How To Change Hair Color In Photoshop – EASY Yet POWERFUL Techniques!
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- 0:00 Introduction
- 0:23 Dealing with Flyaway Hair
- 1:18 Work Non-Destructively with Smart Objects
- 1:42 Make a Selection Our The Hair
- 2:15 Use Select and Mask to Refine The Selection
- 3:58 Create a Group and Apply The Selection as a Mask
- 4:17 Why You Shouldn't Use JUST The Hue/Sat Adjustment
- 5:38 Use The Color Balance Adjustment Layer to Change Hair Color
- 7:33 Making The Hair Color Red
- 8:14 Change Hair Color To Black
- 9:57 Change Hair Color To Blonde
- 11:17 Bring The Highlights Back
- 12:06 Refine the Image to Get The Best Hair Color Change as Possible
- 12:37 Final Thoughts
Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
Change hair color in Photoshop with a masked Selective Color adjustment layer, shifting hair to red, black, or blonde without discoloring the skin or shirt.
Learn this powerful technique to change hair color in Photoshop!
Keep in mind that when doing hair color changes in Photoshop it is a lot easier to go from light hair colors to dark.
The biggest reason is that lighter hair tends to have more detail and therefore you can make those areas darker while keeping the detail. Going from dark hair to light hair is much more difficult because of the lack of detail in the darker areas.
Note: Everyone’s hair color is different. The numerical values used in this tutorial may not match your photo. Use them as a starting point, and adjust for your own image.
The techniques in this video are all non-destructive, which means that you can always come back and edit your adjustments!
Key Takeaways
- A Selective Color adjustment layer changes hair color without shifting the colors in the skin or clothing the way Hue/Saturation does.
- Masking the whole retouching Group instead of each layer lets one selection control every adjustment inside it.
- Dragging a Selective Color slider right adds that color. Dragging it left adds the opposite color: cyan becomes red, magenta becomes green, and yellow becomes blue.
- Turning hair black works best with Hue/Saturation to remove color, then a Levels adjustment layer to set the shadows.
- Selecting the brightest pixels and screening them back in on top of the Group restores highlights that the color adjustments wash out.
- Going from dark hair to light hair is harder than the reverse, because Photoshop cannot recreate detail lost in dark shadows.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Tutorial Image
- Dealing with Flyaway Hair
- Work Non-Destructively with Smart Objects
- Make a Selection Over the Hair to Change Its Color
- Use Select and Mask to Refine The Selection
- Create a Group and Apply The Selection as a Mask
- Why You Shouldn’t Use JUST The Hue/Sat Adjustment
- How to Change Hair Color in Photoshop with Selective Color
- Making The Hair Color Red
- Change Hair Color To Black
- Change Hair Color To Blonde
- Bring The Highlights Back
- Refine the Image to Get The Best Hair Color Change as Possible
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to remove flyaway hairs before you make a selection
- How to select and refine hair in the Select and Mask workspace
- How to mask a Group so one selection controls several adjustment layers
- Why a Selective Color adjustment layer beats Hue/Saturation for hair color
- How to mix red, black, and blonde hair colors with Selective Color, Levels, and Hue/Saturation
- How to bring back lost highlights after heavy color adjustments
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2020 (version 21.2 or later) or the current version
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Set the clone or heal sample source | Alt | Option |
| Select multiple layers | Shift | Shift |
| Save the Smart Object | Ctrl S | Command S |
| Subtract from the Quick Selection | Alt | Option |
| Decrease brush size | [ | [ |
| Increase brush size | ] | ] |
| Select the brightest pixels | Ctrl Alt 2 | Command Option 2 |
| Duplicate the selection to a new layer | Ctrl J | Command J |
Tutorial Image
- You can get the tutorial image from Adobe Stock
Dealing with Flyaway Hair
Start by creating a New Layer.
On the Toolbar, select the Spot Healing Brush tool.
On the Options bar, make sure the box is checked for the Sample All Layers. Then, start using the Spot Healing brush tool by painting over the flyaway hairs to remove them.
To set a sample source, hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) and click on it.
Work Non-Destructively with Smart Objects
Hold Shift (Windows) or Shift (macOS) as you select both the Background layer and the New Layer.
