Eye Shapes: The 8 Types and How to Identify Yours

In this guide16 sections

1. Key Points
2. What Determines Eye Shape?
3. Eye Shape Chart: The 8 Different Types of Eyes
4. Types of Eyelids: Single, Double and Hooded
5. What Eye Shape Do I Have? How to Find Your Eye Shape
6. Upturned, Downturned and Neutral Eyes: Canthal Tilt Explained
7. Close-Set and Wide-Set Eyes: Eye Spacing Explained
8. Male and Female Eye Shapes: Is There a Difference?
9. How Does Eye Shape Change With Age?
10. Is There a “Most Attractive” Eye Shape?
11. When Is a Change in Eye Shape a Medical Problem?
12. Can Surgery Change Your Eye Shape?
13. Frequently Asked Questions
14. Eye Shape Assessment at Centre for Surgery
15. Related Reading
16. References

Eye shapes are usually grouped into eight types: almond, round, hooded, monolid, upturned, downturned, deep-set and protruding. But eye shape is not one measurement. It is the combined result of four independent anatomical variables: whether the upper lid has a visible crease, the angle between the inner and outer corners, how far apart the eyes sit, and how far the eyeball projects within the orbit. Change any one of those and the eye reads differently, which is why two people described as having “almond eyes” can look nothing alike.

Most articles on the different types of eyes list six or eight shapes and leave it there. That is not much use if you are trying to work out which one you have, because the categories overlap: you can have hooded, close-set, downturned eyes at the same time. This guide sets out what actually produces each eye shape, how to identify your own in three checks, how eye shapes differ between men and women and change with age, what the evidence does and does not say about attractiveness, and when a change in eye shape is a medical question rather than a cosmetic one.

What Determines Eye Shape?

Four structures do most of the work.

The upper lid crease. A fold called the supratarsal crease forms where fibres from the tendon of the lid-lifting muscle (the levator aponeurosis) reach the skin of the upper lid. Its height, or its absence, determines how much lid space is visible when the eyes are open. A 1999 anatomical study of Korean and Caucasian upper eyelids, including lids without a crease, found that where there is no crease, the tissue layers of the lid join lower down and more fat sits in front of the tendon, so its fibres do not reach the skin in the usual place^[1]. Crease height and prominence also differ on average between populations^[2]. Where skin descends far enough to bury the crease, that is hooding rather than a change in the crease itself, and it is what upper blepharoplasty addresses.

The canthal tilt. A line drawn from the inner corner of the eye to the outer corner. In many people the outer corner sits slightly higher. The size of that angle changes how open or downturned the eye appears, and it is the only one of the four variables that canthoplasty can alter.

Interorbital distance. How far apart the eyes sit relative to their own width. This is mostly bone, set by the orbits themselves. Cosmetic surgery does not move the orbits; the main soft-tissue exception is the inner corner, covered under eye spacing below^[3].

Globe projection. How far the eyeball sits forward within the bony socket, and how much orbital fat cushions it. This produces deep-set eyes at one end and prominent eyes at the other. Deep-set eyes under a low, straight brow are the basis of what online communities call hunter eyes. That same fat is what bulges forward to create under-eye bags, which is a separate concern covered in upper vs lower blepharoplasty.

Everything described as an “eye shape” is a combination of these four. None of them is a defect.

Eye Shape Chart: The 8 Different Types of Eyes

The eye shape chart below sets out the eight types of eye shapes most commonly described, what defines each one anatomically, and how to recognise it in a mirror. Where a shape has a procedure or guide genuinely associated with it, the name links through.

