How to Wear Your Doctoral Hood for a Perfect Headshot

Gather Your Regalia Before You Sit Down

You will not believe how many brilliant people arrive with their hood still in the plastic bag from the rental company. The velvet is creased into a permanent accordion, the satin lining looks like a crumpled candy wrapper. This is fixable, but it eats up fifteen minutes of your session time—time better spent capturing your confident smile, not wrestling with fabric. Unpack everything the night before. Hang the hood on a sturdy hanger, letting its weight pull out the worst wrinkles. Steam it if you can; an iron is risky on that satin. Have your gown and tam ready, too. I once watched a client spend ten minutes searching for the button on his gown that his tam attaches to, muttering academic curses under his breath the whole time. Starting flustered shows in your eyes.

The Standard Drape: A Three-Step Fold

Think of this as the foundation. A messy fold here means the hood will never sit right. Lay the hood flat on a table, velvet side down, satin lining facing you. The long, pointed tail should be on your left, the shorter, rounded end on your right. See the colored velvet edge? That's your school's color, and it must be visible in the final drape. Now, fold. First, bring the long tail up and across, aligning its point with the rounded end. You've created a loose V-shape. Second, fold the entire thing in half lengthwise, bringing the rounded end over to meet the tail point. The velvet border should now be on the outer edge of this long, layered strip. Third, and this is critical, place the folded hood over your left forearm, velvet side out, with the pointed tail hanging down behind your elbow. This is how you carry it to the shoot.

Positioning the Hood on Your Shoulders

With the hood folded over your left arm, stand in front of a mirror. Use your right hand to grasp the hood about a third of the way from the rounded end. Lift it and place that rounded end over your left shoulder, letting the bulk of the hood fall down your back. The pointed tail will now be dangling down your front, on your left side. Reach back with your right hand, find the velvet cord or loop sewn inside the hood's center, and hook it onto the button you found on the front of your gown. No button? Use a large safety pin pinned from the inside of the gown. This anchor point is everything. Once secured, gently arrange the hood over your right shoulder. The velvet border should create a graceful curve from your left shoulder, across your back, to your right shoulder. The satin lining will peek out from underneath that colored velvet strip.

The Two Most Common Draping Mistakes

The first error is the inside-out hood. It looks like a black tube with a flash of strange color. This happens when you fold it with the satin side out, hiding your school's velvet. The fix is simple: flip it. The second, and far more frequent, mistake is the "lopsided slouch." Why does one shoulder look burdened while the other is bare? Because the anchor point wasn't used. The hood is just resting on your shoulders, sliding down your arm with every tiny movement. During a session last spring, a client's hood slipped so far it looked like a strange scarf. We stopped, hooked the loop, and the difference was instant—her posture straightened because the weight was secure. A hooked hood frames you; a resting hood distracts from you.

What about the length in front? That pointed tail should fall somewhere between your sternum and your waist. If it's hitting your thigh, the hood is too large or you've hooked it too low. If it's barely past your collarbone, it's likely too small or hooked too high. Don't be afraid to adjust that anchoring button. A quick test: turn your head to the right. Does the hood on your right shoulder stay put, or does it try to choke you? It should stay.

Final Check: What Your Photographer Sees

Before we even lift the camera, I'm scanning for three things. First, symmetry. Is the velvet border an even width all the way across your back? A common glitch is a twist that hides the color on one shoulder. Second, lies. Is the hood lying flat against your gown, or is it bunched up behind your neck like a pillow? A bunched hood adds ten pounds in photos and creates a harsh shadow. Smooth it down. Third, your face. Is the hood framing you, or are you disappearing into it? The curve of the velvet should lead the viewer's eye toward your face, not down your arm.

I always ask my clients to do a slow quarter-turn to each side. This reveals hidden wrinkles and confirms the drape holds. We check for rogue threads from the rental tag, which I’ve snipped off more times than I can count. Finally, we look at the monitor for a test shot. Is the satin lining reflecting a weird color from a wall? Sometimes we adjust a light. Is the velvet border a crisp, defining line? Then we're ready.

Your regalia is a symbol of an immense achievement, but in a portrait, it's also a shape, a color, a texture. When it's worn correctly, it becomes a powerful part of you—not a costume you're trying to manage. Get the drape right, and you can forget about it. All that's left is to look into the lens and see the scholar who earned it.