If there’s one thing we wish more people knew before having a corporate headshot, it’s this:
Headshot day is not the day to reinvent yourself.
Your photograph might sit on your company website, LinkedIn profile, press releases, speaker biography and countless proposals for the next few years. Someone may see it several times before they ever meet you.
And when they finally do, you want them to think, “Yes, that’s exactly who I expected.”
Not: “Oh. You look completely different.”
Professional hair and makeup for corporate headshots isn’t about transforming you into somebody else. Done well, it’s almost the opposite.
It’s about making sure the camera sees you – polished, confident, and on a really good day.
What does professional hair and makeup actually do for a corporate headshot?
Professional cameras and lighting see things differently from the way we experience another person in everyday life.
When we’re talking to someone in a room, we’re absorbing their expression, voice, movement, surroundings and a thousand other little pieces of information.
Put that same person into a static photograph and suddenly our attention has far fewer places to go.
A flyaway hair becomes more noticeable, as does shine across the forehead, tiredness underneath the eyes, an uneven area of skin, or a collar that’s sitting strangely.
That’s where professional hair, makeup, and grooming come in.
The purpose isn’t necessarily to add, more often, it’s to remove distractions.
We even have a name for much of this within professional hair and makeup: straight and corrective work. We’re subtly evening, tidying, defining and correcting so that the viewer’s attention stays where it should – on the person.
Will I have to wear lots of makeup for a professional headshot?
No.
In fact, one of the things we hear most often when someone sits in our chair is:
“I don’t really wear makeup. Please don’t make me look too made up.”
That’s completely fine.
Before we begin, we’ll talk about what you normally wear, what feels comfortable, and how you usually present yourself professionally.
If you’re someone who ordinarily wears very little makeup, we’re not suddenly going to give you a smoky eye and a contour worthy of Saturday night.
Equally, if makeup is part of how you normally present yourself, stripping everything back to almost nothing might make you feel equally unlike yourself.
There is no single definition of “professional”.
The person in the chair comes first.
What does “natural makeup” mean for a corporate headshot?
Natural doesn’t necessarily mean no makeup.
It might involve evening the skin tone, reducing shine, softly defining the eyes and brows, adding a little warmth to the face and using a neutral lip colour or tinted balm.
The clever bit is that you shouldn’t necessarily notice the makeup first.
You should notice the person.
Professional lighting can also alter how colour and dimension appear on camera, which is why your hair and makeup artist will take the photography setup into account rather than simply recreating your everyday makeup exactly.
What about men? Do men need makeup for corporate headshots?
Sometimes all that’s needed is five minutes.
Male grooming might involve mattifying the skin, reducing shine, subtly correcting an area of redness or tiredness, concealing a blemish, tidying brows or facial hair, and getting the hair sitting properly.
And yes, plenty of men initially look at us with an expression that says:
You are absolutely not putting makeup on me.
We get it.
Most aren’t worried about how they’ll look in the photograph. They’re worried that they’ll walk back into the office or out on the street afterwards looking like they’re wearing foundation.
That’s why communication matters.
We’ll explain what we’re using and why, keep everything as minimal as possible and, where appropriate, make sure you can easily remove anything afterwards.
The aim is not for anybody to look at your headshot and think, great makeup.
It’s for them to think, you look well.
Hair matters too… and more than you may realise
Hair can be particularly unforgiving in a still image.
Flyaways that are barely noticeable when someone is moving around can suddenly become very obvious against a plain background.
Frizz, flatness and areas of thinning hair can also become more noticeable.
Depending on the person, we may smooth flyaways, reduce frizz, add shape or volume, subtly disguise areas of visible scalp, or simply make sure the style sits properly from the camera angle.
And we’ll often take a quick photograph ourselves as something can look perfectly fine to the naked eye and become immediately obvious once we look at it through a camera.
Should I change my hairstyle for my corporate headshot?
Generally, no.
If you normally wear your hair straight, headshot day probably isn’t the moment for enormous Hollywood waves because you’ve always fancied trying them.
The same applies to clothes and makeup.
Your corporate headshot is essentially an introduction and so it should reflect the person someone is eventually going to meet.
That doesn’t mean your photograph has to be boring.
Quite the opposite!
