Billy Ray Cyrus Impersonation Cosplay Costume

Darrell Green

Finally getting around to finishing my build thread for this first round of effort on a Billy Ray Cyrus disguise level costume.

Update: inserting a finished pose:


Back to original build thread:

Few people are as style eclectic yet equally memorable for specific styles as Billy Ray Cyrus. Among the true champions of variety, we find, Adam Ant, Johnny Depp, and not least, Billy Ray. Over the years, I have worn the mullet, the tri color Bobby Ray Stewart shag and now the "folktown funk you up" native American tribesman and Four Corners couture long, long hair.

Billy Ray has style genres like Picasso had color periods (same for Adam). His current look has morphed in from American 50's biker, 80's leather and Hawaiian beach casual and is now clarifying into Native American 1800s immersion in European style. The freedom loving plains tribes, european gentleman and Southwest cowboy rolled slowly into the mix that became the long haired, formal wear vest, jacket and pseudo ties, coupled with a range of Stetson hats/British hats and riding boots. The only thing Billy Ray is missing is the Native style of wearing a beautiful gun. What he does not miss is the use of Native jewelry decoration but goes a bit too modern for my taste and should join Adam and Depp in their display of original chokers, rings and string ties (usually a necklace and pendant).

Because I am currently focusing on this newest Billy Ray Cyrus look, this thread will start with my work toward an impersonation cosplay costume where I interpret, if not match, his style but also include the makeup and or prosthetics needed to look like Billy Ray himself.

Here are some recent Billy Ray outfits in line with my intended build:



I knew that my elements would include:

1) a hat, due to my receding hairline (cowboy but can be folk style)

2) clothing in similar styles, t shirt, coat, jeans. He currently wears dark shirts, dark coats and blue or black jeans (usually boot cut)

3) sunglasses (he has worn about a thousand styles so just being within his style is enough, large lenses)

4) Jewelry, crosses, Catholic medallions, Native American style rings and pendants

5) avoided earrings because current style is hair over ears

6) guitar face is custom drawn, and I believe, by him

7) full beard and shaped facial hair, including eyebrows

8) Tan, tan, tan skin

I had several hats to choose from but fell back on my personal felt hat (second picture):



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Darrell Green

For clothing, I found a similar military style black overshirt and a blue tshirt which is a common combination for Billy Ray. Pants are generally always jeans, whether black, blue or gray.

Mainly, following this look:



Sunglasses can vary greatly for Billy Ray but usually fall in the category of large sunblockers, not just casual cool.

note the branding printed directly on the upper part of the lens?

Mine for this shoot:

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Darrell Green

The running theme in coats is "make it black or take it back". He rarely wears another color but I imagine denim and/or brown would still be in his style.

I have a small trove of costume jewelry. Low value stuff that looks impressive when put in the right picture. I couldn't find a good closeup of his rings but they present as bulky, rock style with the likely cross on at least one. This is my pile chosen for Billy Ray:

Most all of his rings are on one hand, so you need to have varying sizes as well.

His necklaces change just as often. I was focused on keeping chains similar to his but having 2 or 3 different chains in the one pose. This is a common thing for him and at different lengths from choker to 24 inch, mid sternum. I had a lot of varying chains from the Adam Ant build so then it was a matter of choosing 3 lengths with nonsimilar chains.

I gather a lot of chain from garage sales, thrift stores and closeouts, even decorative lamp pull cord and similar.

Here is one closeup of a Billy Ray (actual) set:

I decided on the native-style set and found examples of two of his favorites, in closeup, from sales locations, online. I put them through a 2d to 3d swap program and then cleaned them up in Blender, added the loops and sent them to the printer:

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Darrell Green

Here is the pic of Billy with the arrowhead:

My first successful one needed a loop backer but it kept breaking off, so, I used a separate one and super glued it to the back:



Which is when I found this in my jewelry collection:



My other scans produced a set of nickels that I continued to correct:



My Adam Ant nickel ring used for size comparison. When done, I added the leather cordage (bad picture, the nickel flipped over)

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Darrell Green

I followed the wrap/bandana/rag trail:



and decided on his use of the bandana as the rider's necktie. We all know what that particular use was back in the range days but here it is just decoration. I chose the blue like he is wearing in the arrowhead necklace picture.

And as the necklace section was now 3 and the bandana, I felt I could get away with a non pendant chain. I chose a chain that did mot match the first two but in the end I think a better mix will include at least one of the military dog tag chains. He very commonly wears that. It is what I refer to as lamp pull-cord.

He does wear one loop earring in each ear but I opted for hair coverage on my test runs.

Because his poses will include the beard and mustache, and because I go in and out of full beard in like 3 week cycles, my test pics were done in a hurry. No full body shots yet and nothing with a background, just my photo room white sheet. My first pic was a few days earlier but I will post it first (prior to all the prop work done so far.)



I knew I wanted his newest guitar, the hand decorated owl and music man, folk guitar look. I scoured the internet for clear views of the guitar and found only some of the face.


I printed this, in mirror (he is a lefty).



Then flipped the test shots to become a lefty.



I measured my target so my initial prints would be closely scaled upon printing:



and taped it to my daughter's beginner's guitar.




