Shiny Hair

I am often asked how I make my hair so shiny. I promply reply that I shampoo daily, but the secret is in the conditioner. *insert crickets chirping* Well, we all know that my style is very anime influenced, so of course my charcters have to have abnormally shiny hair. Here is how I create the effect.

I begin by coloring the hair in with a nice flat base color. Since anime is very wierd, you can make the hair pretty much any color of the rainbow and people will accept it as being normal; go figure.

Once I have my base color, I'm going to choose a color for the shadows. To have shiny hair, you can't just have highlights zig-zagging across the surface. You need shadows to give it depth. I choose a shadow color that's a little cooler (more blue) and a little darker then my base color.

I've decided that might light will be coming from the upper right. Because of this, the shadows will fall to the lower left of the hair forms. I use a soft airbrush and shade accordingly

For the lighter areas, I choose a color that's a little warmer (more yellow) and a little brighter then my base color. I shade on the upper right of all of my forms because that's where the light would hit.

Now I choose a color for my very bright highlights. This color is even warmer (more yellow) and lighter then any of the other colors. I highlight only the tips and the areas where the light would hit the strongest. If you follow the formula of base color / shadow / light / and highlight, your hair can be convincingly shiny :)

Just in case you were wondering, here's the final image, shiney hair and all. I changed the face in the final image, because I was unhappy with the eyes, nose, and mouth.