Personality matters enormously in professional photography – particularly now that personal brands and company brands increasingly overlap.
But there’s a difference between amplifying who you are and inventing someone new.
We’d always choose the former.
What should I wear for a corporate headshot?
We’re hair and makeup artists rather than wardrobe stylists, but the entire image works together.
Think less about “What looks corporate?” and more about:
“How do I want somebody to feel when they see this photograph?”
A strongly structured jacket can communicate something very different from softer fabrics and relaxed lines.
Do you want to appear authoritative? Approachable? Creative? Disruptive? Warm? Serious? Energetic?
There isn’t one correct answer.
Your clothing, hair, makeup, expression, pose and photography should all be pulling roughly in the same direction.
And if you’re planning a larger brand shoot where wardrobe is particularly important, we can also recommend specialist stylists from our wider network.
How should I prepare for my corporate headshot?
No complicated beauty regime required!
1. Arrive with clean hair. Washing it the previous day is often ideal for styling because very freshly washed hair can sometimes be softer and harder to hold.
2. Avoid suddenly experimenting with completely new skincare immediately beforehand.
3. Look after the human underneath it all.
4. Get some sleep if you can.
5. Eat. Drink plenty of water.
6. Give yourself enough time to arrive without sprinting through the door already stressed.
Because one thing we’ve learned after years of preparing people for cameras is that energy photographs too.
You can have immaculate hair and makeup and still look uncomfortable.
What if I hate having my photograph taken?
You’re in extremely good company as most of the people we prepare for corporate headshots aren’t professional models.
They’re lawyers, founders, executives, employees, entrepreneurs and people who spend considerably more time doing their jobs than posing in front of cameras.
Sitting in front of a mirror while somebody studies your face can feel surprisingly vulnerable.
People regularly begin an appointment by apologising to us:
“Sorry, I didn’t sleep.”
“Ignore the bags under my eyes.”
“My skin is awful today.”
“I hate having my photograph taken.”
You don’t need to apologise. Our job isn’t to inspect you, it’s to look after you.
A good hair and makeup artist – just like a good photographer – understands the person as well as the technical job.
What changes when you’re photographing an entire company?
With one executive portrait, we may have considerably more time to understand the individual and what they want their photograph to communicate.
With 20 or 30 employees coming through in succession, efficiency becomes much more important.
That’s where planning and artist numbers matter.
An express grooming appointment might take around five minutes for some men and approximately 10-15 minutes for women requiring a quick camera-ready tidy. More involved individual hair or makeup may require around 30–40 minutes.
Rather than guessing, give us your number of people and photography schedule and we’ll calculate what is realistically achievable and how many artists you need.
For larger teams, we can create multiple hair and makeup stations so the photographer isn’t sitting around waiting for us – and we’re not chasing them down the corridor trying to powder somebody they’ve already photographed.
Can professional hair and makeup reduce retouching?
Absolutely.
The more we can correct before the shutter clicks, the less there is potentially to correct afterwards.
Even skin, controlled shine, tidy hair and catching the small details on set can save considerable work later.
It’s one reason photographers love having an experienced hair and makeup artist alongside them.
We’re another pair of trained eyes. – We’ll notice the flyaway, we may also notice the wonky collar. Technically, the latter isn’t our job, but realistically?
We’re fixing it.
Your corporate headshot should still be you
The best corporate headshot hair and makeup doesn’t announce itself.
It removes distractions, it works with professional lighting, and it creates polish and consistency.
Most importantly, it allows the person being photographed to stop worrying about how they look and concentrate on being themselves.
Because ultimately, people don’t connect with perfect photographs. They connect with people.
And that’s who we want the camera to capture.
Planning corporate headshots?
CJC Hair & Makeup provides professional hair, makeup and grooming for individual executives, personal brands and company headshot days in London, throughout the UK and internationally.
From one artist to multi-artist teams, we’ll advise you on exactly what your schedule requires.
ENQUIRE ABOUT CORPORATE HAIR & MAKEUP
By Camilla Collins.
Camilla Collins is the founder of CJC Hair & Makeup, leading a team of experienced hair and makeup artists working across corporate production, weddings, events, TV, film and live appearances.
With more than 15 years’ industry experience, Camilla specialises in the relationship between appearance, confidence and how people show up when it matters.
