Long layers are a choice that many women make when deciding on a haircut. There is a really great reason for that – long layers are more versatile than other types of haircuts. You can create a lot of different styles with long layers. You can do up-dos or leave your tresses hanging down. You can create elegant looks, flirty looks and professional looks. This depends less on the cut of the hair and more on the way that you choose to wear it.

So how should you wear your long layers? A good starting point for making a decision about this is to figure out which face shape you have. There are some hairstyles that look better than others depending on the shape of your face. Knowing which ones work for you will help you make smart choices about what to do with your long layers to get the best possible look for your hair.

Take a look at the seven basic shapes of the face and what they mean for how you should wear your long layers:

1. Diamond. How can you tell if the shape of your face is a diamond? Measure it. If your face is widest in the middle (and narrows at the forehead and chin) then you probably have a diamond-shaped face. What type of long layers is best for this face shape? The main goal that women have when they have this shape of face is to create a more balanced look for the face by making the forehead and chin appear a bit broader while narrowing out the middle of the face. The best way to do this is to wear your long layers down but smooth against your cheeks to diminish the width of the face. At the same time, you should put a heavy emphasis on what you do with your bangs – a side sweep with a lot of volume will give you more width here and balance out the face. If you have chin-length to shoulder-length hair then you can also curl the bottom of your hair out or under in order to give more width to the area near your chain.

 2. Heart. Your face is heart-shaped if you have a wide forehead (specifically from temple-to-temple) and a very pointy chin. To balance out the shape of your face, you will want long layers that give width to the chin area while minimizing the forehead area. This is one face shape where the actual haircut matters just as much as the style. You want to make sure that you don’t have blunt layers but rather that your long layers are subtle and smooth. This is particular true with your bangs which should be soft and will probably look best when swept to the side.

 3. Oval. This is considered to be the ideal face shape for people who want to wear long layers. This face shape means that you have a face which is noticeably longer than it is wide. The only hairstyles that you want to avoid with this face shape are those which would make the shape of your face seem even longer. This means that you should avoid any short layers on the top of the head and instead make sure that you stick with only long layers throughout the cut. Other than that, you can play around with a variety of up-do styles and styles with your hair down to see what you like best. You should find that most styles work well on this face.

4. Pear. A pear-shaped face starts out narrow at the forehead and widens to be quite broad at the jaw. People with this face will use long layers to increase the width of the forehead while diminishing the width of the jaw. The main idea here is to give volume and width to the top part of the hair. A blunter cut for the top layers can help with this but you can also achieve this by styling the hair so that the bangs and top part of the hair have more volume. Try to keep the rest of the haircut (the lower layers) straight and narrow to minimize the volume near the lower part of the face.

5. Rectangle. A rectangular face is similar to an oval face except that the jaw and forehead are squarer. Unfortunately this face shape isn’t quite as versatile in terms of long layers as the oval face is but you can still get a great look for this face shape if you make an effort. Your goal to achieve facial balance here is probably going to be to minimize the length of the face. Do this by avoiding straight, narrow haircuts and instead offer volume. A combination of short layers and long layers can provide this. A style that has volume around the top of the head will also help. Side-swept styles are ideal for long layers on the rectangular face shape.

 6. Round. A lot of women with a round face don’t like the fact that their face is round because it makes them feel chubby. The right style can make a round face really cute. You want to create height on the top of your head to make it look like you have a slightly longer face. You want to make sure that you don’t have curls or blunt layers cut around your cheeks. You might want to play around with highlights in the color of your hair to help change the shape of your face when you wear long layers down.

 Information source for this article: http://hair.lovetoknow.com/Long_Layered_Hair_Styles

7. Square. Finally there is the square face which combines elements of the round and rectangular face. Ironically, the goal here is to try to gain the elements of those two things that are missing – you want a look that will make it seem as though your face is longer and rounder than it really is. The ideal look here is a hairstyle that is designed with wispy long layers that are cut to a medium length. You can play around with different styles but you want to avoid anything that is too straight – no straight-across bangs or chin-length bob cuts. Other than that, it’s a matter of just seeing what you like with your long layers.