The guitars were not the exact same shape and I was just doing test shots, so no photoshop done to reshape, yet. This left a gap that I covered with my hand. Will definitely need a full photoshop intervention to get better overlay prints.



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Darrell Green

So, the wife had informed me that their school's Hobbit reading party was coming up quick and I procrastinated..... I am Bard the Bowman at these events. This meant the beard was coming off, so, I did my panic finishing touches and got these first round Billy Ray poses. This does mean that the next round will be after it grows back. The Patriot will likely happen in between.

I started with the hair dye.

Face and head:

A mix of auburn and darkest brown.

And then cleaned up the edges:



Then silhouetting. This is a crucial stage for disguise level impersonation. I imagine this as the black and white political cartoon bobblehead style lines that would represent my target face, eyebrow outline, hairline, beard shape, mustache shape, eye shape. I then put these on my face by either shaving or adding hair but am also willing to stain/paint/draw shadows and hairs, depending on the distance of the shot.

One of my favorite tools for silhouetting, the shaving version, is this little single blade shaver:



But, after the excess is cut away, we need to add in where my hair does not match his. Prep starts with spirit gum on open skin, wait for it to be tacky but no longer goopy:

and then the hair, holding a row of strands between thumb and forefinger, lay them tip first against the skin and only let the first 1 to 2 mm touch. Hold for about 3 seconds and let go. Trim the hair to the desired length. I have some faux hair (pic below) but will cut a short section of my own that is already dyed.



For finishing touches (shots more than five feet away), drawn hairs, using makeup and skin safe pens (micro tip) will cover a lot of ground quickly to fill in open patches. This will apply even over spirit gum for single shot poses:



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Darrell Green

Taking a short step backwards in time.....when my dye was done, I washed and conditioned it. Because, I knew I needed to get the sunbleached tips look, I needed to treat the ends. I use normal hair dye "developer" mixed with baking soda. I rubbed this into the last 8 inches of hair, rolled it up and put it in a ziplock and clamped it with paperclips. About 30 minutes and I had "sunbleached".


My 3 choices for the bracelets/armbands that he often wears on both wrists:



Then a healthy dose of self tanning lotion and spray. Followed by a drying period and several more applications. For final pictures this will include a trip to the spray tan salon.



Hair detangler is essential for the straight but dry and loose look. I saturated my hair in this and combed it straight. Then I flipped it all forward /head down/ and went to town with the blow dryer. After flipping it back, I placed the hat to hold much of my receding hairline forward like He wears his bangs. This is the magic of the hat pictures. Over the ears and even into the face.



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Darrell Green

Because fate had to step in, I got a huge, legendary huge, zit on the tip of my nose. I am a teetotaller from birth, no drinking, ever, as in never, but my nose looked like chronic alcoholic..."I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a burger today".

I knew I already had to either shadow my nose, dehydrate the area or pull off some Jim Carrey, rubber face tricks (muscle practice to reshape your face temporarily). Billy Ray's nose is tiny and tight. I can still breath through mine and wouldn't change it if I even had the chance. I decided to push off further test pics (this was last week) and I put my two favorites into action:



The lowering of the swelling decided when I was willing to snap some pics. At that time I opted for the Jim Carrey school of rubber face methods but will use makeup shading when I get to final poses, later this year. Luckily, I had started this process earlier in the week.

Oh and my finished choker, right side out:

Definitely meant for remote viewing. Meant only for a quick pose and slight of hand effects.

Both the arrowhead and the nickel pendant are available online.

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Darrell Green

One final note before uploading my first round trial photos. I have gained a LOT and should be around 15 pounds lighter for Billy Ray but time and circumstance decided first round scheduling. I am openly admitting that I am chopping off the bottom of these pics because I could not hide the weight. I have many tricks for "day of shoot" loss, binding, lighting and angles but none was enough to get me truly to Billy Ray fit, so you get cropped photos for now.

One major trick that I use on all photo shoots is crash keto dieting for at least 3 days. This eliminates tremendous amounts of puffiness and water weight. A near zero carb intake for 3 days, including avoiding all fibers and all fake sweeteners. Not a dietician so don't treat this as medical advice and don't do it without knowing your health and what you are doing. Within 3 to 4 days, the turkey neck, eye puff, stomach girth and all around bloat will be gone. Yes, it is temporary but is a long known trick in Hollywood.

I did not do this and was puffy and chub. I had clear eyebags which required the magic of Plexiderm. One eye needed two applications.

Darrell Green

Without further adoodoo, here are my first round trial pics for BILLY RAY CYRUS:



I have only done two comp photos but will do the image likeness app, a split face (if possible) and some background swaps. The only editing is to brightness. My originals were very dark.




Current highest likeness percentage is 86

Darrell Green

Calling round one complete. My takeaways are: need full image cover on the guitar so no gaps show, need to do prosthetic work on nose, may need earrings depending on pose, need the one cross medallion he wore for many years, brown boots, use all three colors for jeans, more bandanas, may need tattoo work on forearm and hands, need to figure out how he can have puppy dog eyes but still look like his eyes are wide open, and more hats and sunglasses in mixed poses.