What to wear under your fursuit

It may sound like a good idea but never go naked under your fursuit. Instead get yourself a set of Under Armour cool skin. They go a long way to helping you stay more comfortable and extend the amount of time

 

Go to the bathroom

Kind of an obvious one but its caught us out more than once. Always go to the bathroom before suiting up. It’s a hassle to have to get out of suit then back in because you need to pee.

 

Keep Hydrated

You will get hot and sweaty in suit so it is important to stay hydrated.

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Dehydration and heat stroke are very dangerous conditions.

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Start hydrating yourself a day or 2 before a big convention by drinking more water than you normally would to prepare your body for all the sweating you will do over the next few days. Keep this increased consumption of water up for the whole convention as well.

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Avoid over indulging in stuff like, coffee, energy drinks and alcohol while suiting as they can all cause further dehydration.

 

Thirst is not always an accurate sign of dehydration, once you become dehydrated you actually stop feeling thirsty and you will continue to dehydrate without even knowing it.

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There is a simple test for dehydration. Hold your hand out flat with your palm down and pinch the skin on the back of your hand and watch it flatten again, if the skin stays wrinkled or takes longer than usual to go back to flat you are dehydrated and need to drink more.

 

After suiting it’s very tempting to down a whole cup/bottle of cold water immediately after pulling your head off but you may want to avoid doing so. Once it hits your stomach it will want to violently eject it again. We personally find starting sipping a glass of room temperature water then moving onto cold water works.

 

Ruining the magic

‘Ruining the magic’ is a term used when a suiter takes off a piece of their suit in public.

This is frowned upon and most suiters will do whatever they can to avoid doing this outside of their hotel room or the headless lounge.

 

However, it is not worth risking your health or safety if you need to take your head or any other part of your suit off then do it!

 

Ruining the magic can also apply to people talking while in suit because a lot of suiters remain silent while in costume people tend to assume that all suiters are silent, this is obviously not true. If you need to say something important then do it.

 

Suiters and non-suiters, don’t give suiters a hard time for ‘ruining the magic’. You don’t know what’s going on for them to need to do so and let’s face it we all know there’s a person in the costume

 

Know your limits

You need to know when you have had enough and need to take a break. If you push yourself to keep performing you can run the risk of heat stroke and even passing out.

If you begin to feel ill or light-headed go directly to the headless lounge, your hotel room, or somewhere out of the way, take your head off and unzip your suit and cool down as quick as you can. Placing a cool wet towel or cloth over the back of your neck and slowly sipping water helps a lot.

If you are in immediate need of help do not rely on any kind of hand signal or worry about 'ruining the magic', tell someone you need help and take your head off right there if you need to. Staying in character is never worth risking your health.

 

Handlers

A handler is a person you charge with looking out for you and helping you out while you are in suit. They look out for obstacles that may be in your way and answer questions from people.

 

In a convention setting most experienced suiters will go without a handler, this is because people at conventions know about suiters and their limitations and are usually willing to lend a hand when necessary. Never go out in public without a handler.

 

Before going out in suit have a talk with your handler. Make sure they:

1. know what you need them to do

2. know what you can and can’t see when in suit

3. are ready to step in if anything goes wrong

4. know your limits

5. know any hand signals you may need to use in suit

6. have some bottled water with them

7. are able to answer any questions people may have about your fursuit and what you are doing

8. know the layout of the area you will be suiting in, know where any obstacles may be and where the exits are

 

Scanning

This is a skill you will pick up and develop the more you go fursuiting. Because of your limited vision scan the room when you enter, identify where there is any furniture, pillars, or other obstacles in the room, and make a mental map of where they are. This allows you to move around with confidence despite having no peripheral vision and not being able to see below your nose.

Don't worry if you still have to look around a lot, forget where things are, or bump into stuff at first, the more you go fursuiting the more natural scanning will become, and the more easily you will be able to make a mental map of the room until you don't even realize you are doing it anymore. This is why you often see fursuiters moving around with total confidence.

 

Not everyone likes fursuits

Even at conventions, people can find them scary or unnerving.

If people don’t respond to you then leave them alone or better yet wait for other people to approach you.

 

Know the right time and place

Even though fursuiters are accepted in almost every event at a convention there is a right time and place for fursuit shenanigans. For example don’t go to a panel and start playing around in suit distracting from the people running the talk.

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Don’t cause a scene in hotel lobbies either they are shared places and the general public and hotel staff don’t take kindly to a bunch of big furry animals running a muck in places like that.

 

General public

Even at conventions, you may encounter members of the general public (particularly in elevators) that know nothing about furries or what you are doing there.

 

Be prepared for the inevitable question “What are you doing here?”

Tell them the name of the conventions and the quickest and easiest way to explain a furry convention is 'It's a cartoon fan convention'. Most people are satisfied with this as an answer, they aren't interested in a lecture on all the ins and outs of the furry fandom.

 

Do NOT approach the general public. You need to make a good impression at conventions and bouncing up to non-furs and harassing them is not a good idea. If they approach you then by all means be cute and pose for photos if you like.

 

Stay clean

Again fairly self-explanatory, you are going to get hot and sweaty in suit and you will get smelly.

 

Take a quick shower each time you get out of suit and use deodorant. Rinse your under armour in the sink or shower and hang it up to dry and give your suit a good spray with something like glen20, this will disinfect and deodorise your suit.

 

When you get home from the convention wash your suit. We can’t stress this enough, there are far too many people too scared to wash their suits but they are like any other clothing and need to be washed.

 

The 6-2-1 Rule

This is more of a general convention rule but important for suiters as well.

The 6-2-1 rule means:

• 6 hours of sleep per day

• 2 meals per day

• 1 shower per day

These, of course, are minimums and there is no such thing as too many showers for a fursuiter but it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and forget to look after yourself leaving you vulnerable to the dreaded Con-Crud.