Shape	Defining feature	How to spot it
Almond	Visible crease, slight upward canthal tilt, iris partly covered above and below	The eye tapers to points at both corners; no white above or below the iris
Round	Iris fully visible with white showing above or below	The eye reads as more open and circular when relaxed, not just when surprised
Hooded	Skin from the brow bone drapes over the crease	You cannot see your own crease when looking straight ahead
Monolid	No visible supratarsal crease	The upper lid is a smooth continuous surface from lash line to brow bone
Upturned	Outer corner sits clearly above the inner	Also called a cat eye shape; a positive canthal tilt of several degrees
Downturned	Outer corner sits below the inner	The outer corner appears to droop slightly
Deep-set	Eye sits further back in the orbit	The brow bone is prominent and casts a shadow over the lid
Protruding	Eye sits further forward in the orbit	More of the white of the eye shows than average, and in profile the eye sits forward of the brow line

A note on oval eyes. Oval is sometimes listed as a ninth shape. In practice it describes the same configuration as almond: a visible crease, corners that taper, and an iris framed by both lids. Where the two are separated at all, oval tends to imply a slightly rounder and less pointed outer corner. We treat them as one category here because the distinction is not applied consistently between sources and has no bearing on assessment or treatment.

A note on monolid, because it is frequently mishandled. A monolid is simply an upper eyelid without a visible crease. It is a normal anatomical variant and it requires nothing. We describe it here because people search for it while trying to identify their own eye shape, not because it is a problem to be solved. Where someone does want a crease created, that is double eyelid surgery, and it is an elective decision rather than a correction.

Types of Eyelids: Single, Double and Hooded

Many people searching for eye shapes are really asking about eyelid types. The upper eyelid is usually described in one of the ways below, and any of them can sit alongside any of the eye shapes in the chart.

• Double eyelid. A visible crease divides the upper lid into a smooth strip just above the lashes and the skin above it. The height and shape of the crease vary from person to person.
• Single eyelid (monolid). No visible crease. The lid runs smoothly from the lashes to the brow.
• Hooded eyelid. A crease is present but covered by skin from above, so you cannot see it when looking straight ahead. Hooding can be lifelong or can develop with age.
• Epicanthal fold. A small fold of upper lid skin that covers the inner corner of the eye. It can occur with any crease type, and it makes the eyes look slightly further apart than they are.

Whether a crease forms depends on how the layers of the eyelid are attached, not on the skin alone. In lids without a crease, the tissue layers join closer to the lashes and fat sits further forward, which stops fibres from the lid-lifting tendon reaching the skin where a crease would otherwise form^[1]. Both single and double eyelids are normal. A measurement study of young adults from two populations found average differences in how prominent the crease is, but these are averages, not rules for any individual^[2].

Where someone wants a crease created, the operation is double eyelid surgery. Hooding caused by excess skin is treated differently, with upper blepharoplasty, and a lid margin that sits low over the pupil is ptosis, which is covered further down.

What Eye Shape Do I Have? How to Find Your Eye Shape

Stand in front of a mirror in even light, face relaxed, looking straight ahead. Do not raise your eyebrows. Most people unconsciously do, and it changes the answer.

Step one: find the crease

Look for the fold in your upper lid.

• Visible crease with lid space beneath it: continue to step two
• Crease present but covered by skin from above: hooded
• No crease at all, smooth lid: monolid

Step two: check the white

Look at the iris, the coloured part of the eye.

• White visible above or below the iris when relaxed: round
• Iris touching or overlapped by both lids: almond

Step three: compare the corners

Find your inner corner, then your outer.

• Outer clearly higher: upturned
• Outer lower: downturned
• Level, or slightly higher and subtle: a neutral or mild upward tilt, which is a common finding and does not need a separate label

Then two optional checks. Hold a ruler between your eyes: if the gap between the inner corners is narrower than one eye width, your eyes are close-set; wider, wide-set. And look at yourself in profile: a prominent brow bone with the eye recessed behind it is deep-set, while an eye sitting forward of the brow line is protruding.

You will likely land on two or three labels. That is normal and expected, because the categories are descriptive rather than exclusive.

Upturned, Downturned and Neutral Eyes: Canthal Tilt Explained

Canthal tilt is the variable that consistently surprises people, because the differences are small and the visual effect is not.

A positive tilt, with the outer corner above the inner, reads as alert and lifted, and is what most people mean by upturned eyes or a cat eye shape. A neutral tilt reads as calm and even. A negative tilt, where the outer corner sits below the inner, describes downturned eyes. It reads as softer and is often described as tired-looking, though it is a normal variant present from birth in many people. Average canthal tilt also differs between populations^[2], so there is no single correct angle. Our guide to canthal tilt explains how it is measured.

