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HAIR PUNCHING

CichoÅ„, A. (2014) Hair punching - eye brow by Anna Cichon, nerdsfx.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WCipq0Z73U (Accessed: 19 April 2015)

RON MUECK ON HYPER-REAL SCULPTURES 

Ron Muek is well known for his super-realism out of scale art works. Here I have found an article on the National Gallery of Austrailia which gives some information about Mueks work:

 

"It is a fundamental belief of mine that the history of art is a continuum. It is the story of the constant search for creativity, finding new ways to give expression to the power of ideas in human imagination. These ideas are realised through our senses, and in true works of art, they have an effect on our emotions."

kennedy, brian (2004) director national gallery of Austrailia

"The reason for the face being silicone where the rest of the figure is fibreglass, is because silicone, being soft and rubbery, allows the hairs to be punched in separately, giving the impression that they have grown through the scalp, whereas the hair of the pubic region has been glued on because fibreglass is so hard."

               Kennedy, brian (2004) director national gallery of Austrailia

Australia, N. G. of (no date) Ron Mueck: the making of Pregnant woman 2002. Available at: http://nga.gov.au/mueck/director.cfm (Accessed: 19 April 2015)

Detail of 'Pregnant woman' showing the process of inserting hair. Image still from 'Ron Mueck' video courtesy of the National Gallery, London

Power punching

  • Start with a clean edge, draw a direction template with the direction of hair

  • Don’t punch too uniform so that it looks more natural

  • You can dye hair, even animal hair. You need to add vinegar or salt, add your colour in. Try test strips first.

  • Experienced, punches a head in 3-5days

  • Draw directions on with white chalk

  • Start with a corner on the head, work your way up

  • Draws a template of where single hairs are punched and double hairs

  • Reduce silicone shine in painting

  • Don’t be afraid to mix colours

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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STAN WINSTON HAIR PUNCHING

LARS CARLSON HAIR PUNCHING

Lars Carlsson (2011) An introduction to hair punching by Makeup-FX.com (low res version). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LpzIOP6qRI (Accessed: 2 January 2016)

  • for beards he uses buffalo hair

  • mostly uses human hair

  • for fine hair he uses mohair

  • mark with a white pencil to mark where you will punch

  • We have so many directions in our eyebrows so at the end of the eyebrow it is working its way towards the middle both from the top and bottom half

  •  punching a womans eyebrow I would use the softest hair possible, most likely mohair

  • When I get further into the eyebrow I am working more or less in the same direction

  • The growth direction differs from person to person and for a female there would be hardly any directions at all as you want it to appear very plucked

  • You should experiment putting the head in different angles to get the hairs in the correct positions without straining yourself

  • you do not want the hairs to stick out too much, you need to get down and in level with the skin

  • With the eyelashes it is good to have the hair coming out of every follicle as two

  • The hair is stuck inside of a crease and it is not important

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Types of hair used:

  • human hair 

  • animal hair

  • synthetic hair

All these types of hair have different textures. Euopean and Asian hair is used as human hair European being the most expensive as it offers the widest range of natural colours and has a mild texture

Synthetic hair is versatile and can be permanently curled, which is something that cannot be achieved with real hair, however is does not last as long

I looked into buying human hair, as at the start of the project I was planning on using human hair for my bald cap, and to punch half of it. Due to numerous problems with my mould, I ended up using a lot of budget on the silicone tests. This meant the human hair costing me at least £60 was not going to be suitable. I had also started to run out of time and I was worried If I punched the entire head I would not be able to finish it.

 

My next option was to buy a cheap wig for the back of the head, and to hair punch around it. The professionals predict hair punching a bald cap would take 3-5days. I estimated for myself (with little experience I had) 5-7days. using a wig would have saved me a lot of time, and I knew I would still be able to get my desird look of a natural hairline by punching the areas all around the wig to disguise it. I just needed to ensure the colours and the textures matched. 

 

I found this wig on amazon for £13.95! this was a quarter of the price I would have had to have paid for a full head of human hair. I planned to reconstruct the wig and thin it out to lose the weight on it.

Amazon (2014) Songmics new fashion brown short wig for men full hair 29cm WMF014. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0095E7TH4?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

I wanted to practice my techniques of hairpunching first, and also test my hair line. I used the bald cap that split in half to just use the front half as an experiment. I mixed three different colours through the hackle and began punching from the bottom towards the hair line. The thre colours helped it to look more natural. 

Below- images of the tested punched bald cap. I was surprised with how natural the hairline looked however, it needed to be brought further forward and gradually getting thinner towards the forehead. I wasnt sure what length to trim the hair but I will cut it much shorter on the second attempt. 

When my wig arrived it looked very thick and also very shiny. This would be too healthy looking for my character, but I knew I could dull this down with products. I cut the wig apart keep the middle wefts, I then used a strong adhesive to adhere it to my bald cap. Once this was attached I could start my punching my bald cap with a handmade punching needle. 

Before attaching the wig I had to reduce a lot of the wight as it was very thick. I cut every other weft out and also thinned it out with hair dressing scissors. After I had completeled punching the hairs I still felt like the wig was too thick and the hair punching was too thick. I went back in with some scissors to thin it out and then pulled out the punched hairs to reduce the weight. I styled the hair with volumising powder which matted it down. I used dry shampoo all over and brushed through which helped take away the shine. To make his roots look greasey appiled some gel and worked it in. I used a comb with white paint to brush throuh to give him some fine grey hairs.

  • thinning hair with a razor, comb through with a comb and lightly go over the top with a razor to reduce weight

  • you can use thinning scissors in sections, and also you can twist the hair and remove the excess buld from the hair

Thinning hair techniques
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