Whenever, I try to make the background color even... it messes up the edges onf the hair. Can you tell me how to get even color, without leaving the hair chopping?

need to have a picture of what you are working with in order to help. any chance you might upload a sample of what you are having trouble with?

Thanks for your help. I selected the black bkgrnd with the magic wand then used the black color picker in levels. It filled the black in nicely, but left the hairline choppy. What's the best way to correct the hairline?

There is a technique you can use to soften the selection lines. I will talk about this in a minute. The best way to preform this kind of "surgery" is to use the pen tool and make a very very precise selection of the area you want to separate from the background. The pen tool is hard to use effectively but very accurate in what it does for you.

The other technique is to make your selection then smooth your selection. This might do the job for you give each a try.

Click to view attachment

Thank you so much for your help. I will give both your suggestions a try.

+1 for the pen tool. It works wonders.

Thanks so much for your suggestion. I'll have to practice more with the pen tool as I've always been kind of clumsy with it. I tried you other suggestion too, but the hairline still looked choppy to me. I had the smooth tool set at "2". Is that correct?