Facial life casting : How to guide to taking a life cast : part 2

Ensure your subject is sitting comfortably, and in the upright position. This is so that the face is relaxed and the features do not distort. In the interests of cleanliness it is good practice to cover any porous surfaces surrounding the work area with plastic. This includes the subject's clothing.

A plastic refuse sack can be cut to make a cheap overall.

Masking tape (low contact) is used to attach your water resistent overall to the subject's clothing and skin.

Here, we demonstrate the 'quick' method for covering the hairline, however there are several others...

Quick :Method
For time or comfort, a bald cap is applied. Lift the front of the cap, and begin to adhere it to the forehead with spirit gum . Once set, you can pull any wrinkles away from the top of the head and start gluing it to the back of the neck. Then simply tack down all the remaining edges keeping a good tension. Any exposed hairs should be coated in a generous layer of petroleum jelly.

Low budget :Method
A cheap alternative to using a bald cap would be to stretch some plastic wrap (cling film) over the subject's scalp, then fixing it in place with sticky tape.
This is a far simpler variation of my previous experiments; which involved coating a party balloon with several layers of papier mache to produce a hard skull. I then sealed this with soap, before coating the whole thing with liquid latex to literally scratch build a bald cap (as seen in the photographs on the following pages).

Proffesional :Method
Apply soggy soap (a regular bar of soap that has been allowed to go soft in water), to the head. Comb the hair back away from the face and blow dry to the scalp. This will reduce even the most volumous hair. The process can be repeated until an impenetrable casing has been made of the subject's hair.