Question about silicone masks hair punching

MAXIM Lévesque Lequin

Hi, I just have a quick question about hair punching on a silicone mask. 

Once all the hair is punched in, and you want them to stay glued to the mask by sealing it inside the mask. What's the best procedure? 

I've hear about this:
Flipping the mask inside out, leaving about 1/2'' of hair inside, laying it flat, and apply a thin layer of silpoxy or shinetsu silicone. Than you press a plastic wrapping sheet over the uncured silpoxy and flip the mask back and put it on it's original core to let it cure. Once cured, you simply pull the plastic wrap off. 

I have enough tinted ecoflex 00-20 part B left to do it with that instead of silpoxy, would that work or it's not as effective as silpoxy?

Is it a good way to do this, or you would suggest something else? I can't seem to find the info in the different courses

Thanks again for your help! 

Max

Chris Ellerby

Hi Max,

The steps you listed should be fine.  You can use the same ecoflex that the mask was cast in.  You may want to brush some naphtha on the inner surface (and let it dry) to help prepare the surface for adhering to the new silicone.  If you are using synthetic hair I would do a small test to make sure the hair does not have any issues with naphtha.

/Chris

MAXIM Lévesque Lequin

Chris Ellerby said:

Hi Max,

The steps you listed should be fine.  You can use the same ecoflex that the mask was cast in.  You may want to brush some naphtha on the inner surface (and let it dry) to help prepare the surface for adhering to the new silicone.  If you are using synthetic hair I would do a small test to make sure the hair does not have any issues with naphtha.

/Chris

Great! Thank you. 

Just a quick question if I plan to use shin-etsu caulking to do this:

I see on the product description that it takes 7 days to fully cure. So I'm guessing I need to leave it on its head form for that time or after a day or two it's safe to remove it?

I just want to make sure not to mess it up by removing it and ending up with a "deformed" mask because the silicone inside wasn't cured enough haha.

Chris Ellerby

I've not tried caulking for this, so I'm unsure how well that would work.  You could always try a small test using a small piece of the same silicone formula as the mask.  My main concern is with the caulking inside the mask and on the form, there would not be much airflow, so the silicone might cure much slower.   Similar to how it does not cure in the tube.

/Chris