Preaches n' Cream

Halloween is coming up fast, so today I’m going to give you some first hand ideas on how to be Medusa for Halloween. 

I was Medusa last year. It was a great costume; it was fun, easy to do, inexpensive and just all around cool.

First and formost with this costume is the hair, it’s the only thing that really matters. Once you’ve got your hair done the rest of the costume just falls together.

These were my tools:

• sponge rollers

• hairspray
• bobby pins
• jumbo hair braids (1 pack) (buy these at any ethnic beauty supply store…even Wal-Mart sometimes has it). 

• rubber snakes (about 15-20)
• hair elastics

This is what I did:

1. Halloween morning I washed my hair, let it air dry with mousse in it and then set it in sponge curlers/foam rollers.
2. Take the rollers out a few hours before you are going out (Your hair will most likely be a mess of tight curls).
3. Take chunks of the “jumbo hair” and braid it into 1 inch pieces of your natural hair. These braids will add length, volume, mass and texture to your hair. (I probably did about 8 braids in random spots on my head).
4. Add rubber snakes: Grab an inch or two of your natural hair and wrap it at the base of your head around the head of the snake- bobby pin in place. By wrapping the head of the snake you are allowing the body of the snake to cascade down (which looks good).
5. Continue adding snakes and “jumbo hair”/extension hair, until everything is used up or you have no head space left.
6. Try to style your hair “up” for height. I brushed out any of my remaining curls which made my hair look frizzy and then worked with the snakes and braids and created a bit of a Snooki “poof” this added height which balanced the length and volume of my hair.

After my hair was done I put on makeup, which is up for anyones own interpretation of how Medusa would wear makeup. A smoky eye with fake lashes would be appropriate…It’s Halloween, so go crazy, I did green shadow as you can see in the pics.


For clothing I wore a LBD from H&M, black tights, black heels and a wide belt; really, something I’d wear on any given club night. It was nice, sexy, comfortable and warm.


The real highlight (after the hair) for this costume was the fake tattoos, I bought as many fake snake tattoos as I could find (I found some at the dollar store and more at a Halloween pop-up shop) and tried to create a sort of alternative, hipster, modern Medusa with sleeves, a chest piece and even neck tattoos for good measure…with the tattoos: the more the better.


Here is the final product (I’m so sorry that I don’t have better pics-it was last year and I didn’t realize I’d be doing a preaches n’ cream tutorial).

 
Above: of course Linus had to get in the pic :p  Note that I looped the hair on top of my crown for height and allowed the snakes to cascade down. 




I hope this works out if you give it a try- Please feel free to ask me any questions if you need some help :)