The outer corner is held in place by the lateral canthal tendon, which anchors both lids to the bone at the side of the eye socket. The tilt is largely set by where that tendon attaches, but the area around it does change with age. In a 1999 study that photographed the eyes of 320 people aged 10 to 89, the eye opening shortened by about 2.5 mm between middle and old age and the lower lid sagged slightly, but the height of the outer corner itself did not change^[4]. Findings vary between studies and populations, but the practical point is the same: when a tilt seems to have flattened over the years, a looser lower lid, skin hooding over the outer lid or a lower outer brow is often responsible, rather than the corner having moved. That distinction matters clinically. Restoring support to tissue that has loosened is one aim. Changing a tilt that has always been neutral or negative is a change of shape rather than a restoration: a legitimate choice, but a different one, and worth naming honestly at consultation.

Where the outer corner looks lower because the brow above it has descended rather than the eye itself, the operation is a temporal brow lift rather than anything done to the eye. Telling those two apart is the whole point of the assessment, and our guide to drooping eyebrows covers brow descent in more detail.

The procedure designed to alter canthal tilt is canthoplasty, which releases and repositions the lateral canthal tendon. Brow work, filler and skin tightening do not move the tendon. Treating the wrong structure can lead to a disappointing result in outer-eye surgery, and we cover the distinction in detail in our guide to fox eye surgery.

Close-Set and Wide-Set Eyes: Eye Spacing Explained

The conventional reference point is that the gap between the inner corners is roughly the width of one eye. Narrower is close-set, wider is wide-set. This is a rule of thumb rather than a medical standard, and the average distance between the inner corners differs between populations^[2].

Spacing is worth understanding for one reason: it is mostly set by bone, and no cosmetic procedure moves the orbits. Clinics occasionally imply otherwise. Filler placed around the eyes alters volume and shadow, and can change the impression of spacing in photographs, but the orbits are where they are. Anyone offering to reposition your eyes is describing craniofacial surgery, which is a reconstructive field with entirely different indications.

The one soft-tissue exception is the inner corner. Where an epicanthal fold covers it, surgery to release the fold (medial epicanthoplasty) measurably shortens the distance between the inner corners^[3]. That changes the skin at the corner, not the position of the eyes.

Male and Female Eye Shapes: Is There a Difference?

The eight eye shapes apply equally to men and women. What differs on average is the frame around the eye rather than the eye itself. In the 1999 study of 320 people, women’s eyebrows sat about 2.5 mm higher than men’s, while men’s eye openings were on average 0.7 mm wider^[4]. Men also tend to have a more prominent brow ridge, and a lower, flatter brow over a prominent ridge can make an identical lid look more deep-set or hooded. That combination is why the hunter eyes look is more often described in men.

These are small average differences, measured in millimetres, and many individual men and women fall either side of them. For men considering surgery, our page on male eyelid surgery explains the options.

How Does Eye Shape Change With Age?

Eye shape is not fixed for life. The eye opening lengthens by about 3 mm between roughly 12 and 25 years of age, then gradually shortens again by about 2.5 mm between middle and old age^[4]. Over the same decades the lower lid tends to sag slightly, more so in men, and on average the crease and eyebrows sit higher rather than lower^[4], although in some people the outer part of the brow does sit lower with age.

The change most people notice is upper lid skin. Excess upper lid skin that hangs over the lashes is called dermatochalasis. In a large Dutch population study, around 18% of older adults had moderate or severe sagging of the upper lids. Age, male sex, lighter skin colour and a higher body mass index all raised the risk, and in a group of UK twins in the same study, about 61% of the variation in eyelid sagging was attributed to genetic factors^[5]. This is why an eye that looked almond-shaped at 25 can look hooded at 60: the shape underneath has not changed, but skin now covers the crease.

Other age-related changes include ptosis, where the lid margin itself sits lower (covered in our guide to droopy eyelids), fat bulging forward to form under-eye bags, and a loosening lower lid. Each has a different treatment, which is why assessment starts by working out which one is responsible.

Is There a “Most Attractive” Eye Shape?

