Headless Fursuiters...

[Athesis]

Hi,

CFz is a great convention, so many happy and joyful people here. Great organisation, best Fursuit Lounge I've ever seen!

There was just one thing that really disturbed me and even made me stop fursuiting: Headless Fursuiters. It ruined soo much for me to see headless Fursuiters everywhere for no reason...

I don't like a suggestion like that, but if so many fursuiters can't stick to the unwritten rules of Fursuiting, make it please a written rule next year: Keep your Head on unless it is really necessary to take it off.

[Dasherskywere]

To be honest.....no its their fursuit, they paid for it or built it they can do what they wish with it i hate taking mine off but id rather take it off for a short while and get the normal funny "killing the magic!" comments meant as a joke then to keep it on and collapse or risk either damage to the suit, my self or someone else

[Amethyst]

Same as above. If you're having trouble and you're a good walk from the Lounge or your with friends and want to talk, why not take it off?

If it were in the parade ( and a non-emergency) then I'd agree but otherwise, let them be.

[Washu]

If I'm completely honest the well being of the suiter is more important than the magic - general speaking if you are overheating in suit then take your head off.

[Hawker-Blue]

Magic V health. It was my first time suiting at this convention and i could easily understand why people would take their heads off (i more or less kept mine on)

[Lost Cause]

I'd love to see security trying to enforce this...
What would they have to do? walk up to headless fursuiters and ask, "Are you dieing/dehydrated/overheated/sick or otherwise in some way impaired?
No?
Then put on your head or get out of the con!" XD

I mean really. Fursuiters do it because it is fun no? If you start dropping rules and regulations on their shoulders that are only for the benefit of others rather than the suiters how long will it remain fun?

[RiffRaff]

I gotta be honest and blunt with this.

I am a fursuiter, my fursuit is very, very warm.
Considering this year was, much like last year, awesomely sunny weather, we suiters heated up a lot faster than usual.
So I took my head off.
Even if it was to fix my hair, or simply cool off.
I don't feel bad about it, and I don't care if it's "ruining magic"
Obviously I'd try and keep my head on if I was in a public place with kids running around and such,
But for a closed con like ConFuzzled, I'm not really fussed

[Shirik]

Obviously I'd try and keep my head on if I was in a public place with kids running around and such,
But for a closed con like ConFuzzled, I'm not really fussed

A hundred times THIS. We ALL know there are people in the costumes. Its not like we'e crushing the dreams of small children by taking off a head. There are dozens of reasons heads get removed - some heads have huge ornate horns which are HEAVY and can cause a lot of neck pain, some have electronics which may not be working, some may have poor ventilation or the suiter may be overheating, dehydrating, they have have hair in their eyes or their sweatband may have slipped down. There are literally TOO MANY REASONS to list for this.

[Athesis]

I pay money to go to confuzzled. I try to get some fun at the convention. And if I go out - Especially in Suit - and there are only headless people - NOT VENTING or DEHYDRATING, but drinking lots of alcohol (something what dehydrates the body), that kills the fun.

I have absolutely no problem if someone takes off his head for, as I alredy said, medical issues. I don't even mind if you take it off for rearranging anything or venting. The convention space is quite huge, why do it in public? If you start overheating, why don't you go to the Fursuit Lounge where you get air and fresh drinks for free?

For me, public headless fursuiting does not ruin the magic, it ruins the complete convention along with all photos and video recordings.

[aurora]

On the issues of headless fursuiters I would take my head off in the fursuit lounge and leave it to dry while I cool off in front of the fans, then walk the short distance around the corner to my room to take a rest and change my balaclava, totally necessary. I almost took my head off in the queue for the laser photo-shoot it got that hot but I stayed calm and persevered. A few times in the queues I took my hand paws off to help cool down a little and I also took my RH hand paw off to facilitate the use of a camera as my paws are not very dexterous.

A fursuiter's well being must come first if it's getting unbearably hot they must take off their heads.

Late one evening outside I did see a fursuiter in full suit who had taken his head off to relax with a cigarette which I found rather amusing. 

