How To Create Realistic Facial Hair in Photoshop
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Jump to a step in the video (10)
Click a time to play the video from there.
- 0:00 Why AI Beards Fail by Default
- 0:19 Activate Quick Mask and Paint Beard Area
- 0:48 Invert Mask Behavior for Generative Fill
- 1:11 Change Overlay Color for Better Visibility
- 1:51 Jawline Selection with Brush & Cleanup
- 2:30 Erase Overlap with the Tilde Key
- 2:54 Add Beard with One-Word Prompt in Generative Fill
- 3:15 Mask the Beard to Refine and Blend
- 3:34 Reveal Only What You Want, Keep Key Features
- 3:55 Before and After with Original Smile
Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
Realistic facial hair in Photoshop comes from painting a Quick Mask selection only where the beard belongs, then letting Generative Fill fill it in.
Creating a selection around the whole face and telling Photoshop to add a beard will not give you great results. The variations look realistic, but you lose prominent facial features and the smile.
This technique fixes that. You paint only the jawline and chin in Quick Mask mode, generate the beard with Generative Fill, and hide the parts you do not need with a black layer mask.
It is for anyone who edits portraits, from beginners to working retouchers. You do not need any drawing skill, only a soft brush and a few keystrokes.
By the end, you will be able to add a beard, a mustache, or both to any portrait while keeping the original lips, nose, and expression.
The video was recorded in Photoshop 2024, and every tool it uses still works the same way in the current version. Generative Fill needs version 25.0 or later, a Creative Cloud subscription, and an internet connection.
Key Takeaways
- Selecting the whole face and prompting for a beard replaces the nose, lips, and smile. Paint only where the hair belongs.
- By default, Quick Mask marks masked areas, so painting with black deselects. Switch it to Selected Areas and black selects instead.
- A green overlay is far easier to see over skin tones than the default red.
- The single word beard is all the prompt Generative Fill needs. Command words like add do not help.
- Holding the Tilde key while you paint removes overlay from areas you selected by mistake.
- Filling the Generative Fill layer mask with black and painting back only the beard keeps the original features intact.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Keyboard Shortcuts
- Step 1: Turn On Quick Mask Mode in Photoshop
- Step 2: Set Quick Mask to Selected Areas
- Step 3: Change the Overlay Color to Green
- Step 4: Paint Where the Facial Hair Will Go
- Step 5: Generate Realistic Facial Hair in Photoshop
- Step 6: Mask the Facial Hair to Keep the Original Face
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to enter and exit Quick Mask mode with a single key
- How to set Quick Mask Options so that painting with black selects
- How to swap the red overlay for a green one that reads clearly over skin
- How to paint a soft beard selection and erase mistakes with the Tilde key
- How to generate a beard with a one-word Generative Fill prompt
- How to use a black layer mask to reveal only the facial hair you want
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2024 (version 25.0 or later) or the current version
- A Creative Cloud subscription and an internet connection, because Generative Fill runs in the cloud
- A portrait to work on, or the practice file below
Practice Files
Download the portrait used in this tutorial and follow along step by step.
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Toggle Quick Mask mode | Q | Q |
| Decrease or increase brush size | [ or ] | [ or ] |
| Decrease or increase brush hardness | Shift [ or Shift ] | Shift [ or Shift ] |
| Remove painted overlay in Quick Mask (hold while painting) | Tilde | Tilde |
| Fill the layer mask with the background color | Ctrl Backspace | Command Delete |
Step 1: Turn On Quick Mask Mode in Photoshop
Press Q on the keyboard to enable Quick Mask mode. The layer highlighted in red in the Layers panel indicates Quick Mask mode.
Then, select the Brush Tool. From here, you can paint with black to deselect and paint with white to select.
Press Q again to exit Quick Mask mode. Notice that the selection covers the entire canvas, and Photoshop is not selecting the areas you painted with black.
That is the opposite of what we want. We want to paint only over the areas where Generative Fill will add content. The next step flips that behavior.
Quick Mask is one of the most useful selection tools in Photoshop. If it is new to you, these five masking tricks show what else it can do.
Step 2: Set Quick Mask to Selected Areas
Double-click the Quick Mask icon below the toolbar to open the Quick Mask Options dialog.
Under Color Indicates, choose Selected Areas. Then click OK.
Now, when you paint with white, nothing happens. But if you paint with black, Photoshop makes a selection.
Press Q to exit Quick Mask mode and notice how the edges are no longer selected. You can think of it as Photoshop inverting the colors. Black now selects the areas you paint over rather than deselecting them.
Press Q once more to go back into Quick Mask mode before you continue.
Step 3: Change the Overlay Color to Green
The overlay is red by default, which can be difficult to see when you paint over skin tones. A green overlay stands out against skin.
Double-click the Quick Mask icon again to open Quick Mask Options. Then double-click the color swatch to open the Color Picker.