This gets asked constantly and answered badly. The usual approach is to name a shape, generally almond, and move on. That is a fashion claim presented as a finding, and it does not survive contact with the evidence. It is also the mechanism by which eye shape gets converted into a score in online appearance communities. Our guide to looksmaxxing covers why that scoring is unreliable and what repeatedly doing it does to how people feel about their faces.

The most consistent findings in research on facial attractiveness concern the face as a whole rather than any single feature. A 2006 review and meta-analysis in the Annual Review of Psychology found that faces closer to the average, more symmetrical faces and faces with typically male or female features are rated as more attractive, in both sexes and across cultures^[6]. Nothing in that literature identifies a winning eye shape. It identifies a preference for proportion.

The second problem is that fashions in how eyes are styled and photographed come and go, while that underlying preference for balance does not. A look that is fashionable in one decade can look dated in the next. That is not a stable basis on which to have surgery.

The third and most practical problem is that an eye shape does not exist in isolation. Round eyes on one face read as open and youthful; the same eyes on a different bone structure read as startled. The variable is not the eye, it is the relationship between the eye, the brow, the orbital rim and the midface. This is why a surgeon assessing you will look at your whole face, and at old photographs of it, rather than measuring your canthal tilt against a target number.

So the honest answer is that the most attractive eye shape is the one in proportion with the rest of your face, which for most people is the one they already have. Where surgery can help is not in converting one shape into another, but in addressing something that has changed: skin that has descended over a crease, a lower lid that has loosened, fat that has bulged forward. Restoring what was there is a well-defined goal. Pursuing a shape from a photograph is not.

When Is a Change in Eye Shape a Medical Problem?

Some changes in eye appearance are not cosmetic, and it matters to be able to tell the difference.

New or increasing prominence. If your eyes have become more protruding, or one has, that warrants medical assessment before any cosmetic consultation. Proptosis, forward displacement of the eye, is most commonly caused by thyroid eye disease in adults, whether one eye or both are affected^[7]. It needs endocrine and ophthalmic management, and cosmetic surgery on an actively changing orbit is inappropriate. Eyes that have always been prominent are a normal anatomical variant and a different situation entirely.

Drooping of the lid margin itself. If the edge of your upper lid sits low over the pupil, that is ptosis: a problem with the muscle that lifts the lid or its tendon, rather than a skin problem. It requires ptosis repair rather than skin removal, as our guide to droopy eyelids (ptosis) explains. Ptosis that comes on suddenly, or comes with double vision, a headache or one pupil larger than the other, needs same-day medical attention, as it can indicate a neurological cause. Ptosis that has developed gradually, even on one side, should be checked by your GP.

Obstructed vision. If excess upper lid skin is genuinely restricting your upper visual field, that is a functional problem. It may be eligible for NHS referral or insurance cover with documented visual field testing.

Sudden asymmetry. Eyes are naturally slightly asymmetric; in a 3D measurement study of healthy young adults, the few average differences found between the left and right eye were all smaller than a millimetre^[2]. A change that has appeared over weeks or months is different, and should be assessed medically. An eye that seems to have sunk back is covered in our guide to sunken eyes.

If any of these apply, start with your GP or an ophthalmologist rather than a cosmetic clinic.

Can Surgery Change Your Eye Shape?

Only some eye shape concerns have a surgical answer, and the honest position is that most do not need one.

Concern	Procedure
Skin over the crease, heavy upper lids	Upper blepharoplasty
Under-eye bags, fat herniation	Lower blepharoplasty
Both	Combined upper and lower
Descended outer brow	Temporal (lateral) brow lift
Descended forehead and brow	Endoscopic brow lift
Canthal tilt, outer corner position	Canthoplasty
No visible upper lid crease	Double eyelid surgery
Eye spacing, orbital position	No cosmetic procedure moves the orbits

Every quote covers surgeon, anaesthetist where required, theatre, all consultations, pre-operative assessment, suture removal and follow-up reviews. Any compression garment or prescribed medication you need is bought separately, and histology is charged separately where a sample is sent for analysis; your coordinator confirms these in advance. Finance is available through Chrysalis Finance, subject to status: see our finance options. Current prices are in our blepharoplasty cost guide.

