Hair color placement — not the shade itself — is one of the more underused tools for adjusting how a heart face reads. A heart-shaped face widens at the forehead and temples, narrows through the cheekbones, and tapers to a pointed or narrow chin — the inverse proportion of a triangle shape. Many heart faces also have a slight widow's peak, which reinforces the forehead's visual width. Strategic highlight and lowlight placement can shift attention toward or away from specific measurements without touching a single strand's length.
The Placement Logic
The placement logic: Balance the forehead-to-chin taper by adding volume or width at the jawline and softening or minimizing width at the forehead and temples, which brings the upper and lower face into closer visual proportion. Lighter pieces draw the eye toward wherever they're placed, so on a heart face, lighter money pieces or face-framing highlights work best positioned to reinforce that goal — near the jaw if the jaw needs more visual weight, near the temples if the forehead needs softening, and so on. Darker lowlights have the opposite effect, receding whatever they're placed against.
Applied to This Shape
Applied to this shape specifically: This face's forehead reads as "the widest point, often broad, sometimes with a widow's peak hairline" and its jaw as "tapers inward significantly compared to the forehead." A colorist working from that description alone — without ever seeing a generic 'flattering colors' list — can place tone correctly for this exact shape.
What to Avoid
What to avoid: Full, swept-back styles that expose the entire forehead, top-heavy volume at the crown, and frames that are noticeably wider than the jaw, all of which exaggerate the existing taper. The same caution applies to color as to cut: heavy, uniform brightness concentrated in the wrong zone reinforces an imbalance instead of correcting it.