[Sparx]

I had been in suit for a good 6 or 7 hours that day (Sunday), non-stop without food and with only drink, after shooting a dance video I de-headed along with my 2 friends to chat to someone and then someone had the nerve to come up to us and tell us we were ruining their magic after we had just performed (in full suit of course) right in front of them. This was not an isolated incident as well, queuing for the lazer a photo-shoot (a 2 hour affair for some people), that queue was insanely hot and had we again not de-headed there, then I have no doubt that there would have been some form of medical incident with dehydration or over-heating, we were once again we were ruining the magic. It also reached my ears that numerous other suiters who were de-heading throughout the day had similar remarks made to them.

Now yes there is the fursuit lounge but this sometimes does not fit with what we as suiters want to do sometimes, we may want some proper food or to drink something other than water, we also may want to have a brief chat with friends while still going suiting after. In these cases it is wholly unjustified to expect us to run off to our rooms, de-suit, shower (after suiting you can feel absolutely disgusting if it's been hot), get re-dressed, run back to do whatever it is we wanted to do and then after that is done run all the way back to the room to get our suits back on.

Oh and just briefly addressing the point of ruining the videos and photos, the group who were bing intentionally loud and drinking alcohol did so in the evening and we stayed away from any planned main events. We also had several photographers stop us and ask for pictures and joined in on the joke.

So to try and summarise for those people who are inclined to cite TL:DR for every reply that is more than a sentence or two:
1. Fursuiters get hot!
2. Different suits have different fur thicknesses, will gain and retain heat at different levels and the people inside (yes there are people inside sadly) will also have different levels of being able to tolerate that heat
3. Sometimes the fursuit lounge, while the preferred solution, is not always the ideal solution
4. It's a convention, there is no-one there under the age of 18, we all know there is a person inside that suit
5. I could go on, but I honestly can't be arsed.....I mean really, just do some digging around and you'll find out there were far worse things that happened at this con.....someone cracking one off in the adult art section for example

[Hawker-Blue]

I pay money to go to confuzzled.

We all pay money to go to Confuzzled. I think Sparx summed up perfectly why its not really viable to enforce a heads on rule at the next convention.

[aurora]

5. I could go on, but I honestly can't be arsed.....I mean really, just do some digging around and you'll find out there were far worse things that happened at this con.....someone cracking one off in the adult art section for example

OMG LoL! 

I myself didn't go into that section as it doesn't interest me.

[Mangusu]

"The Magic" Is a term created by the Disney theme park corporation. Its to describe the atmosphere they provide for the guests and mainly the children paying to see their grand show of a park. They treat their entire property as a show, their employees are called Cast Members. They're so dedicated that Magic Kingdom has a labyrinth of underground tunnels so they can secretly transport characters across the park and not have them seen in unfitting themed zones all to preserve the Magic.
And that's what the cast members are 'Paid' to do.

We're not paid actors at a convention. We all go to enjoy and socialize with others who share our enthusiasm for animal costumes.

As I was in the overflow hotel we needed to rely on friends to hold onto our suits. Sunday I was stuck in MonsteRoo for over 6 hours cause I had so many events to attend and no way to get back into the room where my change of clothes were. Even resorted to eating with half my top off.
Half the time I am too exhausted to be bothered put that head back on.

But I'll be honest, the other half of the time I just don't care.
Every fursuiter is not suddenly the convention's entertainment.
In fact I've been to many conventions where I wish some people weren't 'performing' But because the convention policies were more accepting of what was a -costume- you'd fine blatant fetish attire just roaming the halls. I applaud Confuzzled for having their solid policy for keeping that out of the main floors.

As far as I see it, if that head isn't on, I'm just wearing some colorful furry clothes and would rather not be bothered on what I garments I choose.

[Flinty Paws]

This seems to be turning into a discussion rather than a feedback session.

As aggravating as it may be to some individuals seeing headless fursuiters, it is not possible for any convention to enforce a rule to keep their heads on. We all know you can get very hot and stuffy in suits, and forcing ourselves to keep them on to preserve the magic isn't necessarily a good idea.
Personally I try my best for those that don't like to see headless suiters. I'll try to go to the lounge, or pop my head off in the corner out of the way so fewer people will see, but ultimately, if we're too hot, then we have no choice. Sorry!