# Cosmetology Heads: Reloaded



## Deadlands (Jun 13, 2011)

My wife went to cosmetology school, and as soon as everyone found out that I do haunts, I had these things rolling in. I literally have a huge duffle bag full of heads sitting around that I had no idea what to do with. On their own, they're not very convincing as human heads. Painted up, they look a little cartoonish. They are, however, an amazing source of expanding foam forms in the shape of a head.

I'm specifically using the Pivot Point brand heads:

So I made an incision from behind the ears, all the way around the hairline. Then, the most satisfying thing I think I've ever done, I pulled the face and scalp off. The features aren't very well defined, but it gives you a good idea of where things should go. They carve exceptionally well with Xacto blades, and sand down like a dream. You can get some crisp, clean lines out of this foam.









This is another skull I have going for another project, a gawky little Victorian girl. But this is what it'll look like once it's carved and sanded.









I put a very thin layer of monster mud, basically to protect the foam. This foam is more fragile than pink foam, so it's going to need some sort of barrier. I mixed the monster mud a bit more on the latex side, so it'll hold up to the elements a little better. I then lightly sanded it, really just to knock down the texture and give it more of a bone look.

As soon as you're sure everything is cured, hit the entire thing with a coat of matte black spray paint.









Painting in layers. First, I brushed on a light bone color, using light strokes with a chip brush so I didn't flood the low areas. I then went back and started painting in layers of dark red/burgundy for fleshy areas, highlighted with some dark mustard yellow for gunk. The idea here is that I'll be melting trash bags over this to corpse it, so I wanted to have my underlayment painted and ready for that process.









The secret to aging bone, and toning out the colors is very light matte black spray paint. I swear by the $.99 Lowe's stuff. It's so crappy, it's good. Some shots, if not properly shaken, come out really wet and tend to run. Great for aging!

I basically give it an overall spatter coat by very lightly pressing the nozzle so it spits. I then go in with heavier sprays in shadowy areas, like under the jaw. It give the piece a bit more contrast, which you're gonna need in low light haunts.









Lastly, I gave it a good, thick coat of satin clear coat from a spray can. Drips are great, no need to be a perfectionist. Just make sure you hit the whole thing, because this is going to add an additional layer of weatherproofing. It also gives it a semi-wet, corpsy look.

Now, I have no idea what this is going to do when I hit the trash bags with the heat gun. For all I know, the monster mud could crack, or worse, the foam underneath shrinks, and everything chips off. I'll probably pre-heat the bags a bit so I can spend less time hitting the skull with direct heat. We'll see. Trial and error is how I do things.


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## Gweede (Aug 7, 2014)

Fantastic work! I like how you used the right colors to get this perfectly CReePifieD face. 

I wonder if your method would work on a regular styrofoam head from Hobby Lobby, etc? I am new at this and haven't tried to work with monster mud yet. Do you know if monster mud would stick to a styrofoam foam head, or would I need to cover it with something first?

On a side note, I am looking to purchase a used cosmetology head for another project if you would like to sell me one. 

Thank you for posting your photos and detailed instructions!! This is why I love this group!!


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## elputas69 (Oct 27, 2014)

That's awesome! Can't wait to see more.


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

She looks fabulous without any corpsing at all.


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## Deadlands (Jun 13, 2011)

Gweede said:


> I wonder if your method would work on a regular styrofoam head from Hobby Lobby, etc? I am new at this and haven't tried to work with monster mud yet. Do you know if monster mud would stick to a styrofoam foam head, or would I need to cover it with something first?


I don't use the white styrofoam wig heads for a few reasons. For one, white foam doesn't carve as well as the hard foam they use for these. Secondly, scale. The female wig heads are all out of proportion. Every one I've tried looks weird to me. The male heads would probably work, but they're hard to find in my area.

I didn't use any kind of reinforcement layer on this. The carved hard foam has a nice open texture for the mud to grab on to. Plus, it had to be a thin coat because I didn't want shrinkage and cracking in the monster mud.

Update on the corpsing - the trash bag method wouldn't work. It would corpse, then peel right off. So I think he's staying just the way he is.


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## punkineater (Apr 26, 2014)

Beautiful & ingenious makeover, Deadlands! Thanks for sharing your technique :biggrinkin: 
Now, where are my heads....


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

First, how lucky with getting the heads! Second, great redo!


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## Copchick (Apr 10, 2012)

Great score on getting some cosmetology heads. You did a great job of improving her looks !


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## The Halloween Lady (Aug 18, 2010)

Very creepy and very creative!


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## Gweede (Aug 7, 2014)

Thanks for the info, Deadlands. I'd love to see what else you create!


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## Deadlands (Jun 13, 2011)

Here's the other skull I'm working on for the adolescent girl in the bedroom scene. There, she has a big sister who bullies the hell out of her so she's very inwardly oriented, unsure of herself, and shy. The positioning of her entire body centers around a porcelain doll that she'll be clutching close to her heart. It's her prized possession, and she's trying to protect it from her sister, who keeps stealing her crap. (I may, or may not be working out some very old, very deep-seeded aggression toward my older brother here. LOL)

Someone asked why I left a neck seam. FYI, the torso and head articulate separately. I wanted to keep this articulation so I can mess with her emotional position once we have her on-scene. This will be covered with a lace choker if the paint job between the two doesn't hide it.


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## Hairazor (Mar 13, 2012)

Good vision, Nice work


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

She's charming


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## booberry crunch (Aug 14, 2014)

Nice!


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## Deadlands (Jun 13, 2011)

The bust is coming together. I'm notoriously terrible at shooting step-by-step, but then again, none of the techniques I'm using are foreign to haunters. It's all duct tape, expanding foam and monster mud at this point.










Her arms were molded in a duct tape/saran wrap mold I took of my son's arm. Since he's lankier than most, I had to trim the mold down to the proper proportions to fit the PVC armature. I filled it with Great Stuff, being very careful to surround the PVC in the mold evenly, then after curing, the excess trimmed with a serrated knife to give me the basic shape of her arms.

The hands are coaxial cable. The cable guy left a 500ft. spool of this stuff at our house over a year ago. His loss is my gain. This stuff makes a fantastic armature for posable fingers. The hand was blocked out in masking tape, then the ligaments and bones were built up with latex and paper towels, and the final corpsing was built up with cotton and latex. The fingers remain fully flexible, and can actually grasp things.

On a side note, the latex destroyed the under $20 budget for this girl. 16oz for $35. Ouch. I've used about half of the bottle, so the hands alone ran me $17.50. Next time, I'll order online and just wait the three days. LOL.

The wrists retain articulation, so there are still quite a few poses she can do despite her arms being static. I scrounged up an old sprinkler system coupling that happened to fit securely inside the 1/4" PVC. So between the 1-axis rotation of the wrist, and the flexibility of the hand itself, you can fake some 2-axis wrist poses.

The next step is monster mud on the arms, making sure to build over the wrists a tiny bit to hide the seam. The plan is to have the hands slide 1/4" inside of the monster mud before making the connection with the PVC. Nothing should touch, and the hand should still be able to rotate, but we'll see.


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## Fiend4Halloween (Aug 28, 2008)

Great info and love the faces...creepy look, have that vintage horror feel.


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## mikkojay (Sep 15, 2014)

That babe looks fresh from the grave awesome!


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## Draik41895 (Oct 25, 2008)

Thats beautiful. I wonder how much those go for in the Cosmo building here...


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