Recoloring hair is hard because of two things: the selection and the realism. Here we select the hair, copy it to a new layer, fill that layer with the target color, then let the blending mode and opacity push it back into the original light. Trying the shade in Online PS before committing to it is genuinely useful.
Step 1: Open the image
1. Open Online PS (zaixianps.cc).
2. Click File → Open in the top-left corner (or just press Ctrl+O) and pick the photo whose hair color you want to change.
Step 2: Select the hair
1. Choose the Quick Selection tool (W) from the toolbar on the left.
2. Click and drag on the canvas — Online PS picks up the outline of the hair automatically. Use Shift to add to the selection and Alt (Option on Mac) to subtract, until all the hair is selected.
Step 3: Copy it to a new layer
With the selection in place, press Ctrl+J (or right-click → Layer via Copy) to copy the selected hair onto a new layer, named Layer 1 by default.
Step 4: Fill with the target color
1. With Layer 1 still selected (click it in the Layers panel), hold Ctrl and click the layer thumbnail to make sure the hair area is still selected.
2. Open the Fill dialog (Shift+F5), choose Color under Contents, click the color swatch and pick the shade you want (red #FF0000, for example). Click OK to fill.
Step 5: Set the blending mode & opacity
In the Layers panel, change the blending mode of Layer 1 to Color and bring the opacity down to a sensible value (around 50% by default, depending on how dark the original hair is). This step makes the color affect only hue while keeping the original light and shadow detail.
Finally, press Ctrl+D to deselect, and the new hair color looks natural.
- The color doesn't look natural? Fine-tune it with Image → Adjustments → Hue/Saturation (Ctrl+U) first.
- Jagged edges around the hair? After making the selection, use Select → Modify → Expand/Contract (or Feather) to soften the edge.
- Want to try several colors at once? Duplicate
Layer 1a few times, fill each copy with a different color, then toggle their visibility to compare. - Color bleeding onto the skin? Add a layer mask to
Layer 1and paint with black wherever the original color should stay.
References
- Online PS
- Adobe official documentation