Then, right-click > Convert to Smart Object so you can start working on this non-destructively.
This means you can add Filters, Adjustment Layers, and other distortions while keeping the Smart Object editable for any further adjustments.
To open the Smart Object, double-click on the Smart Object so it opens on a new tab, and you can start editing.
To save the changes you apply, choose File > Save or press CtrlS (Windows) or CommandS (macOS).
Make a Selection Over the Hair to Change Its Color
Use the Quick Selection tool to create a loose selection of her hair as you will have time to fine-tune it later.
To subtract from the selection, hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) as you click-and-drag over areas that don’t need to be part of the selection.
Use Select and Mask to Refine The Selection
Once you have a more defined shape of the hair as a selection, go to the Options bar and click on the Select and Mask button.
On the Properties panel of the Select and Mask workspace, set the View mode to On White.
On the Toolbar, select the Refine Edge tool, which helps you refine the hair’s edges and further fine-tune the selection down to the individual strands.
Click-and-drag the tool along the edges to allow Photoshop to create a selection on the finer details.
Tip: The selection will not be perfect right away. You can always refine it further with the Global Refinements sliders.
If you want to know more about the workspace, watch the Select and Mask crash course.
Select the Brush tool, and on the Options bar, click on the plus icon, so the command sets it to add to the selection.
Then, click-and-drag over the areas to add them to the selection.
Since the View mode is On White, white areas mean they are not part of the selection. If it includes some parts of the hair, paint over them to retain them in the selection.
To subtract from the selection, click on the minus icon from the Options bar and repeat the process for areas you don’t want to be a part of the selection.
To output this as a selection, scroll down along the Properties panel until you see the Output Settings.
Set Output To to Selection.
Then, press OK so you can save the changes and go back to the working document.
Create a Group and Apply The Selection as a Mask
On the Layers panel, create a New Group and click on the New Layer Mask icon to apply the Layer Mask that group.
Tip: Add the Layer Mask to the Group instead of one layer, so a single mask controls every adjustment layer inside it.
Rename the Group Hair Color so you can keep things organized and easy to find.
Why You Shouldn’t Use JUST The Hue/Sat Adjustment
While the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is the easiest tool to use to change hair color, it certainly is not the best tool for it.
To illustrate it, quickly change the Hue of the hair into a bright purple. You may notice how it affects the shirt in the photo by turning the shadows into green. To summarize, it applies colors into areas where it’s not supposed to.
If you check the box for Colorize, it shows better results without affecting other areas. However, the results do not look realistic.
How to Change Hair Color in Photoshop with Selective Color
Click on the New Adjustment Layer icon and select Selective Color.
On the Colors drop-down, set it to Neutrals.
In the Properties panel, you’ll see the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (CMYK) sliders that you can use to adjust the colors in the image.
To illustrate, dragging the Cyan slider to the right turns the object into the cyan.
If you drag the slider to the left, it turns the object into the opposite color of Cyan, red. Dragging the sliders to the left always shows the color into the color label’s complementary color.
With that shown, reset the Selective Color.
Drag the Cyan slider to the right.
Drag the Magenta slider a bit to the left to reduce the magenta.
Drag the Yellow slider to the left to reduce the yellow.
Those recent adjustments turned the hair color into a similar purple shade shown earlier on how Hue/Saturation applies to this type of editing.
But unlike the Hue/Saturation, it doesn’t affect the color of the shirt or any other object surrounding it.
Making The Hair Color Red
Reset the adjustment layer so you can start turning the hair color into red.
With the Colors still set to Neutrals, drag the Cyan slider to the left.
Drag the Magenta slider a little bit to the right.
Drag the Yellow slider to the right to increase the yellows more.
If you achieve a color that is too saturated for your preference, you can always create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Use it to adjust the saturation of the colors.
Change Hair Color To Black
If you want to turn the hair color into black, use the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Drag the Saturation slider to the left to decrease any traces of saturation in the object selected.
Then, you can create a Levels adjustment layer and use the sliders to adjust the hair’s luminosity.
The Levels adjustment layer works by having individual handles for Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights to help you accurately adjust the luminosity in the image.
