Headless lounge

The headless lounge, also known as a fursuit lounge, is a room set aside for fursuiters and their fursuit handlers at a convention or other event, furry or not. It is often a quality standard for conventions to have at least one headless lounge.

Other private areas such as hotel rooms, restroom stalls and certain party rooms can be used for a similar purpose.

General Rules

Entrance to the fursuit lounge at Eurofurence 19

The Headless Lounge is seen as a "safe space" for fursuiters and cosplayers alike. If anyone in costume is feeling threatened or harassed they may enter the Headless Lounge to evade and report their assailants. Security is typically posted at the door as well as inside to help aide in keeping the headless lounge secure.

Only people in costume or their handlers are allowed inside the headless lounge. Any non-costumed individuals not accompanied by someone in costume are turned away at the door. This rule helps give fursuiters privacy and a "break" from crowds, especially if they happen to be popular, while helping create a "safe space" for costumed people. It also helps those who have their faces covered keep their anonymity and privacy intact.

Taking photographs of a suiter with their suit's head off without prior authorized permission is heavily frowned upon, as it is considered taboo in the fursuiting community to take this kind of pictures.

It is forbidden to touch another person's stuff without their consent. Items left out may not always be "public use": talk to room staff before using any repair materials inside of the room. Touching someone else's head or costume will likely get you banned from the room. Visitors are reminded not to leave their things unattended as staff can not assure the safety of unattended items.

Room set-up

Fans are typically run full-time in the lounge

Given that fursuits can often become uncomfortably hot, the headless lounge is the place for fursuiters to remove the head of their fursuit in order to cool off. Ideally it has privacy, fans, and plenty of refreshments.

Typically a headless lounge is it's own large, open room or sectioned off from a ballroom via partitions. There is a secondary partition behind the "door" to prevent people in the hallway from looking inside the room. A security staff member is posted by the door on the outside to screen people entering and remove non-costumers. A second security member is inside the room on the other side of the partition.

There are always an assortment of tables and chairs lining the walls with an emphasis on open space. Some costumes are large and may be hard to move in or remove, which means that a large open space is critical. Large fans are used to blow the air around for cooling and Oftentimes the air conditioning is turned up to further help fursuiters cool off. A water cooler and cups will be on one of the tables.

Sometimes repair tools will be at hand (e.g. sewing kits, hot glue guns, Velcro, duct tape, etc), for emergency repairs. Febreeze is also a popular item. These will be on another table and tended to by con staff. There may be also be a radio or laptop playing music for the entertainment of room staff, though this is optional. Visitors may not touch entertainment equipment.