Make-Up and Hair Design
Entry requirements
From a minimum of 2 A Levels
Accepted when studied alongside other Level 3 qualifications
Access to HE Diploma
Pass in Access course with 60 credits overall including 45 Level 3 credits passed with a minimum of Merit.
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
HNC (BTEC)
HND (BTEC)
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
OCR Cambridge Technical Diploma
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
Pearson BTEC Diploma (QCF)
Pearson BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF)
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
T Level
UCAS Tariff
From a minimum of 2 A Levels or equivalent qualifications such as BTEC Extended Diploma or OCR Extended Diploma. For detailed information on accepted qualifications, please view our Course Entry Statement (https://www.solent.ac.uk/how-to-apply/documents/course-entry-requirement-statement.pdf) Solent University is a proud champion of widening participation. For further information about our contextual offer, please visit our website (https://www.solent.ac.uk/how-to-apply/what-next/contextual-offers)
This qualification is accepted when taken alongside other qualifications.
You may also need to…
Attend an interview
About this course
Nurture your individual design identity and develop professional artistry skills on this stimulating and creative make-up and hair design course – ready to launch a dynamic career as a make-up and hair designer.
On this course you will explore the many contexts of make-up and hair design within the creative industries. You will also be encouraged to take an experimental approach to application, materials and creative development processes to produce innovative and contemporary design work. This includes make-up and hair styling for fashion editorial, wig work for theatre, TV, and alternative design contexts (eg, publications, galleries and the catwalk). And to enable you to operate across design platforms, you will be trained in photography, film and digital publishing.
We emphasise diversity and inclusion within design, while debating beauty ideals, gender politics and the changing face of identity. Throughout the course you will also be encouraged to embrace and develop new ways of working, alongside the study of historic and contemporary make-up and hair techniques for fashion, beauty, theatre, TV and film.
You will study in well-equipped studios and workshops, ranging from make-up, hair and special effects studios, to photography studios, IT suites, as well as access to a comprehensive Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). You will be taught by a team with strong reputations as practicing professional designers or researchers, as well as visiting lecturers, a dynamic programme of industry speakers, and international visits.
Situated within the School of Art Design and Fashion, the course also provides you with the opportunity for cross-programme collaborations to help you contextualise your place within the prosthetics and special effects industry, offering you a rich and stimulating education and preparing you for future employment.
In your final year of study, you will have the opportunity to apply to work with our professional make-up team at London Fashion Week, across a range of national theatre productions, or at Graduate Fashion Week in London.
Critical debate surrounding design is central to the teaching programme, which involves all students in the wider debates about making and thinking about design practice for the creative industries.
**What does this course lead to?**
Make-up and hair graduates from Solent are renowned for their excellent design conceptualisation skills and clear understanding of the requirements of industry, alongside an innovative and professional approach to the discipline.
The course will transform your understanding of this area, and provide you with a wide range of career options as a make-up designer in the creative industries. From working within creative direction, to pursuing a career in advertising, fashion, beauty, TV, film or theatre, you will leave this degree with the creative skills to formulate, design and present self-initiated outcomes to start a fantastic career in this ever-evolving industry.
**Who is this course for?**
This course is ideally suited to students who wish to use the subjects of make-up and hair to design and develop new approaches within image construction for fashion, beauty, TV, film and theatre.
Applicants should have previously studied a creative subject (previous experience in make-up and hair is not required) and have a portfolio of design work to present for interview.
Modules
YEAR 1 - CORE MODULES
Design Practice
Professional Application
Image Construction
Character Design
Visual Narratives
Culture and Context
YEAR 2 - CORE MODULES
Editorial Beauty and Catwalk Stories
Character and Identity
Visual Cultures
Fashion Film and Media
Professional Practice for the Creative Economy
YEAR 2 - OPTIONS (please note that not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year)
The Make-up Morgue
Radical Bodies
YEAR 3 - CORE MODULES
Creative Research Project: Proposal
Work Based Learning
Creative Research Project: Development and Realisation
Dissertation
YEAR 3 - OPTIONS (please note that not all optional modules are guaranteed to run each year)
Speculative Design
Art Direction, Psychology and Image
Assessment methods
The course is assessed through design projects that require sketch books, research, portfolios, presentations, written assignments and practical exams such as times assessments and trade tests. Students are also required to participate in graduate level Work Based Learning (WBL) in the final year of study.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
Extra funding
Solent University offers a number of bursaries, grants and scholarships. For more information, please visit https://www.solent.ac.uk/finance/grants-bursaries-scholarships/bursaries
The Uni
Solent University (Southampton)
Department of Art and Music
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
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Others in creative arts and design
Teaching and learning
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Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Others in creative arts and design
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Others in creative arts and design
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£16k
£20k
£23k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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