Bangs or curtain bangs, a side part |
| Shorter upper third | A low hairline | Hair swept up and back, height at the crown |
| Longer middle third | A longer nose area | Fuller brows, blush across the cheeks |
| Longer lower third | A longer chin and jaw area | Volume at the sides, a shorter beard at the chin |
| Shorter lower third | A compact chin area | A goatee or a beard longer at the chin, lip color |
All of these are optional. Every pattern is a normal face.
Facial thirds for drawing
Artists still use the rule of thirds as a starting grid. Draw an oval, mark the hairline, brow line, nose base and chin at equal spacing, then adjust each line to match the face in front of you. The grid gets the features roughly in place, and the adjustments make the drawing look like a real person.
Thirds, fifths and face shape
Thirds describe the face from top to bottom. Facial fifths describe it across, five equal widths at eye level, each about as wide as one eye. Together with face shape, they give a full picture of proportions. Our face shape detector uses face length and three widths to name your shape, and our guide to canthal tilt covers the angle of the eyes.
None of these measures says anything about your worth. They are a way to understand proportions, and to choose hairstyles and makeup if you want to play with how they read. Our guide to the most attractive face shape explains why no single set of proportions wins.