There is no procedure that converts one eye shape into another wholesale, and any clinic implying otherwise is overselling. What surgery does is adjust one variable at a time (skin, tendon position, brow height, fat distribution) within the limits of your own anatomy. Results vary from person to person, and no particular outcome can be promised.

Risks of eyelid surgery

Every eyelid operation carries risks, and they should be explained to you in full at consultation. They include bruising and swelling, dry or gritty eyes, asymmetry, visible scarring and, if too much skin is removed, difficulty closing the eyes fully. The most serious is bleeding behind the eye. A survey of eyelid surgeons covering about 269,000 cosmetic eyelid operations found bleeding in the eye socket in about 1 in 2,000 cases and permanent loss of vision in about 1 in 22,000, mostly within the first 24 hours^[8]. What to expect in the weeks afterwards is covered in our guide to blepharoplasty recovery.

Which eyelid procedure is right for you?

A few short questions, including a simple test in the mirror. You will get a suggested procedure, realistic recovery times, and an honest view of when an examination is needed first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Eye Shape Assessment at Centre for Surgery

The most useful thing a consultation does on this subject is establish which of the four variables is actually driving what you see in the mirror, and whether it has changed or has always been that way. Those two answers determine whether there is a procedure worth having, and frequently the answer is that there is not.

Eyelid surgery at Centre for Surgery is performed by GMC-registered surgeons, including surgeons with oculoplastic training, at our own private hospital at 95–97 Baker Street, Marylebone. Our surgeons are members of BAPRAS and ISAPS. We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission and rated Good overall.

We will tell you directly if what you are asking about is not appropriate, not available here, or not necessary. We recommend a two-week cooling-off period before any surgery is booked, and you will not be chased.

Patient reviews

You can read our reviews in full on Google Reviews, or on our own patient reviews page. We are rated 4.6 on Google.

Book a consultation

Phone: 020 7993 4849
Email: contact@centreforsurgery.com
Address: 95–97 Baker Street, Marylebone, London W1U 6RN
Contact us to schedule your consultation

Your initial in-person consultation is £100, redeemable against the cost of surgery if you proceed.

Related Reading

• Upper vs lower blepharoplasty
• Brow lift (forehead lift)
• How much does blepharoplasty cost?
• How to fix drooping eyebrows
• Hunter eyes
• Will eyelid surgery change your eye shape?

References

1. Jeong S, Lemke BN, Dortzbach RK, et al. The Asian upper eyelid: an anatomical study with comparison to the Caucasian eyelid. Archives of Ophthalmology 1999;117(7):907–912. doi:10.1001/archopht.117.7.907
2. Gao T, Guo Y, Rokohl AC, et al. Racial and sexual differences of eyebrow and eyelid morphology: three-dimensional analysis in young Caucasian and Chinese populations. Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery 2024;15(1):882–897. doi:10.21037/qims-24-1113
3. Ding F, Zhao ZF, Lu L, et al. Experience of two different techniques of medial epicanthoplasty with four-point homologous design: a cohort study. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2021;45(4):1581–1590. doi:10.1007/s00266-021-02242-2
4. van den Bosch WA, Leenders I, Mulder P. Topographic anatomy of the eyelids, and the effects of sex and age. British Journal of Ophthalmology 1999;83(3):347–352. doi:10.1136/bjo.83.3.347
5. Jacobs LC, Liu F, Bleyen I, et al. Intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors for sagging eyelids. JAMA Dermatology 2014;150(8):836–843. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2014.27
6. Rhodes G. The evolutionary psychology of facial beauty. Annual Review of Psychology 2006;57:199–226. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190208
7. Maino AP, Dawson EL, Adams GG, et al. The management of patients with thyroid eye disease after bilateral orbital 3 wall decompression. Strabismus 2011;19(2):35–37. doi:10.3109/09273972.2011.575432
8. Hass AN, Penne RB, Stefanyszyn MA, et al. Incidence of postblepharoplasty orbital hemorrhage and associated visual loss. Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery 2004;20(6):426–432. doi:10.1097/01.iop.0000143711.48389.c5