Converting Jason Momoa HT Aquaman Head

great ideas and results!!

Thank you very much, Alex! Glad you liked it.

This is very interesting. I've been fighting with applying hair to my figures...it's making me want to jump off a bridge. I've had to redo them several times. All that wasted time and effort!! The biggest problem for me is that I thought this glue was supposed to be permanent and waterproof, but the hair keeps falling out...especially after getting it wet. I can't seem to get it right. I have the hair exactly how I want it, but then when I try to style it or just wet it so it will lay down, the glue ends up letting go. And my nice hair is over, and I have to do it all again. I've been using the Alene's. I was following some youtube tutorials. But for me, even with the figures whose hair didn't end up falling out the hair still ends up rising out and looking crazy. I can't get it to stay down. So I'm going to try your method and see what happens. I was interested to see you didn't rinse out the shampoo/conditioner mixture. I will see about this. And I never would've thought about the fabric tape...thought it would be bulky under the hair. I'm interested in trying this now as well.

Have you tried to color any hair? I saw that you used lamb's hair. I'm just using synthetic hair I found at a hobby store. Maybe that will make a difference as well. I'm very disappointed with all my hair efforts so far, but am getting excited at the possibility of finding some solutions!

I wonder if perhaps the issue might be the way the water is interacting with the synthetic hair and the glue? Note that most synthetic hair doesn't hold up well to being treated like 'real' hair. You will probably have much better success with tibetan lamb hair, as it is more delicate and less 'heavy' than a lot of synthetic doll hair. 

Once you do use the tibetan lamb hair, you can also try just 'misting' it with a small spray bottle, instead of completely soaking it. That could also help keep the moisture from getting to the glue, if that still seems to be an issue.

Yes, I do think I would like to try the lamb. I've been thinking about it for a while. Now it seems like a MUST.

For glue, I used this stuff (recommended by the Morezmore site):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00178MNFO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It works pretty good, but you are going to lose some of the hair. I’ve run my one head under the faucet (gently) a few times, and haven’t lost as much as I would have thought.

That's the stuff I used. Hair still fell out. I'm afraid to get anyone else's hair wet because the one man's fell out.

Check out the Morezmore links. There’s a trick to gluing the small sections of hair before you apply them to the head — it allows for the glue to interact and connect with more of the hairs — which means less hair will fall out.

chrisinbama wrote:This is very interesting. I've been fighting with applying hair to my figures...it's making me want to jump off a bridge. I've had to redo them several times. All that wasted time and effort!! The biggest problem for me is that I thought this glue was supposed to be permanent and waterproof, but the hair keeps falling out...especially after getting it wet. I can't seem to get it right. I have the hair exactly how I want it, but then when I try to style it or just wet it so it will lay down, the glue ends up letting go. And my nice hair is over, and I have to do it all again. I've been using the Alene's. I was following some youtube tutorials. But for me, even with the figures whose hair didn't end up falling out the hair still ends up rising out and looking crazy. I can't get it to stay down. So I'm going to try your method and see what happens. I was interested to see you didn't rinse out the shampoo/conditioner mixture. I will see about this. And I never would've thought about the fabric tape...thought it would be bulky under the hair. I'm interested in trying this now as well.

Have you tried to color any hair? I saw that you used lamb's hair. I'm just using synthetic hair I found at a hobby store. Maybe that will make a difference as well. I'm very disappointed with all my hair efforts so far, but am getting excited at the possibility of finding some solutions!

Sorry, I haven't had much time here lately, hope this is not too late.

I don't like the glue recommended by Morezmore -- maybe I don't have the discipline or patience for it, and it takes too long to cure. I use superglue (lately Gorilla). But otherwise I do recommend you follow the Morezmore method (summarized in my threads and linked somewhere there). Just make sure you're dividing up the hair clumps into small, manageable portions, and you have them fairly flat when you apply them to a section of the scalp. You can apply a bit of glue onto their end or, like me, on the scalp before pressing them on. I use toothpicks to help me -- one to apply the glue, another to press the hair on. Both need to be changed often with fresh ones to avoid making too much of a mess. Let it sit for awhile so the glue dries sufficiently (otherwise you'd make more of a mess), then gently pull out loose hair strands (there will be plenty, no matter how well you did the gluing-on of the hair). Then rinse; a few more loose strands might come apparent, though they would not have been detached by the water alone.

Full-strength product (conditioner or even shampoo) is probably too strong for styling lamb hair, resulting in clumps or a very wet look. That's why I dilute the shampoo+conditioner combo with water. If you want it to hold a shape or style, you shouldn't rinse it off.

Coloring hair in our scale is not usually done, and probably almost impossible to do successfully. Lamb hair might actually be doable in that respect, as it is not synthetic. I only apply a little acrylic marker when I try to fill in any small bald spots and any dry glue "moss" effect at the roots of the hair. But the color has to match fairly closely, which depends on what you have available in terms of hair and in terms of markers. If you want to use acrylic paint, you would probably have to mix it with water quite a bit so it doesn't make clumps when applied -- that's why I prefer using the markers.

Hope this helps.

GubernatorFan wrote:
[...]
Coloring hair in our scale is not usually done, and probably almost impossible to do successfully. Lamb hair might actually be doable in that respect, as it is not synthetic. I only apply a little acrylic marker when I try to fill in any small bald spots and any dry glue "moss" effect at the roots of the hair. But the color has to match fairly closely, which depends on what you have available in terms of hair and in terms of markers. If you want to use acrylic paint, you would probably have to mix it with water quite a bit so it doesn't make clumps when applied -- that's why I prefer using the markers.

Hope this helps.

