Pro Tip
Lace facial hairpieces for high definition (HD) are much more difficult because the HD shows every detail so crisply and sharply. The lace pieces have to be designed in sections that puzzle together onto the face, with a lower hairline edge that has to be overlaid with hair by hand to finish off the edge of the facial-hair design. The glue must be totally matte.
13. After all of your lace pieces are applied, you can start using chopped hair to create a patchy, shorter beard stubble.
Lace facial hairpieces require an investment of time and money that pays off in the long run. The work and materials used are expensive, but the result is a more natural, consistent look, with easy maintenance.
Beard Stubble
As with everything else in makeup, there are several ways to create beard growth that looks like more than several days of growth. There are different products and techniques to use, depending on the situation you are working in. As with all areas of makeup, you will need to be able to answer critical questions before designing or choosing what to use. The hardest beard growth to simulate is between five and 10 days, too long to be painted in, and not long enough to use lace pieces. You will need to use one of several techniques to create the look and length needed. The length of hair for beard stubble will depend on how much time has passed, or how scruffy the look is designed to be, or how many “story days” in the script that the actor has not shaved. The actor's own beard growth and density will also affect your decisions.
What is the growth pattern like, what color is the hair, how old is the beard growth, and how many days will you have to re-create the look? These are the questions to which you will need to have answers. Look at the growth pattern of the actor—this is your guide for placement of hair stubble. This is very important in creating realistic beard stubble. If you do not follow the natural growth pattern and beard line of the person, it will not look real.
In some cases, the actor's own beard growth and growth pattern are minimal or sparse. You will still need to follow the person's own beard as a guide. If you choose to add more to make the stubble read better on camera, be careful—your stubble will look unnatural if you add or fill too much on an actor with sparse growth.
Hair color for beard stubble needs to be a blend of colors, with highlights and lowlights—and in some cases, a bit of auburn or red added. Use caution with adding too much red to your blend—this can look too artificial, even if the actor has a lot of red in his own beard.
Careful hair color blending with proper placement will sell the look. We will look at creating beard stubble by using a hair ball, a lace net, and a makeup brush.
Erwin Kupitz's Hair Ball Method
The chopped hair should be no longer than 0.5 centimeter; otherwise it will be very hard to apply. Prepare the chopped hair by making little hair balls of about the size of a walnut. The chopped hair is placed in the palm of your hand and then rubbed in a circular motion between your two palms until a ball is formed. This can also be done in advance to save time. If you do so, spray the prepared hair balls lightly with hair spray, and store them in a plastic box until you are ready to use them.
Hair Ball Application
1. Apply only one layer of adhesive, starting close to the chin lace piece.
2. Stipple adhesive with a makeup sponge until flat and tacky.
3. Quickly pull one of the hair balls apart, and you will notice that the short hair is sticking out of the ball where it has been separated.
4. Lightly touch the adhesive with the standing hair, and pull the hair quickly away from the face. The short hair will adhere to the face, and it will stand out like real beard hair. Do not press hair flat to the face. If you do, it will look very unnatural.
5. Continue this process until you have finished your design.
6. After all of the hair has been laid, spray a light mist of hair spray over the beard. Be careful not to point the bottle straight into the actor's face. Have the actor hold his breath and close his eyes while you are spraying the beard. Make sure that you mist only the hair and not the skin, because this could create a sheen effect, and it is very uncomfortable on the skin.
For actors and beards with a curlier texture, you can use chopped permed hair, and you don't have to build a hair ball out of it. Chop the hair to about 0.5-centimeter length, and apply it directly to the skin. Because of the curly texture, it cannot lay flat.
Your character's beard application using lace pieces in combination with chopped hair is now complete (Figures 9.40 and 9.41).
Figure 9.40 Model/Actor Before Beard
Figure 9.41 Model/Actor in Character (After Beard)
Matthew Mungle's Net Lace Method
1. Apply spirit gum adhesive to the surface of the beard area to be stippled.
2. Press down with a soft cloth to take out or matte the shine of the adhesive.
3. Lay down a piece of hair lace into the adhesive.
4. While the chopped hair is still wet, press it into the lace using a stiff makeup brush, sponge, or atomizer.
5. Before the adhesive dries, pull the lace up and away from the face, leaving the cut hair behind, standing straight up or at the angle the lace net is pulled off the skin.
Beard Stubble with Brush
For stubble looks by hand, you can choose to use a medium-sized makeup brush or a small atomizer, with a matte spirit-gum adhesive or beard stipple wax by KRYOLAN. We will show you this technique using the makeup brush and stipple wax. The wax is clear on the skin no matter what the skin tone, and has no shine whatsoever. This is a huge advantage for HD and close-up work. If you use spirit gum, we recommend W.M. Creations, Extra Hold Matte Adhesive. Blend and prep your hair using at least two colors of hair.
