Photographers:

What kind of skills and attitude do you expect from your on-set hair stylists?

What, if anything, in regards to the technical aspects of your production do you expect them to have knowledge in?

Depends on the shoot. A swimsuit calendar requires different skill set than an advertisement for a hair products company.

I do expect them to be prepared, pay attention to the model's hair during the shoot and follow directions. Professional attitude absolutely necessary.

professional level of communication before and during the shoot

contribution of their artistic input during the storyboard stage of the shoot

not being a diva - some of the models bring enough of that for all of us lol  we all have to roll with the punches....

being creative and efficient -  life is short and time's expensive

being nice to the photographer never hurts either lol

I have only had the fortune to work with a hair stylist once so far which is a shame, good hair stylists seem harder to get than good muas.

Anyway:

Have some creative vision. They are the hair expert not me, I want to rely on them to tell me what will work best for my idea, the model and time available. If I have to try and articulate exactly what I *think* I want they could do that to the letter and it may not work for the shoot because I’m a photog not a hair expert. I run into this problem with MUAs often.

Know what is on trend with regards hair styles. I can’t always know, they are there because they are the expert.

Play nice with the mua over table space and working on the model

Be fast. Time is precious and hair can take a long time

Stay on set to keep the hair looking it’s best and pick stuff I may miss not sit in the corner txting/eating

In terms of knowledge technical aspects of the production not much. I think this is more important for a makeup artist since I feel they really should have some lighting knowledge so I can communicate this to them easily.