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A production department

Hair and make-up

Hair and make-up: who is in the department and what each of them does

Every person who appears on camera passes through make-up: every lead, every crowd artist in the back of a pub scene, every stunt double. Some of the work is invisible and some of it is the whole point of the shot.

In the UK this is usually one department doing both hair and make-up, under one designer, which is why the course is blunt that you will be expected to style hair as well as apply make-up. It is responsible for everything that sits on skin or hair: straight make-up, effects out of the kit, body make-up, facial hair, contact lenses and dental pieces, and wigs. It works one of the longest days on the unit, because it is in before the first actor and out after the last one is de-rigged.

  1. Hair and make-up designer

  2. Hair and make-up supervisor

  3. Make-up artist

  4. Personal make-up artist

  5. Assistant make-up artist

  6. Prosthetics and special effects make-up artist

  7. Wig and hair specialist

  8. Body make-up artist

  9. Daily make-up artist

  10. Hair and make-up traineeEntry-level job

Drawn from MFJF's own Foundations course Hair and Make-up Trainee (module 1: What the make-up department does, and A trainee's day, hour by hour; module 5: The map, the path and the people, for the ladder and the three-year plan). The words are My First Job In Film's. © My First Job In Film 2026.

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Picked for Hair and Make-up Trainee. Signed in, they follow your stage and the roles your answers point to. See your whole MFJF journey, step by step →

  1. My MFJF JourneyOne page for everything MFJF has built, in the order you need it.
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  4. Get on the HotListPut yourself in front of productions looking for crew.
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  6. The career planner: Hair and Make-up TraineeWhat to do, learn and be able to do, from no experience to paid work.
  7. The career guide: Hair and Make-up TraineeThe job, the day, the way in and the pay, in one guide.
  8. See how it all fits on the career maps17 maps of how films get made: the people, the process and the departments.
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  10. Industry EssentialsThe books, industry bodies, websites and blogs worth knowing, department by department.
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