How to Change Hair Color in Photoshop [Free video tutorial]

How to Change Hair Color in Photoshop

Changing hair color in Photoshop sounds simple, but hair has to stay within a fairly narrow color range to look natural, and it usually shows different tones in its highlights than in its shadows. This tutorial takes a redhead’s hair through three different color changes, brown, black, and blonde, using selective color, Hue/Saturation, and layer masks, and shows why going lighter is always the hardest direction to work in.

Creating Brown Hair With a Selective Color Layer

A Selective Color adjustment layer works especially well for nudging an existing hair color like red toward brown, since its individual Black, Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan sliders target the color range more precisely than Hue/Saturation alone.

1. Add a Selective Color Adjustment Layer

   Add a Selective Color adjustment layer above the subject.

2. Adjust the Black Slider

   Pull the Black slider down for less black or up for more, adjusting the overall depth of the hair color.

3. Adjust Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan

   Push Yellow up for a warmer tone, adjust Magenta to add or remove red and green, and adjust Cyan to shift between cyan and red until the hair reads as a natural brown.

4. Group the Layer

   Group the finished Selective Color layer and label it Brown so it’s easy to identify later.

Removing Color for Black Hair With Hue/Saturation and a Layer Mask

Turning hair black starts by stripping out its existing color entirely, targeting just the hair’s specific red range rather than the whole image.

5. Create a New Group for the Black Hair Layers

   Create a new group and label it Black Hair.

6. Target the Hair Color With the Hue/Saturation Eyedropper

   Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, click Master, switch to Reds, and use the eyedropper to click on the hair color, using the plus eyedropper to add any additional shades of hair color.

7. Bring Saturation Down to Zero

   Lower the Saturation slider to zero to remove the targeted color entirely.

8. Mask Out the Skin

   Paint black on the layer mask over the face and skin, since skin tones can fall close enough to the hair color to get desaturated by mistake.

Why Fade the Layer Mask Into the Hairline Instead of a Hard Edge

A layer mask painted with a hard, fully opaque edge right at the hairline leaves a visible line where the desaturated hair meets the still-colored skin. Lowering the brush’s Flow and using a soft-edged brush right along that boundary fades the transition gradually instead, so the change in color reads as a natural hairline rather than an obvious cutout.

Darkening the Hair With a Curves Adjustment Layer

With the color removed, a separate Curves adjustment layer controls exactly how dark or light the now-neutral hair actually becomes.

9. Add a Curves Adjustment Layer

   Add a Curves adjustment layer above the desaturated Hue/Saturation layer.

10. Darken the Curve for Black Hair

    Click the middle of the curve and pull it down to darken the hair toward black.

11. Copy the Layer Mask From the Previous Layer

    Hold Option/Alt and drag the layer mask from the Hue/Saturation layer onto the Curves layer to copy it instantly, then refine it further with the brush if needed.

Restoring Skin Tone Between Strands

Areas of visible skin peeking through between strands of hair need actual skin color painted back in, not just a fully transparent mask, since the hair color layers beneath would otherwise still show through.

12. Sample a Skin Color

    Sample a natural skin color from the subject’s face.

13. Paint on a Color Blend Mode Layer

    Create a new layer, change its blend mode to Color, and paint the sampled skin tone into the gaps between strands of hair.

14. Lower Opacity for a Natural Blend

    Lower the layer’s opacity so the restored skin tone fades in naturally rather than sitting as a flat patch of color.

Why Restore Skin Color Instead of Making the Mask Fully Transparent

Simply masking away the desaturated hair color where skin peeks through would reveal whatever color was underneath, which is still the original red rather than natural skin. Painting the actual sampled skin tone back in on a Color blend mode layer replaces that gap with the correct color instead, keeping the transition between hair and skin looking believable.

Adding Shine to Black Hair With Blend If

Black hair needs visible highlights to read as realistic, and Blend If restricts those highlights to only the areas that were already catching light.

15. Paint White Highlights

    Create a new layer and paint white over the areas of the hair that show natural shine.

16. Open Blending Options

    Double-click the layer to open Blending Options.

17. Split the Underlying Layer Slider

    Hold Option/Alt and drag the underlying layer slider to split it, restricting the white highlight to only show where the layer beneath is already lighter.

