For men who want to surprise their soon-to-be-fiancees with a ring when they propose, getting the fit right can become a minor obsession. How do you find out what size ring your girlfriend wears, if you can't ask her?
The answer is: by being sneaky.
First of all...
This tip is for the surprising number of men who have no idea which finger engagement rings are supposed to be worn on. The ring finger is the third finger on the left hand, between the middle and pinkie finger. This is true for men and women.
Borrow a ring
By far the easiest way to find out your partner’s ring size is to take one of her rings to your jeweller. However, this method is also one of the riskiest — if she notices, the cat might be out of the bag, so make sure you put it back quickly!
The ring you ‘borrow’ doesn’t necessarily have to be a left-hand ring: if it fits her right hand ring finger it should give you a close estimate of size. Generally, if someone is right handed, their left hand ring finger is approximately half a size smaller.
Ask her mother, sister or friend
Having an ally can help, so if you’re confident she can keep a secret, enlist one of the women in your partner’s life to do the digging for you. Women often try on one another’s jewellery, and go shopping for it together, so if they’re especially close, she may know her size already. Your woman on the inside could even ‘spontaneously’ suggest they get sized for fun next time they’re near a jewellery store.
Let her try on your ring
If you yourself wear jewellery, have your partner put your rings on (or vice versa) and see if you can get a sneaky gauge on size.
Borrow a ring, version two:
If taking a ring away, then returning it quickly, isn’t practical for you, here are a few options that don’t require you to leave the house with it:
- Take a ring that she wears on her third finger, put it on one of your own fingers, and make a mark where it ‘fits’. Then go into a jewellery store and find out what this mark corresponds to on a ring sizer.
- Place one of her rings on a piece of paper and trace a line around the inside of the ring. You can then measure the diameter and pass this on to your jeweller.
- Download a printable ring sizer. Simply print out the page and match her ring to the different diameters on the page. Try this one: findmyringsize.com. Just don’t leave the printout lying around!
Finally…
Try not to stress yourself out too much over ring size. If it doesn’t fit perfectly on the day you propose, that’s OK. The majority of rings can easily be resized by your jeweller at little or no expense. The main thing is that the ring is big enough to try on when you present it to her. If the ring is custom designed, intricately patterned or set with a lot of diamonds in the band, just confirm with your jeweller whether it can be resized before buying.
Quick ring size tips
- Ring sizes in New Zealand go from F (small) to Z (extra large).
- The average finger size in New Zealand is M.
- When people get hot, their fingers swell, which means that the weather can affect a person’s ring size, sometimes by as much as two sizes. Bear in mind that a ring that fits snugly in winter may be too tight in summer.
- If you’re struggling to choose between two sizes, choose the bigger one. If it doesn’t fit, having a ring made smaller is easier and less expensive than having it made larger.
- If the ring has a wide band, go up a half size.