Life Casting the Head and Face with Alginate, including Bald Cap Application for Life Casting

How to apply a latex bald cap to a subject with long hair in preparation for a full head life cast with ears out. This technique involves pulling the hair into a ponytail and wrapping it so it can be kept external to the bald cap, allowing the cast to capture the head shape as closely as possible. This approach is best for creating head casts for dummy heads or for producing skull caps for animatronics. This bald cap application also deals with how to modify a cap that is too large for the subject.

A full head life cast with ears out on a female subject with long hair. The cast is done in two halves with only plaster bandage for the back and alginate supported with plaster bandage on the front half. This is the process from start to finish including the removal of the cast.

A full head life cast with ears out, in alginate and plaster bandage. This technique has the entire head covered in alginate and the alginate removed in one piece via a split in the back. We focus on techniques for getting a good cast of the ears and also for dealing with a subject who may have breathing concerns.

The steps to prepare a full head life cast that’s been taken with an alginate front and plaster bandage back, for casting a positive in plaster. Closing the nostril holes with alginate, joining the two halves accurately, and securing them ready for filling the cast with plaster.

Filling the full head life cast with plaster and then de-moulding the finished cast. How to use tools to refine and clean up the plaster cast, removing and correcting imperfections.

Casting plaster into a full head alginate cast and looking at the results of our techniques of casting the nose separately and building a thickness behind the ears.

Application of a latex bald cap with ears under the cap for a face cast. How to deal with long hair and how to define the area to be cast using water-based makeup.

Life casting the face in alginate and plaster bandage; the most traditional way to take a life cast. Bonding the alginate to the plaster bandage jacket using strips of plaster bandage inserted into the wet alginate.

Face casting with alginate and plaster bandage. This ‘ears under cap’ face cast is designed for circumstances in which you may need to remove the cast with greater care. It may be that your subject has to be cast with facial hair, or you’re casting around facial piercings for example. This might require that the alginate is not bonded into the rigid plaster bandage shell, so it can be removed first and then the alginate removed on its own, allowing it to flex more and be removed with greater care. The plaster bandage frame creates an outer edge that will help relocate and retain the alginate in the plaster bandage shell.

Preparing a face cast that has been taken using the frame technique for casting in plaster. Reassembling the cast and securing the parts together ready for filling with plaster.

Casting a plaster positive of the face from an alginate face cast. De-moulding and cleaning up the plaster cast.