How Should I Wear My Hair For Headshots

Your hair may is undoubtedly one of the most personal styling choices that you make. Just think about how nervous people get when they decide they are going to make a change to their style!

Here are some tips that can help you make sure your hair is perfect for your professional headshots.

The simplest answer is you should aim to style your hair on a really good hair day. However, you should also consider who your audience is for your headshots.  With that in mind, I would recommend wearing your hair like you would if you were going to a job interview or an important meeting.

Should your hair be up or down for your headshots?

Why not both!?

IF you have long hair, we can very easily do headshots with your hair down then transition to an up look. The key is to keep it looking professional and put together. The added benefit is that you get a wider range of looks in your personal marketing portfolio.

You can absolutely have headshots with multiple hair looks!  For example, it is not at all uncommon for people to start with their hair in “the boardroom look” then during their headshot appointment, change their hair to something that represents something a little looser.  The key is to think about who is your audience and how do you want to present to the world.

If you think you may have to change your hairstyle during your headshot appointment, ie straight to curly, you may want to consider working with one of the makeup artists that I work with in my studio. They can make basic changes to your style so it’s one less thing that you need to worry about.

If you would rather do your own hairstyling, be sure to bring your styling tools and any products you would normally use.

If you need a trim, color touchup, or any other basic maintenance hairstyling for your headshots, I recommend scheduling that appointment for at least a week before your headshot session. That will give a little buffer if a color touch-up needs to “settle” a little or for hair to grow back out a touch if the stylist took off just a little too much.

In most cases, I do not recommend doing a drastic hairstyle change before your headshot appointment. You will want to live with a new style for a couple of weeks before new headshots to make sure you love that new style. Not only that but you want to look like the most current version of yourself in your headshots. For example, I had an acting headshot client who updated their headshots with long, flowing hair. Two days after their headshot appointment they decided it was time for a change and cut off the flowing locks. Because of the drastic change, they needed to update their headshots again to ensure what they were showing casting directors looked like the person auditioning.