My wife and I are both in a Hallowe’en show (non-paying, non-budget except for what we’re willing to shell out for ourselves). She’s doing The Bride of Frankenstein. She has one of those “Bride of Frankenstein” wigs from a costume store that she has used in the past, but it’s kind of ratty looking (looks more like those English Buckinham Guard helmets than the real hairdo).
Just wondering if it’s possible to do this kind of hairdo ourselves.
Potential problems:
She does not have black hair; she is blonde.
The show is going on for three nights; she will be working during the day. She is not opposed to going to work with the hairdo (it is Hallowe’en, after all), but the hairdo must last all three days (or last with a minimum of fixing up before each night).
Our Google searches have not been very helpful (make your hair frizzy and stand it up is the best instructions we’ve found).
Can this be done fairly easily? If so, can you provide idiot-proof instructions?
[BPepper Mill** just went to a Halloween party as the Bride o Frankenstein. She wore a commercial BoF wig, and it didn’t look too bad. You might try filling the inside with coton or tissue paper.
According to the Bride of Frankenstein DVD commentary, they fitted Ele Lanchester’s head with a wire bsket contraption to give her hair and wig that shape. I’ll bet they did the same in Young Frankenstein, and in Gods and Monsters.
A hulluva lot of hair - at least shoulder length - longer is better.
Black hair-spray (she can get this at a drug store of novelty shop)
Whit hair-spray (dito)
White glue.
A shwack of hairspray.
Don’t wash hair for a day or two (it will hold a style better). Apply loads of hairspray. Backcomb like crazy into desired shape. Apply black hairspray. Apply 2 white hairspray stripes. Apply a thin layer of white glue to hold the whole mess in place (sort of like a laquer). She will have to sleep with toilet paper wraped around her hair for the 3 days to maintain the style, and retouch with the coloured sprays each day.
The white glue will come out, but it will take some doing - she will need a chelating shampoo, and her hair will be unmanagable for at least a week after, but it will come out. (The dirtier her hair is when she starts, the easier it will be to get the glue out.)
finally something within my area of expertise! as far as color goes, just use the wash out sprays they sell at any halloween shop. if yer gonna go the hairspray route, the best choice really would be Rave 4x (rave hold is back!). this has kept my (mo)hawk up for about two days, maybe three, with touch ups in the morning (no longer than 10 minutes for touch up.) i don’t recommend glue because it’s a bitch to wash out and you’ll be pulling pieces out for days. plus, after you’ve slept on yer hair the glue will become white and flaky. not very becoming. you could use knox gelatin, but you would run the risk of it looking too plastic-y.
I have one of those BoF wigs myself and think it would be easier just to spruce it up than to try to make normal hair into a BoF 'do. As my BoF wig got older, I found it got limper – stuffing it with fiberfil from the craft closet was the best solution for me. Lighter and less ‘crunchy’ than newspaper. After stuffing it, I pinned it to a wig stand and combed it out with a wide tooth comb and kind of fluffed it up as best I could. It was a little patchy in places so I dabbed it over with black and white spray paint where it needed it – the spray in hair color would have been better, probably, but I didn’t have any and didn’t feel like going out. Finally, I gave it a coat of strong hairsray and let it dry good and hard. It looked like new.
I did a straight-up hairstyle many years ago, and perfected the upward flow look by getting help: have a friend style and spray (and spray and spray and spray) will you lie down with your head hanging off the edge of the bed.
Very important.
You have to be upside down while it’s setting to make it really work well.
You’ve convinced all concerned that fixing up the wig is the best way to go. She doesn’t look that bad, actually!
I’ll try to take a picture or two with the digital camera. If you have any interest, check back on this thread in a few days and I’ll try to post a picture.
The best picture of The Bride of Frankenstein is toward the bottom, so scroll down. There are also some pics of some others in the show, getting made up beforehand and a couple of pics during the show itself. The Frankenstein’s Monster guy looks much better when he is wearing his six inch platform boots, which were not on in the pictures here.