A practical guide from Sketchso
How to Draw Hair: Masses, Direction and a Few Strands
A head has something like 100,000 hairs, and no one can draw them. You do not need to. From a normal viewing distance, hair reads as a few large shapes with light on one side and shadow on the other, and a handful of strands at the edges. Drawing hair well is mostly deciding which few marks to make.
Give the hair volume first
Hair sits on top of the skull, not painted onto it. Draw the head shape first, then the outer shape of the hair with some thickness above and around it. Even short, close-cut hair adds a little height. Long hair falls from the crown and over the shoulders as a mass with weight, bending where it meets the neck and shoulders.
Find the parting or the crown, where the hair grows from, and the direction it falls. Every stroke you make later follows those directions.
Squint for the big light and dark shapes
Squint at your reference until the hair breaks into a few shapes: the lit side, the shadow side, and maybe a darker area underneath where hair overlaps. Shade those shapes as flat areas of tone first. If the large values are right, the hair will look like hair from across the room before you draw a single strand.
Shiny hair has bands of highlight that run across the direction of the strands, following the curve of the head or of each wave. Leave those bands lighter as you shade, rather than erasing them out afterwards.
Strands only where they show
Add individual strands at three places only: along the edges of the light and shadow shapes, where a few hairs cross from one into the other; along the outer silhouette, where stray hairs stand out against the background; and along the hairline. In the middle of a mass, single strands are invisible from a normal distance, so drawing them only adds noise.
Make strands with quick strokes that taper at both ends, following the direction of growth. A slow, even line looks like wire.
Straight, wavy, curly and coily
Straight hair shows long highlight bands and smooth gradations; strokes are long and nearly parallel. Wavy hair breaks into S-shaped sections, each with its own light and shadow, and the highlight jumps from wave to wave.
Curly and coily hair forms clumps and spirals. Draw it as a mass with texture made of small curving shapes, darker in the gaps between clumps and lighter on the tops of curls facing the light. The silhouette is the place to show individual curls clearly. Drawing every coil across the whole head flattens it; let the texture fade into tone toward the shadow side.
Soft hairlines and edges
Where hair meets the forehead, temples and neck, the edge is soft. Fine short hairs and skin show through each other. Draw this transition with light, short strokes and a gradual change of value instead of a hard line. A hard hairline makes the hair look like a wig.
Do the same at the outer edge against the background. Keep the edge sharper where hair overlaps something darker and lit, and let it dissolve where it turns away into shadow.
Questions before you start
How do I make hair look shiny?
Leave bands of highlight that run across the strands following the head’s curve, and keep strong contrast next to them. Shine comes from the jump between a highlight and a dark nearby.
Why does my drawn hair look flat?
Usually it is all strands and no masses. Shade the big light and shadow shapes first, then add strands only at edges.
How do I draw curly hair?
As clumps with small curving shapes, dark in the gaps and light on the tops. Show clear individual curls mainly on the silhouette.