Bruce's Makeover...

...or

From Shaggy Man to Sir Dinadan

Bruce, as I may have told you (or did I? Hm.) has a part in Camelot, produced by Outlaw Trail Theatre. He is Sir Dinadan. He has been rehearsing, and growing his hair for six or seven weeks, and growing his beard for three weeks.

He was becoming a right-old greybeard.

He talked to the hair and costume-stylist last Tuesday (June 14) and got the go-ahead to trim a little of his beard—just the neck and a little bit off the cheeks.

Bruce makes the first cut.

On Wednesday night she told him to trim it into a goatee, and add a little color-rinse to his beard and hair. But we couldn't resist taking this picture first:

School teachers can always use some supplemental income...

On Thursday morning we bought some dye, and then the fun began...

Bruce asked me to be his beautician—and I wanted to anyway.
But I have to say that trimming his whiskers was like trying
to cut a wire brush with an electric shaver.

After I got him all trimmed up, it was time to apply the hair-color. We used Revlon's cheapest "medium ash brown."

I started with the beard. First, vaseline all around the hairlines so we wouldn't dye his face (I need to remember this when I color my hair. And isn't the pink hairband so pretty? Then I applied the color with an old toothbrush. Very manly. And purplish.

While Bruce's beard was cooking I started on his hair:

At about this point Samuel and Patrick came up to see what was going on. 

shock and awe...
or at least bemusement

And Bruce finally gets to see what has the entire household
so fascinated.

Rinse the beard, rinse the hair, (clean up my shaving job with a real razor), and voila! A new man:

When the stylist saw him that evening she squealed with joy and excitement. Then he went to do his makeup—for the first time ever—so, naturally, I had to take pictures:

He looks like he's been doing this all his life...

...but really this nice girl helped him a lot.
Maybe by the end of the show he'll be able
to do his makeup all by himself.

I waited around to get a picture of him in his costume too. Here he is holding up his brand-new, 40-pound chain-mail shirt:

The picture is super-blurry, I know. But it's the only one I have of his fancy metal tunic.

Sir Dinadan, looking down his nose at Lindsey and me.
(That's King Arthur behind him.)

Our whole family got to go see the final full-dress-and-makeup rehearsal last Saturday. It was a lot of fun, and my knight was definitely the most manly, good-looking knight on the stage. And I'm not biased either.

Sir Dinadan

I took a few pics during the first part of the show (they're performing in an amphitheater, so I took photos as long as I had good light). But those pictures are for another time.

Dinadan the family man.

Camelot is running for two weeks, June 20 (tonight) through July 2. You should go see it!