Cindy Whitehead sweats it, so that athletes in ads don’t have to.

A former celebrity stylist, Whitehead specializes in making athletes appear sweaty, dirty and tired, even if they’re just out of the shower.

By distressing their clothes, applying dirt in the right places, spraying them with water and coco butter to imitate sweat and tousling their hair, Whitehead has made a business out of making athletes look like the game just ended.

“I used to worry about there not being enough work, but now there is too much work,” Whitehead said. “If you flip through the pages of any magazine, you can’t help but pass at least five ads that are sports-related. Even cosmetic companies are doing stuff with a natural sporty look.”

Which means big business for her: She charges between $1,500 and $3,500 a day for ad shoots, and between $350 and $1,000 for editorial shoots.

Whitehead has worked on ad campaigns for companies like Gatorade and other industry giants as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Pepsi and Coca Cola.

She’s been flown all over the U.S. and to places like Mexico, Greece, Spain, Ireland and Jamaica to dress athletes for print and TV, and has worked with such stars as professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Whitehead started veering toward a career as a sports stylist about 12 years ago, when she met a photographer named John Huet, who shot pictures of athletes almost exclusively. Whitehead who herself was a professional skateboarder for a number of years in the late 1970s and early ’80s began working with Huet extensively and decided to focus on that niche, she said.

“At some point I decided that to do sports wholeheartedly, I had to stop taking jobs as a celebrity stylist,” she said.

She eventually formed a company that combined elements of both, called Cindy Whitehead Sports Stylist. She maintains that she is the only person to do this kind of work exclusively and has had the title “sports stylist” copyrighted. It’s her license plate tag as well.

Whitehead researches each sport that she styles for and tries to get first-hand experience. The lifelong Hermosa Beach resident continues to skateboard on a regular basis.

“I still skateboard, especially on and off with Tony Hawk. We ride between shots,” she said.

Steve Bonini, a photographer from Portland, Ore., has worked with Whitehead on a number of shoots.

“She has ideas for shots too because she knows the details of that particular sport,” Bonini said. “She’ll say, ‘Let’s try this angle,’ because it might be appropriate for the action.”