1. Lay white facial tissue on your workstation or counter.
2. Wet your hair with a small amount in your hand. Hold over the tissue, making uniform cuts to the hair, so that the chopped hair drops onto the tissue.
3. Let the chopped hair dry on the tissue.
4. Remember, it is best to cut the hair when wet, and to take care making each cut the same size.
5. There is a tendency to make your cuts too long. Look at your first cut of hair to check length.
6. Hair needs to be completely dry before being applied to the face.
7. Apply beard stipple wax over the beard area of the face where you want to apply hair.
8. With a clean, medium-sized makeup brush, pick up the desired amount of chopped hair from the tissue by dipping the brush into the hair on the tissue.
9. Using a quick, light motion with the end of the brush, apply at a slant to the beard area. The quick hand motion, or stipple, needs to barely touch the skin to create a raised beard area. If you hit the brush with too much pressure, the hair will stick flat. It helps to have a bit of static electricity in the makeup brush. You can get static in your brush by rubbing the brush quickly back and forth over a towel.
10. Go back with a small, stiff brush or tweezers, and lift any hair that is not sticking out straight. You do not want any hairs to be lying flat against the skin.
11. Sometimes there can be clumps or patterns that you will need to thin out.
12. Be gentle. This application is fragile, but easily touched up.
Remember, as with all hair applications, you need to stand back and really look at your work, as well as getting up close to the skin and checking. Check your work in the makeup mirror from all angles, by rotating the actor around.
If you believe it up close, so will the camera.
Glues and Adhesives
In film, television, and HD, use only matte adhesive. The application is very important because any shine or glow from the adhesive under the lace piece will register. This will cause the viewer to realize it is not real facial hair.
W.M. Creations Adhesive is lightweight but strong. It is greenish in color during application, but dries clear.
K.D. Spirit Gum is a processed spirit gum, and works very wel
l with lace pieces.
Alternate Adhesives
Telesis comes with its own thinner, and the application is slightly different from spirit gum. The brush usually has to be dipped into the thinner, then into the adhesive. All of the adhesives dry very fast, and are not recommended for use by the beginner.
Adhesives to Avoid
Any kind of latex-based adhesive should be avoided. It is impossible to clean it from the lace without the danger of destroying the lace piece and its edges.
Exception: If you have a new lace piece for each day, for all of the shooting days, using a latex-based adhesive for facial hair works—in other words, the lace pieces are not reused the next day. If it is a small piece, Pros-Aide usually works better than latex adhesives.
Cleaning the Lace
Once the lace pieces have been removed from the actor, you will need to clean the lace and re-dress the pieces. With classic spirit gum or lightweight adhesives, the actual removal of the lace from the skin also removes some adhesive from the lace. Any adhesive left on the lace can be removed by the following steps:
1. In a saucer or plate filled with the cleaning agent about one-half inch deep, lay the pieces in the solution with the lace facing down (hair up). Try not to have the hair covered entirely by the cleaning solution. Let it set for one to two minutes. The heavier the adhesive, the longer it needs in the cleaning bath.
2. Lay the piece on a towel, but try to avoid pressing the hair flat.
3. Dip the brush into the cleaning agent, and brush out any leftover adhesive from the lace.
4. Important: Always follow the direction of the knotting on the lace. Example: On a moustache, brush from the nostrils down to the upper lip.
Very important: Never brush against the knotting. This results in opening the knotted hair, and the knots will appear larger and eventually fall out.
5. After all the adhesive is removed, place the pieces on a clean towel and let evaporate for 10 to 20 minutes.
The pieces are ready for blocking and any re-dressing.
The cleaning agent varies according to the glue and/or adhesive being used:
Classic spirit gum: Easy cleaning with a mix of 99-percent alcohol and acetone (1:1 ratio).
Matte adhesives: 99-percent alcohol.
Silicone-based adhesives: Use special cleaner that often has a slight oil base in it. Lay the facial hair in alcohol after using these cleaners, and let soak for a few minutes to dissolve the oil. Remove, do not comb, and let dry without stretching the lace, on a clean towel. After the facial hair is completely dry, it can be re-dressed.
Latex-based adhesives: Need a heavy oil and alcohol mix. Try a mix of baby oil and alcohol (1:1 ratio). A stiff bristle brush is used to brush off the residue of the latex—this is labor-intensive.
Beard stubble wax: Cannot be used with lace pieces as an adhesive. It is a tacky wax paste, and the lace hairpiece would not successfully stay on.
Hair Texture
All facial hair needs to be texturized before applying it to the face. The texture varies from kinky straight (Asians, Indians), to slightly wavy (European), to kinky curly (African). All hair used for knotting into wig lace is custom permed before ventilating into the lace, and therefore will not turn straight if it gets wet or during cleaning.
