We often forget the difference that hair and makeup make when we’re watching our favourite movies and box sets. But imagine if just for one day, all hair and makeup was completely removed from a movie set and all the actors showed up completely naturally. Would it change the way you perceive them? Would you start to feel like the movie was low quality and poorly produced? Hair and makeup shape our opinions of movies much more than we think – it’s only because it’s something that goes on behind the scenes that it often goes unnoticed.
Why Hair & Makeup Matter
Makeup and hair professionals who work on film sets have a challenging job of mastering a number of different looks that can be responsible for communicating a time period or visually showcasing a character’s personality and mindset. They can be responsible for creating natural, minimalist make-up looks as well as theatrical and full coverage finishes. Working with an impressive number of different actors and actresses, they also have to adjust their products and techniques to match different skin tones and textures.
As you can imagine, their makeup selection is one of the most complete you’ll ever find because they need to consider how everything from face primer to fake blood impacts the storyline and how characters come across to the audience. Hair and makeup are important in movies as it allows us, the audience, to instantly make an impression of a character. It might be to communicate that they’re vulnerable, confident or even dangerous, before any dialogue is used.
How Hair & Makeup Can Be Used In Movies
Hair and makeup in movies is used to control the narrative, and it can be done in a number of different ways. Here are just a few of those:
Reflecting A Specific Time Period
Movies set in specific time periods use makeup and hair to immerse viewers back or forward in time. They’ll typically use iconic hairstyles and beauty trends that can instantly reflect a certain era, like the voluminous and slightly intimidating perms of the 1980s or the heavy cut-crease eyeliner of the 60s.
Realism
Movie makeup artists in live-action and realistic movies use makeup and their impressive application techniques to mimic real-life injuries and imitate natural elements like sweating or dirt.
Storyline Progression
It only takes one small change to a character’s hair and makeup to signify progression in the movie’s storyline. A flawless, youthful makeup look can quickly be transformed into a more mature appearance by adding shadows that change the face shape or by altering the fullness and shape of the lips using different lip liners.
Most people think that makeup artists on movie sets have an easy job. Actually, it’s far from it. Even the most impressive and highly skilled makeup artists can create looks that don’t support a character’s personality, and as a result, the audience may struggle to connect with or believe in them. Next time you’re watching your favourite Netflix movie, pay attention to the makeup and hairstyles of each character and how they evolve as the story unfolds. You may start to notice how much they help shape the narrative, sometimes even more subtly than elements like cinematography or editing.