Teaching Stage Makeup and Hair for Every Skin Tone and Hair Texture

Sean Corp, Communications Lead

A new course is the first of its kind—an in-depth and rigorous stage makeup and hair course taught by career professionals and leaders at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance. The course is available to anyone in the world on demand and also features instruction so people can understand how to appropriately treat any hair texture or work with any skin tone. 

The course was created by Sarah M. Oliver, associate professor, and seeks to address a pervasive issue she has heard throughout her career as a costume designer of shows from New York to regional theatre – too often, performers are working with makeup artists and crew who are not trained on their skin tone and hair texture. Instead of fully embodying a character, they are instead confronted with limitations that can feel frustrating and demoralizing.  

Even graduates of the best training programs have historically received instruction in makeup and hair that looked and sounded the same year after year. The same kinds of instructors use the same examples, models, and teaching concepts, applicable only to the same kinds of – predominantly white – students.

Oliver, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, wanted to create something different, inclusive of more skin tones and hair types, and make it available to her students at U-M and learners worldwide. 

“People are hungry for this kind of training. They just don’t know where to get it. So my goal was to build an online course where you could go to one place to get in-depth, high-level, and diverse training,” she said.

The open online course “Equitable Stage Makeup and Hair,”  available on Michigan Online and Coursera, attempts to help both performers and makeup artists fill in their knowledge gaps with techniques and instruction applicable to more complexions, gender identities, and backgrounds so that performers can truly shine on stage and screen. 

“This course will help people at all levels: people who cosplay as a hobby, people who do community theatre or TV production, and even students, teachers, and big schools.” 

The course features foundational concepts taught by professionals in various theatre, television, film, and performing arts roles. After learning the foundational concepts, learners are encouraged to explore areas where they would like specific instruction, including aging makeup techniques, special effects makeup, hair care, wig making, and the art of drag makeup application. 

The concluding drag makeup section is taught by reality TV star and Drag artist Alex Michaels, best known as his Alexis Michelle. Michaels rocketed to stardom after appearing on “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” in 2017. Michaels is one of the many U-M alumni featured in the course, each of whom was motivated to provide more inclusive instruction than is typically offered, even at large programs like U-M. 

“We found that U-M alums recognized the importance of this project and the significance of what we were trying to do,” Oliver said. “They wanted to be part of making change in an industry badly in need of transformation.” 

The course is a three-year passion project for Oliver. Her journey to create the course began shortly after accepting her position at U-M in 2020 and was born out of both necessity and opportunity.

Oliver accepted the position on March 11. The next day, U-M announced it was shutting down campus and transitioning to remote instruction. That was an impossibility for someone charged with teaching makeup application. Her first class would have been limited to five students. Even then, Oliver asked herself not only how she would teach in a pandemic but also whether she had any hope of scaling up to teach the 250-300 students in the theatre program when in-person instruction resumed. 

At the same time, there was a reckoning in the industry, and Oliver said she and her colleagues knew it was past time to meet the moment and rethink what and how stage makeup and hair were taught in schools across the U.S.

“It’s a pipeline problem. If we don’t address the problem by changing how we are instructing students, how are we going to see change in the industry?” Oliver said. “Often, theatre departments are small, and instructors wear a lot of hats. This course allows someone with more of a costume theatre background, like me, to get a great understanding of how to appropriately apply and also teach others how to apply stage makeup and hair.” 

It’s a lesson Oliver learned in her own career. She was hired to teach at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and realized she had no experience working with Asian hair. 

“When I was hired, I had trained in hair for years. I walked in confidently. I went to prep everyone’s hair and couldn’t even put a pin curl in because I had never worked with anyone like the performers in that room. I was supposed to teach these students, and I was the least knowledgeable person in that room.” 

She relied on late-night training sessions with a friend who worked at the Hong Kong Ballet to ensure she could get up to speed, but Oliver said she doesn’t want students or teachers to find themselves in that situation anymore.

“I have talked to so many students and so many people in my industry who have no access to training like this, and they are hungry for this kind of in-depth training. It is exciting to be able to point to this course and get this level of diversified training that touches on so many skin tones, so many techniques, and so many needs.”

The course features perspectives from several actors and teachers from the Detroit area who recount the struggles and negative experiences they have had. Janai Lashon, a Black woman, discusses what it was like when the production had no knowledge or budget for how to treat her locs, which forced her to “become her own stylist” and even had her considering cutting her locs. Kurt Sanchez Kanazawa, an Asian man, reflects on the diversity of hairstyles in Asian culture and how few hair and makeup people truly understand how to style Asian hair. 

While it’s been a long time in the making, Oliver said she is thrilled to finally see the course live and knows it will be hugely impactful once people find it. 

“I have talked to so many students across this country who have no access to training like this. It is so exciting to now be able to point people to this opportunity.”