Hair and make-up

Career ladder

From first job to head of department

Common UK practice and ScreenSkills profiles; check names against the Bectu hair, make-up and prosthetics card.

Hair and make-up

Entry grade Hair and make-up trainee Kit, the trailer, helping artists, simple looks on crowd.Read the role
Step 2 Junior artist Supporting artists, crowd, assisting on cast.
Step 3 Hair and make-up artist Your own cast in the chair; standing by on set.Read the role
Step 4 Key artistAlso: senior artist; crowd supervisor Lead cast, or running a crowd team.
Step 5 Hair and make-up supervisor Runs the department day to day: crew, schedule, stock.
Top of the ladder Hair and make-up designer Head of department: the look of every character.Watch and read

Prosthetics

Parallel ladder

Entry grade Prosthetics technician Moulding, casting and running pieces in the workshop.
Step 2 Prosthetics artist Applies and maintains prosthetics on set.
Top of the ladder Prosthetics designerAlso: prosthetics supervisor Designs and supervises the prosthetic work.

Grade by grade: what you need before moving up

Hair and make-up
Grade	What you do	Before moving up
Hair and make-up trainee	Kit, the trailer, helping artists, simple looks on crowd.	Hygiene, kit care and speed.
Junior artist	Supporting artists, crowd, assisting on cast.	Speed and consistency on crowd; continuity notes.
Hair and make-up artist	Your own cast in the chair; standing by on set.	A full shoot with your own actors.
Key artistAlso: senior artist; crowd supervisor	Lead cast, or running a crowd team.	Leading a team on big crowd days.
Hair and make-up supervisor	Runs the department day to day: crew, schedule, stock.	Managing a department under the designer.
Hair and make-up designer	Head of department: the look of every character.	A body of work and a director who trusts you.

Prosthetics
Grade	What you do
Prosthetics technician	Moulding, casting and running pieces in the workshop.
Prosthetics artist	Applies and maintains prosthetics on set.
Prosthetics designerAlso: prosthetics supervisor	Designs and supervises the prosthetic work.

Bectu hair, make-up and prosthetics card (rate cards index) · Every department's ladder: Careers A–Z · Getting work · Working freelance

AI in film and TV

How AI fits this department

Digital de-ageing and clean-up now sit alongside prosthetics and make-up. Consent for a performer's likeness is written and specific.

Learning path: Rights, consent and disclosure The AI channel Consent and credit

What it does on a UK unit

The designer decides how every character looks, from a natural day look to period wigs, wounds, ageing and prosthetics. The department applies the looks every morning, often hours before unit call, and keeps them right through every take and across a schedule that jumps about, sometimes for months.

In UK drama hair and make-up is one department and one craft: artists do both. Prosthetics may be a separate team or a specialist company.

Who it works with

Director and cast: character looks, tests and approvals.
Costume designer: the whole look of each character, agreed together.
ADs: the time each actor needs in the chair, which shapes the whole call sheet.
DoP and the grade: how skin reads on camera and in the colour grade.
Prosthetics, SFX and VFX: wounds, blood, ageing, and tracking markers on faces.

Kit and vocabulary

Term	What it means
The chair	Make-up time before an actor goes to set, listed on the call sheet
Checks / last looks	The final touch-up the AD calls for just before a take
Continuity sheet	The record of each character's look per scene, with photographs
Lace-front wig	A wig with a fine lace hairline, glued for a natural edge
Appliance	A prosthetic piece applied to the skin
Patch test	Testing a product on skin before use, to check for a reaction
Crowd base	The area where supporting artists are prepared

How to get in

Most people start as a hair and make-up trainee. You need both hair and make-up skills: a hairdressing qualification and a media or theatrical make-up course are a common combination. Salon, theatre, fashion and bridal work all help. The ScreenSkills Trainee Finder places hair and make-up trainees, and crowd days are a common first job.

Pay

Check the hair and make-up branch card on the Bectu rate cards index. The index shows the current version.

Where Futures in Film helps

We don't run a hair and make-up course. These pages will help you get to a first job:

Your first day on set: how the floor works, for people who have never been on a set.
Routes in: trainee schemes that place hair and make-up trainees.
Faith-literate production (planned): schedules and working conditions that suit crews and cast of all faiths and none.
Representation and rates: unions, guilds and rate cards.