Cleaning up stray hairs is one of the most time-consuming jobs in portrait retouching. In this post I’m reviewing the Stray Hairs plugin from Retouch for Me, which promises to do most of that work for you inside Photoshop.
This isn’t a new tool. It’s been out for a few months, but I wanted to test it properly on real images before sharing my thoughts. If you decide you want a copy, I’ve included a discount code at the end of the post.
Disclosure: Retouch for Me sent me a copy of this plugin to review. That isn’t why I’m writing about it. I was a paying customer of theirs for years before they got in touch, because they make really good tools.
Prefer to watch? Here’s the full video:
The Test Images
I picked three stock images for this test: one easy and two difficult.
- Image 1 (easy): A few stray hairs on top of the head. Not much work needed.
- Image 2 (harder): Looks fine at first, but zoom in and there are lots of stray hairs blending into the background.
- Image 3 (hardest): Hair falling across the face. This is usually a difficult and time-consuming fix, and I expected the plugin to struggle with it.
A quick note on expectations: no plugin will give you a 100% result. The goal with tools like this is to get you 80 or 90% of the way there, then you fine-tune the rest yourself.
Cloud Credits vs. On-Device: Two Ways to Buy
Retouch for Me offers two ways to use their plugins:
- Cloud service: You buy credits, and each time you apply a plugin it draws down your balance.
- On-device: You buy the plugin once and use it as often as you like.
Depending on how many images you edit, buying the plugin outright can work out cheaper because it’s a one-time cost. That’s the option I use.
Method 1: The Quick Way (Retouch for Me Panel)
For simple images, the quickest option is the Retouch for Me panel in Photoshop. Find Stray Hairs in the list of plugins and click the play button. It works out what the image needs and applies default settings.
There’s a small arrow to the right of each plugin that expands its settings. For Stray Hairs, the only setting here is the blend of the effect, which you can turn up or down. You don’t get much control in this mode, but for easy images you don’t need it.
On my first image, the result looked great. Two things stood out:
- It works on a separate layer. The plugin creates a new layer and even names it “Stray Hairs”. If you do high-level edits in Photoshop, you’re already working in layers, so this fits the way you already work. You can toggle the layer on and off to compare.
- It matches the rest of the photo. Where there were hairs in the out-of-focus area, it didn’t just remove them. It added a bit of blur to match the bokeh that was already in the background, so the result blends in naturally.
Method 2: Full Control (Filter Menu)
For harder images, you want to be able to tweak the effect. Instead of the panel, go to Filter > Retouch for Me > Stray Hairs. This opens the full plugin window.
The plugin first analyses the photo. This can take a couple of minutes depending on your computer. Once it’s done, you get a set of tools on the left-hand side:
- Before/after: Click and hold to see the original photo.
- Regenerate: Re-runs the effect after you make changes.
- Pan and zoom
- Brush: Paints the effect on.
- Eraser: Removes the effect.
- Invert mask
When you select the brush or eraser, you’ll see a mask. White areas show where the effect has been applied, which makes it easy to spot problems. You can change the brush size with the bracket keys, just like in Photoshop, or with the slider.
Fixing the Second Image
On the second image the result was good overall, and it cleaned up hairs in front of the face. There were a couple of issues to fix:
- A spot where hair had been removed that should have stayed, leaving a gap.
- An area where the effect had been applied to part of the hair that I wanted to keep.
I used the eraser to remove the effect from those areas and the brush to add it in a couple of spots. Don’t try to remove every stray hair. Hair is normal, and removing all of it looks unnatural. The aim is a natural result.
Erasing shows up in real time. If you paint the effect onto new areas, you’ll get a message telling you to regenerate. As far as I understand it, the plugin works in two phases: the first analyses the image, and the second applies the effect. Regenerating only re-runs the second phase, so it’s quicker than the initial analysis.
After regenerating, the before and after showed a big difference. Click Apply, and once again everything lands on its own layer in Photoshop.
The Hardest Image: Hair Across the Face
For the final image, I duplicated the background layer so I’d have something to compare against, then ran the plugin from the Filter menu again.
It did remarkably well, much better than I expected. It wasn’t perfect, but it had done a lot of the work. Here’s what I adjusted:
- Kept a strand I liked. On the left side, the plugin had removed a piece of hair that actually looked nice, so I used the eraser with a small brush to bring it back.
- Painted in missed hairs. On the right side, it had cleaned up the ends of the hair but left some stray hairs on the cheek. I painted the effect over that area.
- Fixed cut-off hair. In a couple of spots, near the eye and lower down, the plugin had removed part of a strand so it looked cut off. I erased the effect there so the hair runs all the way through.
- Covered the rest of the area. I painted the effect over a larger section to catch any hairs I couldn’t see. If it doesn’t work, you can always remove it afterwards.
After regenerating, it looked really good. There was one area where the background needed blending after the hair was removed, but I chose to fix that in Photoshop. The hard part is removing the hair. Fixing the backdrop is easy.
Why the Layers Matter
I can’t emphasise this enough: everything the plugin does goes onto its own layer. You can add a layer mask, tweak the result, and work non-destructively, so you keep full control over the image. If you want, you can also flatten the image and run it through the plugin again to improve the result further.
Final Thoughts
The Retouch for Me Stray Hairs plugin handled the easy image with one click and did far better than I expected on the difficult ones. You’ll still need to fine-tune, as with any plugin, but the brush, eraser and mask tools make that quick, and the layer-based output fits a professional Photoshop workflow.
Get 20% Off
If you want a copy for yourself, use the coupon code MINISTRY to get 20% off. Retouch for Me often runs promotions, and you can usually apply the code on top of a discounted price to save even more.
Free Resources
I’ve revised my resources page, where you can download free presets, actions and guides. I’ve just added a back-to-basics guide on shutter speed, aperture and ISO, so if you’re just getting started, grab your free resources here.
Got questions? Leave them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.