Change the red value to 0 and the green value to 255. Leave blue at 0. Then press OK twice to close both dialogs.
Notice how the layer highlight is now green. That tells you Quick Mask mode is active, and the overlay will be green when you paint over the image.
Note: The overlay color only changes what you see on screen. It has no effect on the selection or on the final image.
Step 4: Paint Where the Facial Hair Will Go
With the Brush Tool active, resize the brush. Use the bracket keys, [ and ], to adjust your brush size. They sit next to the letter P on North American keyboards.
Also, make sure you reduce the hardness down to 0. You can use the Hardness slider, or hold Shift and tap the bracket keys to increase or decrease the hardness.
Then, simply paint over the areas where you would like the beard to appear. Skip the nose and paint along the jawline. Continue painting until you cover everything.
It is okay if you go over the lips. If you select a little too much, hold the Tilde key, ~, and paint as you hold it down to remove those green areas. The key sits to the left of the number 1 on North American keyboards.
Keep the original lips. You can also remove any other imperfections in the jaw or any other area you like.
Tip: The bracket keys and the Tilde trick are two of the brush controls covered in this list of pro-level Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.
Step 5: Generate Realistic Facial Hair in Photoshop
Press Q to exit Quick Mask mode. The painted area turns into a selection. Then click Generative Fill.
Type the word beard in the prompt box. At the time of the video, Photoshop did not understand commands, so there is no need to include the word add. Just the word beard works fine.
Click Generate. Photoshop gives you three variations that look fantastic. Click through them in the Properties panel and see which one works best.
In the video, the second variation looked best, so that is the one to keep. One word is enough to get realistic facial hair in Photoshop. Pick whichever variation looks most natural on your portrait.
Note: The video shows a Generative Fill button that appears as soon as you exit Quick Mask mode. In current versions, look for it in the Contextual Task Bar or under Edit > Generative Fill. Newer versions may also offer a choice of AI models, and the one-word prompt works with any of them.
Note: On a large photo, the generated beard can look softer than the rest of the image. If that happens, this Generative Fill low-resolution fix shows how to sharpen it.
Step 6: Mask the Facial Hair to Keep the Original Face
In order for this effect to look more realistic, click on the layer mask of the Generative Fill layer and fill it with black.
Since black is the background color in the video, press CtrlBackspace (Windows) or CommandDelete (macOS). That fills the layer mask completely with black and hides all the contents of the layer.
Note: CtrlBackspace (Windows) or CommandDelete (macOS) fills with the background color. If black is your foreground color instead, press AltBackspace (Windows) or OptionDelete (macOS).
Now paint with white on the mask to reveal only the parts you want. You could reveal only the mustache, or the rest of the beard too, whatever works best for your image.
The advantage of this technique is that you keep the original facial features, which makes the effect more realistic. Compare the before and after.
Frequently Asked Questions
Paint the beard area in Quick Mask mode with a soft brush, exit with Q, and run Generative Fill with the prompt beard. Then fill the layer mask with black and paint with white to reveal only the hair you want. The original nose, lips, and smile stay untouched.
It happens when the selection covers the whole face. Generative Fill regenerates everything inside a selection, so the nose, lips, and expression get replaced too. Select only the jawline and chin, and the rest of the face stays as it was.
By default, Quick Mask is set to show masked areas, so the color marks what is hidden. Double-click the Quick Mask icon and choose Selected Areas. From then on, black paints the selection.
Double-click the Quick Mask icon below the toolbar, then double-click the color swatch. Set red to 0 and green to 255 for a green overlay, and click OK twice. The color only affects what you see on screen, not the selection.
Type the single word beard. In the video, Photoshop ignored command words like add, so the noun alone gave the best results. Click Generate and pick one of the three variations.
Hold the Tilde key while you paint with the Brush Tool. The strokes remove the colored overlay instead of adding it. The key sits to the left of the number 1 on North American keyboards.
Yes, and that is the whole point of masking the result. Fill the Generative Fill layer mask with black to hide everything, then paint with white only over the beard and mustache. Everything you leave hidden keeps the original pixels, which is what makes realistic facial hair in Photoshop possible.
Yes. Generative Fill is a cloud feature in Photoshop 2024 (version 25.0 or later) and the current version, so you need an active subscription and an internet connection. Quick Mask and layer masks work offline in any version.
Conclusion
Creating realistic facial hair in Photoshop comes down to two moves. Paint a Quick Mask selection only where the beard belongs, then hide the rest of the Generative Fill result with a black layer mask.
The whole process takes about four minutes, and none of it requires drawing skill. A soft brush, a one-word prompt, and a mask are all it takes.
Watch the video above to see every stroke, and comment on the video if you have a question or want to share your result.
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, learn how to smooth skin in Photoshop with two non-destructive techniques.
Related Links
Final Image
Drag the slider to see before and after
