I'm having a hard time getting this just right. I've found tons of tutorials on how to mask hair from backgrounds but haven't found a single one about how to get rid of it when it's lying on skin (like a shoulder).

I've been cloning and even painting over the strands I want to get rid of, but it either looks like the area I worked on was slathered with makeup or the skin tone is uneven. I need it to be perfect. :) Anyone have any specific techniques they could share?

I was going to say wax and then read your post. :)

Have you tried taking chunks of skin from somewhere else and smoothing it in, like a skin graft for a burn victim, instead of using the cloning.

Yeah freaky has a good idea there...Iwould have suggested working with the clone or even the healing brush but may on a separate layer so you can blend in patches better...its hard to say

duplicate pic layer(ctrl+J)> filter> dust+scratches> up raduis to get rid of details> move the threshold up enough to bring back the noise> make a negative mask by clicking alt+mask icon on layers pallete> use mask to bring back in important detail.

hope this helps.

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Ian

Try the free Polaroid Dust & Scratch Removal Utility.

http://www.polaroid.com/service/software/poladsr/poladsr.html

You might want to combine it with other techniques to get the best results.

Clone tool works fine for me :)

Wow, I haven't been by in about a month and people are still replying to this. Thanks everyone!

I had already been using most techniques suggested here... I think I was hoping there might have been an easier method that wasn't so darned tedious... like maybe a hidden command? So having already tried what everyone's suggested I gave freaky's a try and it worked like a charm. ;)