FMC cutting her hair

[Backstroke_Italics]

Whenever I do something experimental with my hair, there is always that moment after the first cut when it hits me that there's no going back now. If I did it wrong I'll just have to try and even it out later. Your MC probably isn't thinking in detail about how amateurish her hack-job is. But if you really do want to show that what she's doing to her hair is a big departure from her usual behavior, you could have a moment where she sees the first cut in the mirror, and gets all meta. She's really doing this. What else from her old life will she have to toss aside before she's through? That sort of thing.

[indianroads]

Whenever I do something experimental with my hair, there is always that moment after the first cut when it hits me that there's no going back now. If I did it wrong I'll just have to try and even it out later. Your MC probably isn't thinking in detail about how amateurish her hack-job is. But if you really do want to show that what she's doing to her hair is a big departure from her usual behavior, you could have a moment where she sees the first cut in the mirror, and gets all meta. She's really doing this. What else from her old life will she have to toss aside before she's through? That sort of thing.

Great input - Thanks!

[Kensa]

Cutting her hair herself, she may stand out because a bad cut is unforgiving on short hair (unless she has curly hair). In her shoes, surviving would be my only goal, and I'd care more about an effective cut than 'cut or not cut'.

I had very long hair when I was young and decided to cut it short (my hairdresser was more upset than I was), I remember my head seemed lighter and freer (long hair is heavier than you think), but I was cold in the neck for a few weeks.

I'm not sure about the mascara. It's very thick and very black, and doesn't blend (it's waterproof). She'd probably have a better result with dark eyeshadow powders, or a mix of foundation and powders to make it last longer.

[Foxee]

Hey, if you have time to watch this video it's a pretty good look at what the CIA considers to be successful and not-successful in disguise. I really enjoyed it and it's not a bad resource.

Former CIA Chief of Disguise Breaks Down 30 Spy Scenes From Film and TV

[indianroads]

Cutting her hair herself, she may stand out because a bad cut is unforgiving on short hair (unless she has curly hair). In her shoes, surviving would be my only goal, and I'd care more about an effective cut than 'cut or not cut'.

I had very long hair when I was young and decided to cut it short (my hairdresser was more upset than I was), I remember my head seemed lighter and freer (long hair is heavier than you think), but I was cold in the neck for a few weeks.

I'm not sure about the mascara. It's very thick and very black, and doesn't blend (it's waterproof). She'd probably have a better result with dark eyeshadow powders, or a mix of foundation and powders to make it last longer.

Good point about the mascara - I wondered about that. I take it that eye-shadow powders come in different shades... she's blonde, what colors would she have?

[Taylor]

I'm not sure about the mascara. It's very thick and very black, and doesn't blend (it's waterproof). She'd probably have a better result with dark eyeshadow powders, or a mix of foundation and powders to make it last longer.

Oh yeah...good point! I would think "smokey grey" eye shadow would work.

[Kensa]

Yes, a dark grey, or a brown. She probably has a palette with different shades (like this one, mat and not shiny).

[indianroads]

Oh yeah...good point! I would think "smokey grey" eye shadow would work.

Yes, a dark grey, or a brown. She probably has a palette with different shades (like this one, mat and not shiny).

Dang... I love this place.

Huge thank you!

[JBF]

I have a similar situation with one of mine. The character isn't a major player in the story where she appears, but she was intriguing enough for her thirty seconds of print time that she wound up with a one-off story of her own. Eventually, the plot shook out where it made more sense to bring her into the main storyline at a later point than putting together a new character out of whole cloth, and she turned out as an essential component of the story. Go figure.

(edited a bunch of stuff here to prevent a thread hijack)

In her case, she starts off in a safe place. Circumstances soon enough have her alone and forced to run. At any given time there are maybe two people can trust. Everybody else is suspect if not outright hostile.

Long story short, she winds up having to adapt on the fly. Most of the time she's in varying degrees of shock (the displacing incident was pretty brutal). To her credit, she rolls with it about as well as can be expected.

A couple of things that work to this end:

She's around sixteen, thin, and not what would be considered especially girly. One of the first things to go is clothes - a shapeless jacket, a pair of pants, and work shoes...the kind of garb that doesn't stand out in the rural setting where the story begins. Later, when the friendlies have her in a temporary safehouse, one cuts her hair. Being semi-curly, this doesn't draw the kind of attention straight hair might. They don't have time (or skill) to do anything with color, but since most of the people they encounter will be darkheaded this is a lesser concern.

Early on, another rubs her arms from fingertrip to elbow with a mixture of axle grease and dirt. She's the middle-class daughter of a federal judge, so anbody looking won't pay much mind to somebody with dirty fingernails. Wearing cut-down gloves conceals the fact that she has small hands, thin fingers, and a lack of calluses or scars.

The boots she's given aren't her usual. They're heavy, ankle-high, with heavy soles, and after walking a quarter of a mile in thick mud, change how she moves.

She wears little enough makeup in normal times and doesn't wear any for the duration. At some point she picks up a pair of large-framed sunglasses and paints a greasy shadow above her lip for a mustache.

The result of all this is that the people hunting her are looking for a slight girl with light makeup, last seen wearing a school uniform. If they ever actually get eyes on her, they see a skinny field-hand type with a couple of days' stubble, mud to the knees, and aviator shades under a trucker cap... who incidentally looks like he a needs a haircut. She also doesn't smell like a girl - she smells like an auto mechanic, and she walks like somebody who just wants to get home to dinner.

As to what she feels during all this, that's mostly the feral senses to survive. The time to cry comes later, as do any attempts to piece her four-day ordeal into something that makes sense. Same for any thoughts towards revenge. Above that...what she most feels is tired.

Towards the conclusion, having been delivered to a safe place with armed security on the walls, she walks into a bathroom and stares for a few minutes at the stranger in the mirror. Only then does the enormity of the past week start to come into focus. Incidentally, this is point that establishes who she's going to become when we see her a few years later.

[Olly Buckle]

I like the field boots, JBF, I remember reading an account of someone putting something in one shoe to alter his gait, they said it was important if the person doing the tail is experienced .