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I'm attending a fancy dress party at Christmas, and I'll be dressed as a pirate. The famous pirate William Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, apparently used to stick lighted matches under his hat when he went into battle to scare his enemies (see here, bottom right paragraph). This is also described in some current texts as weaving "hemp saturated with saltpetre into his beard and then setting them afire" [link] and "setting the end of his beard on fire". [link]

If possible, I'd like to recreate this myself in relative safety. What I would like is some safety advice (more than just "don't do it"); i.e. what fire-retardant products I could treat my own skin/hair with to prevent burns, as well as suggestions for the effect itself. What could I tie into my beard (or place under my hat)and then set on fire that would create the dramatic effect I'm looking for?

It needn't last longer than 10 or 20 seconds. I know this isn't a magic trick per se but I figured you may have some ideas on the subject.

Thanks in advance.

What a wonderfully curious topic !!

Do you already have a beard ? If so how long is it ? And more importantly do you wish to keep it lol x

I'm not saying "do not do it", (it's your funeral...tho' cremation is probably more appropriate?). The only way to do this in "relative safety" is to hire, and then get teaching from a stunt/FX-crew.
You might want to try that route, or send a PM to Michael Jay (found on Magic Bunny and also Online-Visions). He has years of pyro experience, and might be able to help out.
Hagrid also set his beard alight in Harry Potter when the baby dragon was born in his house, however, that might have just been CGI. Perhaps chase down one of the Potter SFX crew and find out from them?
I doubt "accidental self-immolation" would be covered by your (?) or the venue's insurance policy.
Bruce

My advice would be to not bother with it. Just going to the party dressed as Blackbeard should be good enough as my guess is most people would have no idea that he used to set his beard on fire so doing so wouldn't really add more to the costume. You'll be in the situation where you have to explain to people that you're burning yourself because that's what Blackbeard did, they'll look midly interested and then nobody will want to go near you for the rest of the evening because (and I can't emphasise this enough) burnt hair smells really bad and the stench will hang around for hours!

You'll be known forever as the guy who stunk out the Christmas party rather than the guy who did the amazing burning beard thing.

Stick a couple of battery powered candles in your beard, job done!

I thought this was in reference to Chris.

I thought "Petrol and a match."

A_n_t wrote:I thought this was in reference to Chris.

I thought "Petrol and a match."

Dye some flash wool black and weave it into your beard...? No idea if it is safe or if it will cause permanent scarring.

If this forum was hosted in the US, the board lawyers would be jumping up and down to close the thread and stick in disclaimers everywhere

I love trolling questions on a Friday

Le Petit Bateleur wrote:If this forum was hosted in the US, the board lawyers would be jumping up and down to close the thread and stick in disclaimers everywhere

Good point, y’all listen up now!

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Having flame under your chain for 10 to 20 seconds is not going to be pretty. Heat rises and no manner of cream is going to stop your chin and lower face from blistering badly due to the constant heat. This is a daft idea.

Stephen Ward wrote:DO NOT USE FLASH PAPER!

Beat me to it. Was going to suggest bundles and bundles of flash paper.

Harris wrote:What a wonderfully curious topic !!

Do you already have a beard ? If so how long is it ? And more importantly do you wish to keep it lol x

I have about six weeks growth atm, and there's another month before xmas so it'll be a decent length but it's not going to be up to ZZ-Top standard.

BrucUK wrote:I'm not saying "do not do it", (it's your funeral...tho' cremation is probably more appropriate?). The only way to do this in "relative safety" is to hire, and then get teaching from a stunt/FX-crew.
You might want to try that route, or send a PM to Michael Jay (found on Magic Bunny and also Online-Visions). He has years of pyro experience, and might be able to help out.

Stuntmen were my first thought. I couldn't find any stuntmen forums. It's not important enough for me to hire anyone over.
Thanks for the suggestions.