Bangs and glasses are sooo cute! As an excellent example of this style, please have a look at this lady and get excited!!
Sometimes we hear people say that bangs go best with light frames, and that it is better to avoid frames with thick rims, or dark colors, or those that are otherwise “heavy-looking”. I don’t agree with that. Rather than believing such general advice, I think it is more important to test and figure out what works for each of us. And testing is easy if we realize to consider each of the components of the look separately, and together with the others.
The components are:
– Your natural hair volume, direction and lines.
– Size, style and color of the frames.
– How the actual bangs are cut and then behave.
– Facial shape and proportions.
So the first one is about how long/much hair you have, whether it is mostly vertical and straight lines (as in the picture), or if it is wavy and wild, and also how “high” on top of your head you usually carry your do. The following is about whether the frames are statement frames drawing the attention to them, or if they are intended to blend into your overall look. The third is about how you’ve cut the bangs, the length of the bangs (whether you keep them trimmed on a regular basis :)) and if the bangs sit straight, or if they bend to either side et.c. The fourth one are the ordinary rules of thumb as come to frame size and shape if considering the shape our your head and chin.
So while it is always a good idea to bring your glasses with you to the hairdressers, it is even more important to decide what kind of frames you are going to go with 🙂 If you have, or can borrow an iPad, there are some great hairdo-simulation applications to help you out. In these apps you can take pictures of yourself using the iPad camera. You can then apply different ready hairstyles and colors on your pictures. Now the great part is of course that you can vary the glasses you are wearing in the different pictures. This way you get an idea of how different frames will work with your desired bangs (see for instance Hairstyle Booth HD in the appstore).
That said, I usually think the easiest way to go about the frames and hairstyles matching (in app or in real life), is to start by matching the shape of your head/face with the shape of the frames. There are a lot of advice on this out there (try google or bing) so I won’t go into that here, but it is good to follow the general rules of thumb (round face -> angular glasses, oval face -> wide frames and so on).
Once that is done, consider the size of the frames (both width and height). This is where you should also consider the link to the amount, height and direction of your hair. So if you have a lot of wild, high hair it is best to go with a wider, slimmer pair of frames. You may want to draw away some of the attention from your huge do, and because frames wider than your face always make a statement it is also ok to choose a more radical color. Be mindful though of the width of the rims. They better be quite slim or otherwise you are easily overdoing it.
If you have neat vertical & straight hair you may want to consider an angular look, and let the geometry do it for you. In this look you would cut square-box straight bangs, and choose frames that make a straight horizontal line in parallel with the lower edge of the bangs. Square thick-rimmed glasses with straight bangs are usually a good mix, but it is important to check that the width of the glasses is in line with the width of your bangs. Otherwise you’ll have too many “lines” going on there 🙂 Similarly, if your bangs don’t keep a straight horizontal line, or they shift to either side you may want to reconsider as the “lines” won’t be there in that case.
Be sure to leave slightly less than a fingers width between the upper rim of the frames and the lower edge of the bangs to get that casual, untucked look. If the bangs hit the rims you will easily look tucked up.
Now irrespective of the which way you go I think it is generally a good idea to try and match the amount of bangs and head/facial area above the upper rim of the frames to the size of the facial area below the lower rim. As you can see in the picture below, some of the reasons why the look works so good for her are the straight lines, the proper width of the frames, and the good match between facial area above and below the frames.
Imagine if she would have a huge & high 1980’s style hairdo. In that case she could consider going with wider frames, slimmer rims, and lesser height on the rims to balance the amount of hair, head and face above and below the frames.
So what do you think, do you like bangs and glasses? 😉