Refine Edge is just a mess for me

[Ron in IL]

It sometimes works really well.  Other times, it's just a mess.  I'm trying to do a  simple cutting out of a  background, but when it comes to this person's hair, and most people in this project, regardless of hair color, it's just been a mess.   I'm attaching a screenshot of what I'm working with, and a shot of what it looks like after using Refine Edge.  The only settings I'm using in Select & Mask, after choosing the Refine Edge tool is setting it to Smart Radius with a radius of 1.

[JonathanArias · Accepted solution]

the color values are too close on that photo for photoshop to know what is background and what is hair. i think you should manually paint back in what you need

[Ron in IL]

Thanks.  I've seen people do it remarkably well on Youtube videos with relatively similar color values between the hair and the background.  Mine wasn't even close.  I had hoped it could do better.