Why Use Blend If Instead of Just Lowering Opacity for Highlights

Lowering opacity on a painted highlight layer dims it evenly everywhere it was painted, including areas that were never catching light in the first place. Blend If instead restricts the highlight specifically to the lighter areas underneath, so shine only shows up exactly where the hair’s own form would naturally reflect light.

Adding a Hint of Brown Back Into Black Hair

A small amount of color painted over otherwise black hair keeps it from looking completely flat.

18. Sample a Brown Color

    Sample a brown tone, such as one found in the skin.

19. Paint With an Overlay Blend Mode

    Create a new layer, change the blend mode to Overlay, and paint the brown color over the hair.

20. Lower Opacity to Taste

    Lower the layer’s opacity until the brown reads as a subtle tint rather than an obvious color change.

Starting Blonde Hair With Selective Color and Screen-Mode Highlights

Blonde is the hardest color to achieve because it means both changing the hue and lightening the hair at the same time, starting with the same Selective Color approach used for brown.

21. Add a Selective Color Layer for Blonde

    Group a new Selective Color adjustment layer labeled Blonde and adjust the Black, Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan sliders as a starting point.

22. Mask Out the Lips and Face

    Paint black on the layer mask over areas like the lips that shouldn’t be affected by the color shift.

23. Paint Blonde Highlights With a Screen Blend Mode Layer

    Create a new layer, set its blend mode to Screen, and paint an orange-range blonde color over the hair, since Screen only lightens what it touches.

24. Target the Highlights With Blend If

    Open Blending Options and split the underlying layer slider so the painted blonde color only shows up in the areas that are already lighter, rather than lowering opacity evenly.

Warming Dark Areas and Adding Final Highlights for Blonde Hair

The darker remaining areas of blonde hair need their own color and brightness pass, along with a final layer of highlights, to finish the effect.

25. Add a Levels Layer to Warm the Darks

    Add a Levels adjustment layer, switch to the Red channel, and raise the output black point slightly, then do the same on the Green channel to avoid an overly red or green tint.

26. Reveal the Warming Over the Hair

    Invert the layer mask to black and paint white over the hair to bring the warming effect into just the darker areas.

27. Add White Highlights With Blend If

    Paint white highlights on a new layer, then use Blend If to restrict them to the lightest areas, adjusting blend mode and opacity until they look natural.

28. Brighten With a Curves Layer

    Add a Curves adjustment layer, raise the curve for extra brightness, and paint that brightness in only where the hair needs to look lighter.

Why Going Darker Is Easier Than Going Lighter

Turning hair darker mostly involves desaturating and dimming color that’s already there, which Hue/Saturation and Curves handle well. Turning hair lighter, especially all the way to blonde, requires adding brightness and color that doesn’t exist in the original pixels at all, which is why going from very dark hair to blonde is close to impossible and why the blonde result here still needed several extra layers of highlights and warming to look convincing.

Why This Approach Works

Separating color removal, from Hue/Saturation, and brightness, from Curves, into two different layers is what makes it possible to fine-tune each independently instead of fighting one slider trying to do both jobs at once. Using Blend If instead of opacity for every highlight layer in this tutorial is what keeps painted-on shine restricted to the areas that would actually catch light, rather than dimming evenly across the whole hair. Restoring sampled skin color between strands, instead of leaving the mask fully transparent, is the detail that keeps the gaps in the hair from revealing the original, unwanted color underneath.

Final Thoughts

Brown and black hair color changes come together quickly with just a couple of adjustment layers, while blonde takes real patience since it fights against how much easier it is to darken hair than to lighten it. The same selective color, Hue/Saturation, and Blend If combination used here is also a great way to preview a hair color change in Photoshop before committing to it for real, and Change Any Color in Photoshop works through the same ideas across sixteen different examples.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Brown hairSelective Color layer: less Black, then Yellow, Magenta and Cyan to taste
• Take color outHue/Saturation: Master to Reds, eyedropper on the hair, Saturation 0
• DarkenCurves layer, pull the middle of the curve down
• Copy a maskAlt/Option-drag the mask onto the next layer
• Skin between strandsNew layer in Color blend mode, paint sampled skin tone, lower opacity
• Shine only in the lightsDouble-click the layer, Alt/Option-drag to split the Underlying Layer slider
• Warm blonde darksLevels: raise the Red and Green output blacks; Cmd/Ctrl + I inverts the mask, paint white on the hair