Hairy Creature thing

Hand tying is a process of knotting the center of a long hair fiber to a piece of netting. A tiny tool much like the one used to make latch hook rugs is used - the knotting procedure is virtually identical. You can also bend the tip of a small piece of stiff wire to use as a tool.

This is how real hair and realistic moustaches, eyebrows, and beards are made. Also called a ventillated lace hair piece, I have made moustaches this way and it is painstaking work, not for the faint hearted! I prefer to shop out this work - I don't have the time or patience and gladly pay for it to be done. Doing a body suit this way is a staggering amount of work, usually done by a specialist. Even a very wispy look would require thousands upon thousands of strands!

Punching in hair is quicker and easier, but less secure in the attachment of hairs. A long strand (or two or three) of synthetic hair is placed in a small forked tool. This tool is pierced through the material, and friction holds the bent middle of the doubled up hair strand inside the costume or mask when the tool is withdrawn. Afterwards, it is common practice to coat the loops on the inside with latex and stick them down for strength and to resist excessive shedding.

The tool is commonly made by driving the point of a sewing needle into a small piece of wood dowel, then cutting or grinding off the the top of the loop on the eye of the needle. The result looks like a tiny two-pronged pitchfork. Make the lengths of the "prongs" uneven to ease the catching of hair stran centers on the tool.

Punching in a lot of hair through a fine mesh, netting, ro woven fabric sometimes cuts an awful lot of strands, and (depending on how it is woven) can create larger holes than you'd expect.

Experiment with both. Both seem impossibly difficult at first, but you get the hang of after a while, and your speed increases gradually.

I have purchased fasbric fur and punched in hair to make it shaggy and uneven in length, and to add a variety of color to the fur. Any use of fabric fur gives a petty dense look, which doesn't seem to be what you are after.

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Jeff F - Magic and FX
Amazing the Masses