How to Add Hair in Photoshop – Full Tutorial

You want to know How to add hair in Photoshop? Whether you need to give your hair extra volume or add some strands, make sure to learn how to add hair in Photoshop for natural results. In this step-by-step tutorial, we will outline the simple yet effective methods that will help you add hair in Photoshop.

Here you can learn about: How to Improve Pixelated Images in Photoshop. 3 Methods

Method 1. Add hair in Photoshop using the lasso tool

Photoshop is the best photo editing software for beginners as it comes with a variety of tools, including ones that allow you to add voluminous hair. These will be useful for those who specialize in portrait photography. You can add strands of hair wherever you need it by duplicating an existing layer.

Part 1: Open the image you want to add hair to in Photoshop

1. Step 1:: Open a portrait you need to enhance and find an area you want to enhance by making the hair thicker. You can enhance any photo, whether you need to enhance a realistic beard or add hair in Photoshop.

Part 2: Using the Lasso Tool

1. Step 1:: Go to the left toolbar and select the tool Bow.

2. Step 2:: Select a section of hair.
3. Step 3:: Find the nearest and largest section of hair.
4. Step 4:: Use the tool Bow to select the largest part of the hair and copy it to the area where the hair appears less thick.

Part 3: Duplicate a Layer

1. Step 1:: Next, you need to duplicate the selected area to copy the hair section onto a separate layer.
2. Step 2:: Go to the toolbar and select Layer > New > Layer via copy.
3. Step 3:: You can also use the combination of Ctrl + J keys to do so.

As soon as you do this, you will see two layers in the panel  Layers, with the photo itself and with the section of hair selected.

Part 4: Add hair to an empty area

1. Step 1:: Place the selected hair strand to the left of the face and rotate it horizontally.
2. Step 2:: You can do this by right clicking on the duplicate layer and selecting the option Flip horizontally.
3. Step 3: Alternatively, press Ctrl + J on the keyboard.

Part 5: Blurring the edges

1. Step 1:: Click on the mask layer to make the transition between hair sections less noticeable.
2. Step 2:: You need to blur the edges to get soft hair.

Part 6: Add the lock of hair to an empty area

1. Step 1:: Find the best place for a lock of hair.
2. Step 2:: If you want to add hair to the photo without it looking unnatural, you need to carefully cover the empty area with hair.
3. Step 3:: To do this, you can use the Move tool to pull them down until they cover the empty space.

Part 7: Add more strands

1. Step 1:: You can also add other strands to get a better result.

Method 2. Adding Hair in Photoshop Using the Liquify Tool

When adding hair in Photoshop, you can also use the Brush and Liquify tool which will help you add volume to the hair, make the colors more saturated, and increase the level of sharpness.

When you read Photoshop portrait tutorials for beginners, you will find many useful tips on how to use the Liquify tool correctly. With it, you can change the shape of your hair and add volume to it. However, if you are not careful enough, it could distort a model's facial features.

Part 1: Use the Brush Tool to Add Hair in Photoshop Using

1. Step 1:: Open the image and select the area that needs improvement. To do so, select the Brush tool.

Part 2: Painting on the hair

1. Step 1:: Paint over the section of hair you want to enhance. You need to create 2 layers. Select a color and use it to paint over the section of hair you want to enhance.
2. Step 2:: Then, select another color or shade and continue painting on the hair with the Brush

3. Step 3:: Select the Eraser tool and choose a new brushWith it, you can enhance unnatural looking areas and remove stray hairs in Photoshop.

Part 3: Exit Quick Mask Mode When Adding Hair in Photoshop

1. Step 1:: To exit quick mask mode, click the Q key. You will see the selected area of ​​hair.

2. Step 2:: Select the Liquify tool.
3. Step 3:: Find the menu Filter in the top toolbar and select the tool Liquefy.

Part 4. Add volume to your hair

1. Step 1:: To push and pull pixels in your photo, try using the Pixel Tool Liquefycreated exactly for this purpose.
2. Step 2:: Select this tool, adjust your settings and add volume to your haircut by moving the brush in the direction from your forehead to your hairline.
3. Step 3:: When adding hair in Photoshop with the help of the liquify tool, pay attention to the background as you can easily distort straight lines and make your photo look too edited.

NOTE: : You should keep in mind that this tool will affect not only the subject but also the surrounding pixels.

If you want to improve your photo without affecting some of its areas, you can 'freeze them'. For example, it might be a good idea to leave the model's face unchanged.

Even if you perform minor manipulations, they can still make the facial expression look strange. To avoid this, use the Freeze Mask Tool at the beginning and paint over the areas you want to leave as they were.

When using the Liquify tool, it's best to select a large brush, as this will allow you to make broader strokes. This way, any changes you make will look smoother and more natural.

