InArt: The Lord of the Rings - Aragorn 1:6

Kalkylen said:

Needed this guy to style the hair on the figures before release.

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Didn't know DeNiro did hair styling as a side gig......

I'm considering adding a bit more product to his hair mostly to darken it up slightly but not sure what to use. Obviously need something that won't damage the wool and has to be odorless, any suggestions?

Lizard Lips said:

I'm considering adding a bit more product to his hair mostly to darken it up slightly but not sure what to use. Obviously need something that won't damage the wool and has to be odorless, any suggestions?

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To me you've got good hair, reasonable color - why do you want to potentially destroy? You might want to very cautiously cut a few bangs. Or not.

The obvious problem is trying to recolor fiber that's already in place. And we already know the face paint is thin.
You could try -
Any hair oil/serum
Reading up on dyeing mohair and cautiously overdyeing.
Color depositing shampoo/conditioner
Brushing in hair powder or eyeshadow
Brushing in a solution of fabric paint
Rinsing in a strong coffee or tea - I'd read about using natural dyes first tho.

All while carefully protecting the face.

I was thinking, spraying some hair spray into a cup and using a fine brush to lock the curls / strands in place, thus darkening the hair at the same time?

Klornamafern said:

Went full on crazy on this, gave him a bath, tried as much as I can to straighten the hair, I tried to do a wind swept look, still a little short if i don't tilt the head.

I'm still not sure if I should rake up the money and get another

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Man I feel for yah.

No. Bite the bullet, head to eBay or wherever, get the right kind of mohair, tools, glue, do some research. Far as I can tell fiber is jammed into the top of the sculpt with more glued around the sculpt.

If you wash all the product out, with a "moisturizing" shampoo, make sure you condition, let hair dry. If you look at the sculpt from underneath, there'll be "clumps" of hair glued in patches. Use forceps. Don't make the new hair clumps too big. Add in more hair.

I'd go in from underneath, basically gluing in extensions and blending with hair on top. Since Aragon had some sort of shaggy layered cut. There's probably someone around who does hair who could do the trimming for a fee. E.g. razor cut layers so the new hair blends with the original. Doll supply houses sell mohair, Amazon, etc.

Then use product to sort of blend it all together.

Even paying a customizer to re-root the whole head is cheaper than an entire figure.

It's ridiculous people have to suddenly become customizers for a "premium" figure but there it is. There are tutorials around on this kind of rooting online. But since there's a big clump of hair glued in at the crown, with pieces around the scalp to fill out, you should be able to sneak in "extenders". At least, that's what I'd do. Tho I'd be major *&^% about it.

The other option is talk to Kit, order a new one, return the entire figure. What a pain in the *&^%. Or order a new one, sell the other one, but be up front. You'll still take a loss but there are folks out there who would buy and just re-root, or use for a kitbash. I hope Kit will come through for you tho.

Omnishredder said:

I was thinking, spraying some hair spray into a cup and using a fine brush to lock the curls / strands in place, thus darkening the hair at the same time?

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I doubt hair spray will darken anything. Try hair powder - you should be able to pick up in drugstore - brush in lightly, and then maybe a light finishing oil.

At least, those can be washed out. Hair powder is kind of "sticky" it's used to hide the roots of dyed hair. You can also get it in a can. You might be able to use a brush or fingers with it too to keep from getting on the sculpt.

I forgot the name - Tamiya? but there are "distressing powders" modelers use. I've got some chalk sticks like that. Those could probably be ground up and brushed into the hair too, and then use product/spray.

Kit has some premium in stock.

Here’s a pic of my rooted Aragorn headsculpt. I think the hair is too light, but not bad after combing out so much of the product and then brushing the hair some. I tried to get as much of the curls out as possible and it’s worked for the most part. Still a little more wavy than I’d like but better than it was fresh out of the box.

Paintwork is pretty flawless, though, I must say

EDIT: just for clarification in case anyone was wondering, mine is from the second batch.

Looks good to me.

As you can see by that BTS photo posted earlier (and below), the stylist on set carried a water bottle with him, keeping Aragorn's hair damp most of the time. When he did have dry hair in the film, his hair was lighter.

Gipetto0812 said:

Here’s a pic of my rooted Aragorn headsculpt. I think the hair is too light, but not bad after combing out so much of the product and then brushing the hair some. I tried to get as much of the curls out as possible and it’s worked for the most part. Still a little more wavy than I’d like but better than it was fresh out of the box.

Paintwork is pretty flawless, though, I must say

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IMO that looks great. Scene to scene he has "wet/sweat" waves, his hair is all over the place "style wise". At least with mine, the more I pull on the hair, the more it seems to loosen the curl, over time, which I guess can be expected when pulling on any natural fiber.

I like mine with some wave, not that I have hair that would ever be completely straight. And I've just been noticing under my right eye it looks pretty unpainted; in the wrong light it's like a "panda" effect - sigh. Am not a painter so it will be fun learning to touch that up.

This figure, tho I like it more or less, is the biggest pain in the *&^% of any fig I've ever owned. I wish the Topo cloak would show up so I could slap it on, get him on a shelf and distance myself from the trauma.

