Film Career · Make-Up
Hair Designer
Make-Up · IATSE hair and makeup locals
- Union
- IATSE hair and makeup locals
- Day rate
- ~$546–$1,000/day
- Experience
- 3–7 yrs
What does a Hair Designer do?
A hair designer carries a hands-on craft within the make-up department, delivering their specialty daily as part of the department's crew.
On union productions the position falls under IATSE hair and makeup locals, which sets the rates, hours, and conditions the role works within. The role is engaged show by show, and careers in make-up are built on the department heads and crews who hire the same trusted people back.
What does a Hair Designer make?
- Hair and makeup crews are paid by the day with overtime and kit fees: artists roughly $546-$1,000 a day, and department heads $700-$1,500.
- Roughly $75K-$220K a year (IATSE Local 706).
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You have hair or makeup skill and a steady hand
Soft skills
- You like hands-on work and getting the details right
- You are a dependable team player who makes the department run
Career progression
The role advances the way most make-up careers do: repeat hires from the same department heads, growing responsibility within the craft, and a reputation that travels between productions faster than any resume.
How do you become a Hair Designer?
Careers reach this chair through the make-up department ladder: entry work first, then increasing responsibility as the crew learns your name. Smaller productions hand out the title earlier, and the credits transfer.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by IATSE hair and makeup locals contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.