Professional
Hair Retouching
★★★★★4.9 / 5Over 52,000 Students and Panel Users Worldwide
Even with an experienced hairstylist on set, the responsibility for flawless hair in the final images typically falls on the retoucher.
In this course, across 26 lessons (see the full course outline below), you will work through a variety of tactics and methods that will help you take the struggle out of hair retouching, save you time, and ensure you always have the best approach for any challenging situations when dealing with hair in beauty, fashion, and portrait photography.
Over 3.5 hours of video lessons, accompanied by beauty practice files, custom actions, and brushes.
- Duration
- Over 3.5 hours
- Access
- Lifetime
- Format
- Streaming · English captions
Created by Julia Kuzmenko McKim and Michael Woloszynowicz, professional beauty and fashion photographers, retouchers, and educators. Every lesson distills decades of combined industry experience into the refined retouching methods we use in commercial work.

Photography & retouching by Julia Kuzmenko McKim using RA Panels
























Take the Struggle Out of Hair Retouching
This course is for photographers and retouchers who are already familiar with basic retouching tools and techniques and want to be able to handle hair retouching at a professional level, so they don’t have to turn down paid beauty, fashion, or portrait projects that require hair retouching work.
This is not a course about transforming elaborate hairstyles or rebuilding hair into something completely different than what was originally captured. The market for that type of retouching is very narrow, and the time and effort it takes to master it is not worth it for a freelancer unless they are working specifically with haircare brands, salons, or hairstylists.
This course is about handling the common hair retouching challenges that are abundant on every job: strays, gaps, edges, scalp, shade inconsistencies, and messy hairlines.
This skill is especially valuable for freelance retouchers aiming to work with commercial clients such as beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands. Most of our Avenue studio retouchers took RA courses and use our methods and workflows.
- Lessons
- 26 lessons
- Practice files
- Beauty practice files
- Bonus materials
- Custom actions and hair brushes
- Support
- Comment under any lesson. Need help with course access? Reach out to us →
Watch our courses anywhere via the Kajabi app.
Course Modules & Lessons
Seven modules, working outward from edge cleanup to advanced repair.
Each includes video lessons, practice beauty images, bonus materials, and hands-on work to lock in what you learn.
- 1.1Overview: Typical Hair Retouching Challenges
- 1.2Removing Hair in Bulk
- 1.3Drawing In Hair Strands for a Realistic Finish
- 1.4Adding Noise to Minimize the Retouching Footprint
- 2.1Stray Hairs Crossing the Face
- 2.2Removing Strays Crossing the Interior of the Hair
- 3.1Grafting Hair to Rebuild Problematic Areas
- 3.2Stray Hair Cleanup: A Brute-Force Method
- 3.3.1Advanced Outside Edge Grafting, Part 1
- 3.3.2Advanced Outside Edge Grafting, Part 2
- 3.3.3Advanced Outside Edge Grafting, Part 3
- 4.1Covering Up Revealed Scalp
- 4.2Filling In Gaps in Hair Against the Background
- 5.1Dodging and Burning for Hair Retouching
- 5.2Color Correcting Hair Shade Inconsistencies
- 5.3Dodging and Burning to Add Volume to the Hair
- 5.4Shaping Hair
- Baby Hairs & Forehead Cleanup
- 6.1Grafting Skin to Cover Up Baby Hairs
- 6.2Frequency Separation to Clean Up the Forehead
- 6.3Fine-Tuning the Results of the Previous Lessons
- 6.4Refining the Appearance of the Created Hairline
- 7.1Frequency Separation and Other Tools for the Wig Hairline
The New Photoshop Tools,
For Hair Retouching
Latest addition to the course on how to use new AI-augmented tools for faster hair retouching. Explore newer tools and mix what fits into your workflow.
AI helps you get to the finish line faster, your taste and standards stay in control.
Created and Taught by Seasoned Creative Professionals

Beauty photographer and retoucher with over a decade of industry experience, shooting and retouching for brands like Urban Decay, Pat McGrath Labs, Lululemon, and many others alongside her Avenue Studio team.

Michael is one of the leading Retouching Academy instructors, globally known for not only his top-quality photography and retouching work but also for his accessible style of teaching and Photoshop expertise.





















What Our Users
Are Saying
From photographers and retouchers who use what they learned from our courses and the RA Panels in their everyday retouching work.
Frequently
Asked Questions
Photographers and retouchers who are already familiar with Adobe Photoshop and basic retouching, and want to master hair retouching, so they don’t have to turn down paid beauty, fashion, or portrait projects that require hair retouching work. This skill is especially valuable for freelancers aiming to work with commercial clients such as beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands.
- Solid skill base. Proper hair retouching methods, principles, tools, and techniques for high-quality, campaign-level work.
- Lean-PSD, non-destructive workflow. Avoid irreversible changes and organize working files the way professionals do.
- Career potential. If you are already skilled in skin and beauty retouching, adding this skill to your arsenal will allow you to confidently take on projects where complex hair retouching is required too.
To reach senior roles or commercial freelance work for beauty and wellness brands, the All-in-One Beauty Retouch and Beauty Retouch bundles both include this course plus Professional High-End Beauty Retouching.
Complete beginner? Start with the Beginner Retoucher Bundle instead.
Yes. The course is taught in Adobe Photoshop, the standard software for professional retouching.
Even if you begin culling and editing your images on an AI platform, professional beauty and fashion images usually require a proper finish in Photoshop.
A graphics tablet (Wacom or other) is recommended, but it is not required to start. Module 1 will help you set it up properly.
For Beginner-Level courses and bundles, no retouching experience is required. Some basic knowledge of the Photoshop interface, layers, masking, and basic tools will be helpful. We’ll take it from there: these courses include introductions to the essential Photoshop tools and key techniques.
Intermediate to Advanced courses and bundles assume existing retouching experience. They touch on fundamentals but focus on advanced methods, and don’t cover the basics in depth.
Lifetime. Once enrolled, the course stays in your account, on the web, and in the Kajabi app.
Enrollment includes all course materials and any future updates. Courses are self-paced and hosted on a streaming platform, so you can learn at your own speed and revisit lessons anytime on desktop, laptop, or mobile devices through the Kajabi app.
Yes. Every course includes downloadable bonus materials such as practice files, custom actions, and brushes. You’ll find them at the start of each course on the Additional Materials & Downloads or Welcome to the Course pages.
Yes. Leave comments under any lesson, and our team or Julia will answer and support your learning.
Some courses also include a private community where you can ask questions, suggest new lessons, and get feedback from instructors and fellow students.
Immediately after purchase, you’ll receive an email with login details and instructions to start right away.
Returning students can log in via Customer Login or Learn → Your Course Library in the site’s top menu.
Course enrollments are generally non-refundable. That said, in the past five years, we have not received a single refund request for our courses. That’s the result of careful course creation and detailed descriptions that keep expectations and the learning experience aligned.
If you are unsure whether this is the right starting point for you, reach out to us before you enroll, and we’ll help you make the right choice.
After the purchase, if you’re not completely satisfied, reach out within 7 days and let us know what exactly went wrong.
See our Terms & Conditions.
Master Professional
Beauty Retouching
We teach what we have learned the hard way in real-world commercial beauty and fashion work.