Quality facial hair takes all kinds of hair origins into consideration, and the texturizing creates the look of real facial hair. The color design enhances the simulation of the facial hair, again creating the illusion of a real beard.
Hair Laying Using Bald-Cap Material (Plastic Cap)
By Christien Tinsley
One of the greatest challenges Makeup Artists face is the ability to hand-lay a believable beard. Successfully accomplishing this technique will require you to recognize the problems of traditional methods.
The laying of human hair down with spirit gum is one of the oldest and most widely used techniques by veteran artists. This same method of application has been slightly modified and updated throughout the years and is, at present, commonly being employed with the use of Pros-Aide. Both approaches to laying down the hair start with applying a thin layer of the adhesive to the skin and gently pressing the tips of the hair into the glue allowing for realistic-looking growth. The glue is often treated with a matting agent or powdered during the process to keep the natural glossy sheen of the glue minimized. After the hair has been applied, it is commonly cut, curled, and dressed.
Common problems with this technique follow:
• The glue is always too shiny, giving an unnatural look to the skin under the hair.
• The glue remains or becomes tacky, which the hair eventually lays flat on and sticks to. Often in the case of doing beard stubble this becomes an absolute disaster when the hair lies flat rather than sticking on end.
It is almost impossible to color the area of skin under the laid hair because:
• Alcohol colors will reactivate the glue.
• Common makeup contains grease and oils that will eventually loosen the hair and act as a remover.
On the Job
I was faced with the challenge of applying a half-face prosthetic. The actor's face was partially shaven to apply the prosthetic and I had to match the prosthetic side to the actor's own one-quarter-inch length beard stubble. Two weeks into shooting I had exhausted the flocking, hair-through-lace, and hand-laying approaches. Being unsatisfied with the results of traditional techniques, I decided to experiment. When my actor came in one morning, I told him that I wanted to try a new concept and that it could fail miserably. Fortunately, he obliged with no resistance.
My idea was simple: Use plastic cap material as the adhesive and synthetic hair for the stubble. Plastic cap material has been around for decades and has been used most often for making plastic bald caps. It is a plasticized plastic bead that is dissolved in acetone until it turns into liquid. You can thin it to the point of spraying through an airbrush. When the acetone dries, the solution becomes a flexible plastic skin that can be adhered with glue and re-melted with acetone. This has made it useful for not only bald caps but also prosthetics and over the last decade has been used as the barrier for GFAs (silicone gel–filled appliances). The process is very simple and is as follows:
1. Assemble your hair by blending the colors you wish to use. (Human hair works just fine, and for longer beards to be dressed it is the best choice. However, for stubble, synthetic is cheaper and because it is an acrylic it holds much stronger in the “plastic glue.”)
2. Cut the hair into short lengths that are more manageable and not wasteful. Remember, you will be cutting this to a short length after application.
3. Formulate your plastic cap by thinning it with acetone to a thin syrup-like consistency.
4. Prepare the actor's skin by cleaning with alcohol and/or astringent.
5. After the skin is cleaned I recommend laying down a very fine layer of thinned-down Telesis. This is not necessary but it acts as a primer for the plastic. Cap plastic likes this surface more than skin. It should be unnoticeable to the eye and touch. If it is glossy or thick, you have put too much on.
6. When applying the plastic cap, you must work fast. The acetone dries almost instantly and gives you very little time to react. So prepare your hair in one hand and your plastic applicator in the other. (It is important to note that your hair should be slightly fanned between your fingertips. You will be laying directly into place, so you don't want the hair to be in clumps resulting in an unnatural growth pattern.)
7. Work in small areas from the top going up and lay down (in a small area) the wet plastic and then quickly stick the roots of the hair into place. Hold this for a moment (5 to 10 seconds) and then let go.
8. Repeat until you have the required area(s) covered. After the application is complete you have no need to powder and/or to be concerned with the hair laying flat and sticking because the plastic does not remain tacky.
9. Grab your electric trimmers with the spacers. That's right: E
LECTRIC TRIMMERS!! Shave as though it was the actor's own hair. (Of course you can use scissors if you prefer.)
10. You can, at this point, paint the area if necessary with any form of makeup or inks. They should not affect the plastic in any way.
Pro Tip
If you find areas need to be filled and you have clumps of hair, simply fill in using the same technique and/or take a Q-tip with a touch of acetone and gently dot the area you wish to remove hair from. Use tweezers and quickly pull the hair from the area. The acetone dissolves the plastic, allowing the hairs to loosen and be removed easily. Once the acetone evaporates the glue dries and re-connects the hair.
The end result is a tack-free, clean (no dirt sticking to tacky areas), matte, paintable surface with believable rooted hair. If at any time during the day the hair wants to lift, simply glue down with adhesive under the lifted plastic and/or re-melt to the skin with a touch of acetone.
The Makeup Artist Handbook Page 19