Hair contouring — What it is and how it can help you

Pop icon Kim Kardashian posted before and after pictures of her contouring trick one decade ago, and the makeup world is still thanking her. The stage makeup technique has been a good friend to artists all over the world, and now, hairstylists have come up with hair contouring methods, which aim to define facial contours with tactically placed highlights and colouring techniques. What's more, there's one for each face shape so there's room on the bandwagon for everyone.

Hair experts compare the procedure to facial contouring and maintain that there are ways, through an interplay of medium and contrasting shades, to create an illusion of depth and definition to the face. The deliberate placing of colours, especially warmer tones like mahogany, ash, mocha and brown usually create amazingly diverse effects to suit facial shapes. Once a face shape is determined, colour experts say that it is easy to figure out which features to highlight and which ones to contour.

Oval Face

For a face type that's longer, rather than wider, experts recommend adding some width to the face. This can be done by keeping the underside and the roots of the hair darker so as to create a shadow around the jaws and at the top of the head. One single highlight would frame the face and lighter, ombre highlights around the ears would give the face the horizontal dimension it needs, to make it appear a little fuller.

Round Face

To make rounder faces appear leaner, colour experts advise creating depth along the sides of the face. The idea is to lighten out the crown and ends freehand, and colour hair that is framing the face darker to create the illusion of shadow and give it a chiselled look.

Square Face

Someone possessing a square face has more space horizontally and more defined perimeters. Experts suggest softening these edges and filing out the more jutted, or angular features. This can be done by contouring along the edge of the face and then using impeccable blending techniques to blur out the angles and give the face a naturally softened look.

Heart Shaped Face

These faces have pronounced foreheads and a narrower chin and need some strategic highlighting done for them, placed at deliberate lengths. The highlights would ideally lighten hair from the ear length and south, to give some fullness to the chin and ease out the angles. Additionally, some strands of hair in the fringes would also be coloured to take the attention off the forehead and make the face look more proportional.