Contour for thy tresses!

The contouring trend has travelled across various parts of the human anatomy. And the latest fad on the block is hair contouring.

Simply put, hair contouring literally helps sculpt  faces – thanks to meticulously placed highlights and lowlights. This helps to accentuate the best facial features, defining the overall effect. Once a colour palette has been carefully chosen as per one’s skin tone, darker shades are used to create shadows. Deeper shades help the face look narrower, while lighter colours are used for broadening and lengthening since they reflect light.

The key to successful contouring is identifying your right face shape –  oval/round/square/diamond or oblong. To get better clarity, on a round shaped face, light tones are generally applied around the hair line, from ear to ear.  On the other hand, darker tones are painted underneath the ears and lower ends of the hair. The former brightens and elongates the face while the latter gives the facial shape more of a point.

On a square shaped face, multi tonal layers of light and dark are applied to the corners of the face and around the jawline and temples to soften the slightly wider facial features. The above are just examples to understand how best colour placements can be done to achieve a contouring effect.

Remember to stick to shades which are no more than two shades darker or lighter than one’s base colour. Use the above tips to give yourself that well sculpted look.

The writer is a beauty expert