Hair products can be tricky to photograph.
A bottle of shampoo or conditioner is easy enough to put on a white background, but if you want customers to understand what makes the product special, you need images that show more than the packaging.
For Bar and Bar’s hair cleanser shoot in Layton, Utah, we focused on both shampoo and conditioner with an emphasis on curly and dyed hair. Instead of keeping everything in a traditional studio setup, we took the session outdoors for a trail-inspired lifestyle look.
That gave us a chance to create images that felt natural while still showcasing the products.
Show the Product in a Real-Life Setting
Lifestyle photography helps customers imagine themselves using your product.
For hair care, that might mean photographing someone with beautiful curls, styled hair, wet hair, or a finished look that shows the kind of result your product is designed to support.
You don’t necessarily need to photograph the actual process of washing someone’s hair to communicate the experience.
Sometimes the finished result tells the story better.
For Bar and Bar, focusing on curly and dyed hair gave the images a clear visual connection to the type of hair their products are made for.
Photograph the Hair, Not Just the Bottle
With beauty products, the model is part of the product story.
If you’re selling shampoo or conditioner, customers want to see hair that looks healthy, defined, shiny, textured, or beautifully styled.
That’s why choosing the right model matters so much.
The person’s hair should help communicate what makes your product different. If your product is designed for curls, photograph curls. If it’s formulated for color-treated hair, show beautiful dyed hair.
The more specific the images feel, the easier it is for the right customer to connect with them.
Use the Location to Match the Brand
Bar and Bar’s session took place on a trail, which gave the images a completely different feel from traditional product photography.
Outdoor locations can add texture, movement, and personality to a commercial shoot.
A trail, garden, home, bathroom, salon, or other environment might make sense depending on the brand and the way customers actually use the product.
The location doesn’t have to literally show the product being used. It just needs to support the feeling you’re trying to create.
Get More Than One Type of Image
A strong commercial photography gallery should give a brand options.
For a hair-care company, that could include:
- Product-focused images showing the bottles clearly
- Lifestyle portraits featuring the model and their hair
- Close-up images showing texture and detail
- Images with space for website or advertising text
- Vertical images for social media
- Wider images for website banners and marketing materials
Having a variety means you’re not trying to make one photo do every job.
Your website might need one image. Your next Instagram post needs another. Your email campaign needs something different.
A well-planned shoot gives you a library to pull from.
Plan for the Next Shoot, Too
One of my favorite parts of this Bar and Bar session is that they loved the experience so much that they were already booked for another shoot.
They even upgraded their first shoot.
That is exactly what I hope commercial photography can become for a business: an ongoing resource rather than a one-time need.
Brands are constantly launching products, updating websites, creating campaigns, and needing fresh content. Building a relationship with your photographer makes it much easier to keep that content consistent while trying new concepts along the way.
Hair Care Product Photography in Layton, Utah
Whether you’re launching a shampoo, conditioner, styling product, skincare line, or another beauty product, your photos should help customers understand what makes your product worth choosing.
For Bar and Bar, that meant combining product photography with a natural trail setting and beautiful curly, dyed hair.
If your business needs fresh commercial photography in Layton or Northern Utah, I’d love to help you plan a shoot that gives you more than a few pretty product pictures. Let’s create a collection of images you can actually use across your website, social media, email marketing, and future launches.
Bri is a Utah photographer, wife, and mom of three who embraces the quirky, playful, and imperfect parts of life. Her artistic eye and passion for finding joy in the little things make her work feel authentic and full of personality.
She specializes in product, family, senior, and wedding photography throughout Davis County and Northern Utah, with a particular talent for bringing bath, beauty, and home products to life.
November 4, 2026
Brianna Siddoway
