A question about hair

Stephen Woolner
Stephen Woolner ✭
in Lab work

Hey there folks, time for yet another question...


I'm a massive Star Wars freak and decided to make my own Wookiee character in 1/6 scale. Now I have a dumb question. I have a couple meters of Yak hair and a little over a meter of Mohair. I've made a spandex bodysuit to put over a 1/6 scale base body but I am unhappy with how the hair looks when the wefts are cut up and stitched on. 

I was wondering if I could somehow glue the hair to the spandex and retain its flexibility?

Or are there any other suggestions of how to go about doing the body suit? 


Regards


SJ

Comments

  • Chris Ellerby
    Chris Ellerby Admin
    Hi Stephen,

    You can glue the hair on using an adhesive like prosaide.   We actually have a lesson that covers this process, and it would be perfect for a Wookiee.

    Fur Transfer, Electrostatic Flocking and Hair Punching:
    https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/fur-transfer-electrostatic-flocking-and-hair-punching

    Doing a fur transfer or hand laying the hairs like one would do for a crepe hair beard would both work.  Hand laying the hair works like applying roof shingles.  Start at the bottom and work your way up so the new layer covers the old.  You can change the hair direction as you go to match natural hair patterns.

    This lesson covers hand laying a fake bard, with a lot of great tips.

    Fake Beard Application:
    https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/special-makeup-effects-tutorial-how-to-make-a-beard

    /Chris
  • Stephen Woolner
    Stephen Woolner ✭
    Thanks for that Chris, 

    I forgot about those two lessons, they are on my "to watch" list :wink:

    Any suggestions for a good adhesive for Silicone? And would it take some handling for posing purposes? 
  • Chris Ellerby
    Chris Ellerby Admin
    For laying hair on silicone I would try an adhesive like Mouldlife's Snappy G.

    With silicone you could also punch some of the hair.

    How to Punch Hair - Hairwork for Silicone Characters Part 1
    How to Punch Hair - Hairwork for Silicone Characters Part 2

    The fur transfer lesson mentioned before also covers hair punching a bit.

    /Chris
  • Stephen Woolner
    Stephen Woolner ✭
    Ok back again with a follow up question...

    My project budget just got slashed down (right now I couldn't buy a Big Mac meal...Or a Whopper meal if your a BK fan) so the expensive silicone adhesives are currently a pipe dream...


    I was wondering, could I adhere the hair to the characters head with straight up clear caulking, and would this also be a viable way to attaching the hair to the bodysuit and it remain flexible?

    Seems like a complete insane question I know...

    SJ 
  • Chris Ellerby
    Chris Ellerby Admin
    You could use a clear (pure silicone) caulking.  GE makes a pure silicone caulking.  The challenge is that it needs time to dry, and it may dry with a bit of a shiny finish (so you may want to powder it at some point)

    Though I would be concerned about the hair getting pulled out if it's moved around too much.

    Hand laying it on with prosaide works well, but that may be harder to get on a restricted budget.

    I do know that the traditional Wookie costumes are made by tying the fur/hair to a mesh, so no adhesives are used.  The result just depends on how much hair you use in each clump.  For 1/6 scale you would be using very small clumps.

    At that scale it would basically be like hand tying a wig or lace facial appliance.
    https://www.stanwinstonschool.com/tutorials/hair-knotting-101

    /Chris

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