Part 5: Save the changes

If you are satisfied with the result, click Accept to save the final version of the haircut.

Additional Tools for Adding Hair in Photoshop (Brush Installation)

If you want to make your portraits more professional and creative, you can check out these brushes to add hair in Photoshop from this blog. link. You should keep in mind that you should install Photoshop brushes and use them to enhance your photos with a coherent style.

These brushes are developed by photography professionals. With them, you can easily enhance your portrait photos by making hair thicker and fuller.

How to add hair in Photoshop with dots

If you're a photo editor for any kind of publication, you've probably encountered a situation where you needed to add hair to an area that didn't have any. Of course, you don't want to add any old hair - you want to add the hair that belongs to the person in the photo. This type of task isn't uncommon at all.

In this part of the post, we are going to go through the steps required to fill an empty area with adjacent hair available within Adobe Photoshop.

Now, we have to admit that these aren't easy steps to take to find a demo photo and use it in this part of the guide. We'll teach you how to use the lasso tool to surround the hair you'd like to fill the empty area with, but because of the photo, things aren't going to be perfect.

You may need to use your imagination for some of what should happen. However, we can guide you through the steps including:

1. Selecting replacement hair
2. duplicate that selection
3. and then work with layer masks to blend the replacement into the background.

It's actually a simple process and we think you'll find it helpful.

Demo photo

This is the photo we will use in this post. The area we will fill is the empty space in the lower left corner.

We just want the hair to look fuller in that lower area.

Part 1: Selecting with the Lasso Tool

We already have this photo open in Photoshop. Let's start adding hair in Photoshop:

1. Step 1:: To start, you must go to the left toolbar and select the lasso tool.

2. Step 2:: Next, you need to locate the nearest and largest area of ​​hair and select as much of it as possible with the lasso tool.

Part 2: Duplicate the layer to add hair in Photoshop

The next step is to duplicate the selected area so that some of the hair sits on its own layer. To do this, you have two options:

1. Option 1: You can use the toolbar menu item or the keyboard shortcut. The keyboard shortcut to duplicate a layer is Ctrl + J
2. Option 2: to do it through the toolbar, you must select Layer > New > Layer via Copy.

1. Step 1:: Once this is done, the panel Layers will have two layers. The photo and the selected hair.

NOTE: : Okay, since we already played around with this project before we started writing this post, we know that you will need more hair to fill in the empty area.

2. Step 2:: To create more hair, you simply duplicate the duplicate.
3. Step 3:: To do this, I make sure the hair layer is active and then press the Ctrl + J keys on the keyboard again.
4. Step 4:: Now, you will have the background layer and two hair layers.

Part 3: Arrange the hair over the empty area

The goal of this step is to completely cover the empty area on the photo layer with the hair layers. So, we will use the Move tool to pull those strands of hair until the vacuum disappears.

Part 4: Soften Edges When Adding Hair in Photoshop

To the untrained eye, what we've already done may seem like enough. But to the experts, we know that the project isn't finished yet. We still need to clean up the edge near the sleeve and smooth out the edges of the copied hair layers. We need those edges to blend nicely.

Part 5: Use Layer Masks to Add Hair in Photoshop

The best way to solve the problem I am facing is to use layer masks.

NOTE: : Here's how this is going to work; We're going to add a layer mask to each of the hair layers. The thing is, since it's easier to add the hair to the empty area rather than removing the hair from the empty area, we'd like those masks to hide the contents of the layer. By default, a layer mask appears white and doesn't hide the contents of the layer. To create a mask that is black and hides the contents of the layer, all you need to do is hold down the Alt key while clicking the layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers pane.

We will do it now:

1. Step 1:: In the screenshot above, you can see the Add layer mask button, as well as the black layer masks that have been applied to the hair layers.

NOTE: : Also, although the hair covers the empty space, it is hidden because of those masks.

2. Step 2:: To make the hair appear again, we will use the Brush tool set to blank.

3. Step 3:: We will use a hard edge while adding the hair back near the girl's sleeve.

4. Step 4:: Then we will change the colors and make the Brush tool use black instead of white. We will also soften the brush to about 25% and then we'll gently run it over the hard edges of the hair layers to soften them.

See how the added hair is completely integrated now?

5. Step 5:: Now, let's take a look at the final photo.

That looks pretty cool. If you were to ask someone where the added hair was, we're sure no one would be able to guess.

You may be interested in reading about: 8 Best Programs to Open PSD Files Without Photoshop

Conclusion

We hope we have clearly explained how to add hair in Photoshop to empty areas of a photo. There are many methods on the internet, but this guide was made with you in mind. If you are a beginner, you can follow each of the steps outlined to make your next edit look professional.