Lizard Lips said:

I'm considering adding a bit more product to his hair mostly to darken it up slightly but not sure what to use. Obviously need something that won't damage the wool and has to be odorless, any suggestions?

View attachment 739693

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I think that hair looks perfect honestly.

Luisenigma1 said:

Kit has some premium in stock.

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Yeah I had to bite on a second one now. Who knows how many more opportunities we are going to get. With these pics from the latest batch. It seems like the hair work is much better and maybe even the paint looks more on point too. Hoping my second one is just as good as these later batch pics. They all look great!

Sassafras said:

To me you've got good hair, reasonable color - why do you want to potentially destroy? You might want to very cautiously cut a few bangs. Or not.

The obvious problem is trying to recolor fiber that's already in place. And we already know the face paint is thin.
You could try -
Any hair oil/serum
Reading up on dyeing mohair and cautiously overdyeing.
Color depositing shampoo/conditioner
Brushing in hair powder or eyeshadow
Brushing in a solution of fabric paint
Rinsing in a strong coffee or tea - I'd read about using natural dyes first tho.

All while carefully protecting the face.

Click to expand...

Do you know if jojoba oil is safe to use? I've seen conflicting info on whether it goes rancid eventually. I'd only try it on a small patch first but if it looks good I wouldn't want to have to wash it all out in a few years if it goes off.

Rzeznikk said:

Yeah I had to bite on a second one now. Who knows how many more opportunities we are going to get. With these pics from the latest batch. It seems like the hair work is much better and maybe even the paint looks more on point too. Hoping my second one is just as good as these later batch pics. They all look great!

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I did the same bro. Lol

Rzeznikk said:

Yeah I had to bite on a second one now. Who knows how many more opportunities we are going to get. With these pics from the latest batch. It seems like the hair work is much better and maybe even the paint looks more on point too. Hoping my second one is just as good as these later batch pics. They all look great!

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Luisenigma1 said:

I did the same bro. Lol

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Oh my goodness...

Welp, I am curious how the hair will be on both of yours. Please let us know here.

I have a 2nd Batch Aragorn and have no idea if my hair would now be considered dark and kinky... or looser and lighter with less product (than Batch 1).

This is the first instance of Last Batches being better than early batches though, for InArt.

Lizard Lips said:

Do you know if jojoba oil is safe to use? I've seen conflicting info on whether it goes rancid eventually. I'd only try it on a small patch first but if it looks good I wouldn't want to have to wash it all out in a few years if it goes off.

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No, I don't. I used a light hair oil at one point, not sure what was in it. Am wary of oil or anything that might potentially strip.paint. Potentially. Honestly if I had to darken hair/mohair I would go with a dye. Very carefully. Maybe even using a paint brush to brush in. Making sure the entire sculpt was sealed off including the ears. It's probably permanent so I'd be sure.

Have seen some good results on nylon HT hair with dilute acrylic paint; there's some sort of additive you use with it for fabric to keep the paint from being too stiff.

Try hair powder first, at least you can wash that out. But your hair looks absolutely fine to me color wise, unless you want that greasy wet look. Then I would try some light hair oil or spray. Or there are articles for getting a "wet hair look".

Wor-Gar said:

Oh my goodness...

Welp, I am curious how the hair will be on both of yours. Please let us know here.

I have a 2nd Batch Aragorn and have no idea if my hair would now be considered dark and kinky... or looser and lighter with less product (than Batch 1).

This is the first instance of Last Batches being better than early batches though, for InArt.

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I hope it's better then my first. Honestly might sell my current one once I get this one to see if all is good with it and I'm leaving the hair be. Lol

Ah, hell. I told myself if it wasn't sold out by Saturday, I'd order one... It wasn't, and I did. Hopefully I won't have much trouble moving whichever version I decide not to keep.

Sassafras said:

No, I don't. I used a light hair oil at one point, not sure what was in it. Am wary of oil or anything that might potentially strip.paint. Potentially. Honestly if I had to darken hair/mohair I would go with a dye. Very carefully. Maybe even using a paint brush to brush in. Making sure the entire sculpt was sealed off including the ears. It's probably permanent so I'd be sure.

Have seen some good results on nylon HT hair with dilute acrylic paint; there's some sort of additive you use with it for fabric to keep the paint from being too stiff.

Try hair powder first, at least you can wash that out. But your hair looks absolutely fine to me color wise, unless you want that greasy wet look. Then I would try some light hair oil or spray. Or there are articles for getting a "wet hair look".

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Great thanks for the advice, I might just test out some small patches with hair powder and light hair spray and see how it goes, I'm definitely nitpicking, I think he looks great, its more that because my display has strong LEDs it can make the hair look a bit lighter but its not a big deal overall and I definitely don't want to risk destroying the look.

webhead05 said:

Ah, hell. I told myself if it wasn't sold out by Saturday, I'd order one... It wasn't, and I did. Hopefully I won't have much trouble moving whichever version I decide not to keep.

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Imagine not if the price is reasonable once folks figure out that Aragorn will be recast for this Gollum movie. We'll get a Ranger Aragorn but not THIS Aragorn. Maybe they will cast someone who's face isn't so hard to get right.