How to draw a hairline: front, three-quarter and profile

Draw the hair first and the forehead ends wherever the hair happens to start, so the face grows or shrinks with the hairstyle. Find the hairline from the construction first and the forehead keeps its height, and the hair gets a line to sit on.

The figures come from plate 24 of our book How to Draw the Head. Each one is a finished drawing of a head from our library, with the ball, the brow line and the nose base line in grey and the hairline in red.

Find it with one measurement

Measure the face from the brow line down to the nose base. Step the same distance up from the brow line, and mark the hairline there. That is the old rule of three equal spaces on the face, used in reverse: you can see the brow and the nose base on any head, so you measure from them.

Then run the line in three parts:

1. Across the forehead, at that height, out to where the front of the head turns into the sides.
2. Around each temple, in a curve. A square corner makes the hairline look like a cap.
3. Down the side plane, in front of the ear, to about the height of the brow line.

Draw the hair over the ball, above and behind this line, as one mass first.

At three-quarter

Turn the head and the line goes around the ball with the brow line. Keep it the same height above the brow line all the way across. On the near side you see the whole turn at the temple and the drop down the side plane, in front of the ear. On the far side the line runs out to the edge of the forehead, and the turn and the drop go out of sight behind it.

Check the far end against the far brow. If the hairline ends well inside the forehead outline, the line has not wrapped far enough around the ball.

In profile

In profile you see the across part end-on, as a short line coming back from the top of the forehead. The turn at the temple and the drop down the side plane are now the longest part of the line. They come down well in front of the ear and finish at about the top of the ear, which sits level with the brow line.

When the hair says otherwise

Hairlines vary more than any other line on the head; a receding one sits higher than the rule. Use the rule to find where a full hairline would sit, then move it to the head in front of you. On a receding hairline, the corners at the temples go back first and the middle of the forehead holds longer, so the across part becomes a curve with its high points at the temples. A widow's peak dips at the center line. Either way, keep the forehead on the ball and the brow line where you measured it, and only move the hairline.

Common mistakes

• Starting with the hair. Place the hairline first. A tall hairstyle drawn first pushes the face down the head.
• Square corners at the temples. The front of the head turns into the sides in a curve, and the hairline follows it.
• A line that floats on the far side at three-quarter. Wrap it around the ball with the brow line until it reaches the forehead outline.
• The drop running into the ear. In profile the side of the hairline comes down in front of the ear and stops at about its top.

A short exercise

Draw three balls with a brow line and a nose base line on each: one from the front, one at three-quarter, one in profile. On each, measure brow to nose base, step it up from the brow, and draw the hairline in its three parts. Then draw the hair over each line as one mass. Last, draw the three again with a receding hairline, moving only the corners at the temples.

The hairline sits on the brow line from parts of the head for drawing, and the same three spaces appear in the Loomis method. Plate 24, with all its heads at front, three-quarter and profile, is in How to Draw the Head, the book that comes with Head rotation volume 1, volume 2 and the head library.

This guide is one step in how to draw the head at any angle, which puts all the head guides in order.