This is the comb-able complement to bulletproof vests for swat teams, neighborhood cops and third-world fighters when hip head armor is a no-brainer. These hardhat hairpieces have manageable Kevlar fibers in a variety of colors and styles including the Bobbie bob and the Afghan rug.
-- FarmerJohn, Sep 15 2002

The man himself http://ninemsn.com.au/raymartin/
There is a reasonable pic of Rays do on that page, I've seen better though. [Gulherme, Sep 15 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Hairmet http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Hairmet
[phoenix, Sep 16 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Ray Martin http://www.chez.com.../english/safran.htm
in Action [thumbwax, Sep 17 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Devo http://www.clubdevo...s_photos/pomps2.jpg
Are we not protected? [iuvare, Sep 17 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Picture of a LEGO man http://uk.amigasoc..../images/legoman.jpg
Apologies for poor quality link, but the google page is more relevant than the actual page. [Jinbish, Sep 17 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

Bulletproof Hood, http://www.halfbake.../Bulletproof_20Hood
for which I got totally shot down (oops). [snarfyguy, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]

In Australia Ray Martin pioneered the bullet proof wig, I'm unsure if it was a wig though or some product he used in his hair to make it bullet proof.
-- Gulherme, Sep 15 2002


How would you ensure that the wig is fixed on, then? Staples wouldn't work this time...
-- PeterSilly, Sep 17 2002


I was thinking of loops of duct tape.
-- FarmerJohn, Sep 17 2002


Devo has been using these for bit now (see link).
-- iuvare, Sep 17 2002


Sounds like a LEGO-man hairdo...
-- Jinbish, Sep 17 2002


Damn Gulherme, you beat me to it. Funny how this immediately conjures images of Ray. Maybe it's just overexposure to the full frontal spoof.
-- madradish, Sep 18 2002


Ive been waiting for this idea a loooong time.

Now I finally have something to tell my wife when..... in the inevitable cop drama/movie the good guy cop gets shot in the chest only for us the audience to discover, oh wow, HES OK! HE HAD A VEST ON!....to which my oh so clever wife would scoff 'Why didnt they just shoot him in the head?!"'...to which I CAN NOW REPLY....'he's probably got a bullet proof wig on!!'
-- rumbletumbler, Sep 18 2002


praytell, UB, where are the other two?
-- absterge, Sep 18 2002


On behalf of all North American hockey fans, I must mention (yes, again) NHL referee Kerry Fraser and his magical hair helmet! I doubt his hair is actually bulletproof, though, since he did suffer damage when a puck caught him in the noggin last season. Still, it's a good example of how you can be stylish yet protected at the same time.
-- Canuck, Sep 19 2002


[absterge] if youre searching for karmic crossroads first you must seek enlightenment. One of them is in Weston-super-mare in England and the other is in my room. the reason Indy (my true love) never found it is that my room is so messy its radioactive. The last four people to go in came out with super powers. Hold on a minute..........
-- ninjafishcake, Jun 16 2003


The force of the bullet would just spread across the entire wig, maybe cracking your skull and leaving a huge bump. Plus this would only work if someone shot from above as wigs sit on the top of your head.
-- DesertFox, Apr 30 2004


You're thinking of a toupee.
-- Worldgineer, Apr 30 2004


[DesertFox], I would take a cracked skull / huge bump over a bullet to the brain. But maybe that's just me.
-- GenYus, May 01 2004


Kevlar magic and bad science. Fibers like Kevlar and Spectra dissipate the energy of bullets by spreading it out to adjacent fibers. The shield has to be woven to get that interaction, or encapsulated in a matrix (like Spectra Shield). The loose fibers in a wig won’t absorb any energy—they’ll just bend out of the way.
-- ldischler, May 01 2004


Even if the kevlar were to remain rigid and prevent the bullet from penetrating, I would expect that unless one was being shot with something like a .22LR or .25auto(*) the concussion would have severe or fatal effects.

(*) I recall a self-defense advisor advised against carrying a .25auto. His reasoning: if you carry it, you might get attacked and feel a need to point it at your assailant. If he doesn't run away, you might feel a need to shoot him. And if you shoot him, you might make him angry.

IIRC, a typical 9mm handgun bullet weighs about 9 grams and travels at about 300m/s. If it is allowed to travel 1cm after it hits the outside of a person's wig, a force of 9,000 pounds would be required to stop it that quickly. The only way headgear could protect a person's head from such a bullet would be if it could dissipate the bullet's energy over a larger distance.
-- supercat, May 02 2004


You’re right. There’s something called backface deformation—which means that a conical region of a ballistic vest will sink some distance into the body under the impact of a bullet, transforming the momentum of the bullet into a hammer blow. That hurts, and can still do damage, but it’s survivable. Of course, on a hard surface, like a skull, a hammer blow is not a good thing at all.
-- ldischler, May 02 2004


So you're saying that helmeted soldiers , hit straight on don't have a chance i.e. //head armor is [not] a no-brainer//?
-- FarmerJohn, May 02 2004


Oh, it can be done all right, if you use rigid panels and allow for the deformation. Cost is about $1000 to 1500, depending on the threat level. In some ways, using rigid panels is better, because then you can encapsulate some of the better materials, which are otherwise water and light sensitive (like Zylon and Kevlar).

In the old days, helmets were only good for stopping fragments and heating soup.
-- ldischler, May 02 2004



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