Meanwhile, the Output Level slider below controls how dark the darkest pixel is and how bright the brightest pixel is.
With that in mind, use the Levels adjustment layer to determine the luminosity of the black hair.
Change Hair Color To Blonde
Create a Selective Color adjustment layer.
On the Properties panel, set the Colors to Neutrals.
Use the Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black sliders to create your color mix for that realistic blonde hair.
You can start with the Yellow slider and drag it to the right to increase the yellows.
Adjust the Cyan slider to the left to bring down the cyans in the image.
Adjust the Black slider to brighten up the darker pixels if you want to achieve a lighter blonde. For this type of effect, you can also create a Levels adjustment layer for more accuracy and control.
In the Levels adjustment layer, adjust the Midtone to control the contrast and decrease the Output Level slider for the highlights.
Select the Blue channel from the drop-down.
From the Output Level slider, drag the white point to the left to add more yellow to the shadows.
Then, switch into the Red channel in the drop-down. Go to the Output Level slider and drag the black point to the right to add more red to the shadows.
Then, create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Decrease the Saturation, and you can adjust the Hue slider to achieve the right shade of blonde.
Bring The Highlights Back
With all those intense adjustments, you may start losing the fine highlights of the hair. To bring them back, start by disabling the Group.
With only the original image layer active, press CtrlAlt2 (Windows) or CommandOption2 (macOS) for Photoshop to select the brightest pixels in the image.
Then, press CtrlJ (Windows) or CommandJ (macOS) to duplicate the highlight’s selection.
Place this layer inside of the Group on top of the layer stack.
Change the Blending Mode to Screen. You can also adjust the Opacity to control the intensity of the highlights.
Refine the Image to Get The Best Hair Color Change as Possible
Zooming into the hair and seeing how the selection is imperfect, you can always fine-tune this by selecting the Brush tool and setting the Foreground color to white (#ffffff).
Then, start painting on areas of the hair you want to include in the selection.
This same masking approach carries over to other portrait work. See Match Skin Tones in Photoshop for a Curves technique that uses the same kind of selection.
To subtract from the selection, set the Foreground color to black (#000000) and paint as usual.
And that’s how to change hair color in Photoshop while keeping it looking realistic. If you also want to learn how to change eye colors, follow the steps in How To Change Eye Color in Photoshop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Select the hair in the Select and Mask workspace, then add a Selective Color adjustment layer inside a masked Group. Set the Colors menu to Neutrals and drag the Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow sliders to mix the new color.
The Hue/Saturation adjustment layer shifts every color inside the selection at once, so it can turn a shirt or skin tone the wrong color along with the hair. A Selective Color adjustment layer targets the neutrals instead, which keeps the rest of the photo realistic.
Light to dark is easier. Lighter hair holds more detail, so darkening it keeps that detail. Dark hair loses detail in the shadows, and Photoshop cannot recreate detail that was never captured.
Drag the Saturation slider on a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to the left to remove color. Then add a Levels adjustment layer to set how dark the shadows go.
Use a Selective Color adjustment layer set to Neutrals, increase yellow, and reduce cyan. Then brighten the midtones with a Levels adjustment layer and fine-tune the Blue and Red channels for warmth.
Disable the color Group, select the original layer, and press CtrlAlt2 (Windows) or CommandOption2 (macOS) to select the brightest pixels. Duplicate them with CtrlJ (Windows) or CommandJ (macOS), move the copy inside the Group, and set its Blending Mode to Screen.
Masking the Group lets one selection control every adjustment layer inside it. You only refine the hair selection once instead of on each layer separately.
Conclusion
Changing hair color in Photoshop comes down to one adjustment layer working inside a masked Group. A Selective Color adjustment layer keeps the rest of the photo untouched while you push the hair toward red, black, or blonde.
The selection is the hardest part, so take the time to refine it in Select and Mask before you touch a single slider. Once the mask is clean, every color option in this tutorial becomes a matter of taste.
Watch the full video above, and comment on the video with the color you land on.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
Keep going
Next, fix skin tones in Photoshop with a one-click Curves technique.
Related Links
Final Image
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