About lamb colouring:  I use this....blanket thing, which was actually light grey lamb hair. I used cheap brown, later black and blonde permanent hair colouring products to color it for rooting. The blond was kinda strange but the rest worked out good.This thing might serve me for a lifetime. At the moment I am experimenting with markers on the blonde section for non-natural colors.

You can buy tibetan lamb hair in many different colours — try searching on both eBay and Etsy for a variety. If you include actual angora mohair you would find in an even greater range of colours, though honestly I prefer the tibetan lamb hair for 1/6 scale as it is actually a bit finer, not to mention more affordable!

If there is a particular colour you need that isn’t readily available, you could also enquire about it to the seller and see if they might be able to get it in stock. 

Also, if you want hair that is mixed /multi colours, this is doable you just have to mix the fibers together by hand during the gluing process [as seen above in GF's tutorial].

ETA: Cross posted with Ovy. Of course, dyeing the lamb hair is possible as it is natural fiber, but many nice colours are already available to purchase if, like me, that’s a step you prefer to skip.

Yeah, I'm thinking the problem was probably a combination of things. I used synthetic doll hair, the fabritac glue, maybe didn't let it set well enough, and used fabric softener on the hair which was suggested by several youtube doll people. For whatever reason, it seemed to work for those people but I had nothing but problems. I've ordered some of the lamb hair in the colors I need so I don't have to bother with coloring. I did not have good luck with coloring it either, tho I think those directions I was following were also meant for the lamb stuff. So we'll see what happens. I need black, brown and ginger hair...I got two different shades of brown for the brown-haired fellow so I can blend the colors to make it more natural looking without attempting to get that look by manually coloring it. It's definitely a step I want to skip for all time. LOL!

I really like how your Aquaman turned out, GF! Super cool! And one of the men I'm making has long hair similar to this, so I'm hoping I can do as good a job (or even if it's close!) as you've done! Thank you for all the tips!

Yeah, coloring won’t work on synthetic hair — it’s not porous.

chrisinbama wrote:I really like how your Aquaman turned out, GF! Super cool! And one of the men I'm making has long hair similar to this, so I'm hoping I can do as good a job (or even if it's close!) as you've done! Thank you for all the tips!

Thank you very much, glad you liked it. Hope you are happy with what you end up doing and share it with us!

I use super glue and worry about my fingers later!

shovelchop81 wrote:I use super glue and worry about my fingers later!

You are indeed a martyr to your art, no wonder what you make is outright miraculous. Great to see you on again!

Shovelchop, does it not make it all hard and clumpy? I guess it doesn't or you wouldn't be saying it. LOL! I just know whenever I use super glue in regular life it's so ridiculous.

Superglue (cyanoacrylate) actually requires water to cure (it absorbs hydroxide ions from moisture in the air) so it seems like a good choice.

Nice job. The lamb hair looks surprisingly realistic. It would be neat to have a few more step-by-step pics and put this in the tutorial section.

shazzdan wrote:Superglue (cyanoacrylate) actually requires water to cure (it absorbs hydroxide ions from moisture in the air) so it seems like a good choice.

Nice job. The lamb hair looks surprisingly realistic. It would be neat to have a few more step-by-step pics and put this in the tutorial section.

I didn't know that about superglue.

And thank you very much. It is now my only go-to solution. I've now done several, most recently this one, then Conan (HERE), and Bucky (HERE). I tried to address the more photos make a tutorial issue with Conan, although I apparently don't know how to count past 4 (messed up the numbers when labeling the photos).

chrisinbama wrote:Shovelchop, does it not make it all hard and clumpy? I guess it doesn't or you wouldn't be saying it. LOL! I just know whenever I use super glue in regular life it's so ridiculous.

Yes it will go hard so I use it only at the tips of the 'roots' which I do in layers from bottom/underneath to top changing the angle as needed and choosing a hairline where ever it needs to be; I often use the fringe to cover up any mess from the hairline and use a scalpel to cut away any excess glued clumps of hair at the 'roots'. Hard to explain lol.

GubernatorFan wrote:

shovelchop81 wrote:I use super glue and worry about my fingers later!

You are indeed a martyr to your art, no wonder what you make is outright miraculous. Great to see you on again!

literally putting bits of myself into my work! Cheers, just popped by as this thread showed up in my email. I'll try and come back more often, just having a hiatus hopefully, up to my neck in fragile Gundam builds right now, choosing the hardest ones I can find of course!!

Shovelchop...haha! I'll have to do some experimenting.

That Aquaman looks really really good! Also very helpful that you post these step by step pictures!

chrisinbama wrote:Shovelchop...haha! I'll have to do some experimenting.

I find that's the best way to learn new techniques, go for it!

Valiarde wrote:That Aquaman looks really really good! Also very helpful that you post these step by step pictures!

Thank you very much. And glad it was helpful. The Arnie/Conan mod had more step-by-step coverage.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Valiarde wrote:That Aquaman looks really really good! Also very helpful that you post these step by step pictures!

Thank you very much. And glad it was helpful. The Arnie/Conan mod had more step-by-step coverage.

I just realised looking at your progress pics that some of them looks like his hair is actually underwater, it's just a thought for anyone making a similar mod might consider going that route especially if they are struggling to keep hair in place etc..

Late chiming in...as usual...

You make it look easy, GF. And, it looks so damn good.

Mighty fine...

Have y'all seen the guy doing Heath Ledger's Joker hair using this lamb wool? It's a great video and came out awesome. Between him and that Morezmore lady, it's what made me try. Only I had this synthetic hair, so it's been a nightmare. I'm excited to start over using that instead. I've already ordered my colors. As soon as they come in, I'm on it!