Among the the wigs for aspiring blonde bombshells and brides of Frankenstein, and the short, pink numbers like Scarlett Johansson wore in “Lost in Translation,” is the wig that Christian Sanders has been looking for.

It is dark and thick with a side part. It is the type of wig that should be worn with a mustache, which is exactly what he intends to do.

Sanders, 30, is going to be late actor Charles Bronson circa 1970-something for Halloween.

His entire costume, which he ultimately pulled together in under three hours for about $25 as the Journal Star documented the process, hinges on this wig.

From years of thrift-store shopping, Sanders knows that finding the loud sport coat, fat tie and polyester pants for this costume will be easy. And he already owns a fake mustache.

And from years of pulling together costumes at the last possible second, he knows that pulling off a good Charles Bronson is well within the realm of possibility.

“I don’t really get that excited about (Halloween) until the last minute,” Sanders said.

That seems to be true for most people, said Jennifer Johnson, owner of Ruby Begonia’s, a vintage store that morphs into a costume shop each October.

Johnson starts putting out the Halloween costumes a full month before Halloween, but it’s not until the final two or three days that the store really gets busy.

And even then, she said, most shoppers haven’t given much thought to what they want to be.

“Most people are totally clueless,” she said.

That’s not a bad thing, she said. But those who try to pull off an idea that’s both specific and elaborate at the last minute are usually setting themselves up for disappointment.

That’s a scenario 17-year-old Brita Higgins can relate to.

When Higgins, a senior at Lincoln Northeast High School, was growing up, her mom used to make all of her costumes. When one year she decided to go as R2-D2, her mom made that one, too.

“We spray-painted some kind of canister thing and stuck buttons to it,” she said.

Someone asked her if she was supposed to be a trash can.

Sometimes, though, last-minute can be good.

One year, UNL freshman Matt Gunther and a friend threw on black pants, white dress shirts and ties.

Their costume: Mormon missionaries.

They got a good response, he said.

He plans to put together his costume at the last minute this year, too.

“I’ll probably put it off until after midterms and then throw something together,” he said.

And last year Sanders and a friend cut the sleeves off some T-shirts, drummed up some acid-washed jeans and went as rockers Daryl Hall and John Oates.

Sanders, who was Oates, said that costume also required a wig.

Without it, he said, the costume wouldn’t have worked, which is an important thing to keep in mind when scrambling to get something together fast.

Sanders advised to get wigs, mustaches and other things that might be hard to find (or that might be sold out by Halloween night) before buying the other components of the costume.

A Charles Bronson costume, after all, just wouldn’t work without the side-parted wig.

Just as important, Sanders said, was knowing what it’s OK to skip.

Case in point: His Bronson won’t be carrying a gun.

“All they had were space guns, and Charles Bronson would not be caught dead with a space gun,” Sanders said.

He’s not too stressed out about it, which is the beauty of the last-minute Halloween costume.

But the last-minute costume isn’t for everyone.

In an effort to avoid a repeat of the R2-D2 fiasco, Higgins is trying to to put her costume together a little earlier this year.

Eight days before Halloween,  she had already begun searching for woolly fabric, which she hoped to turn into a sheep costume.

And if that didn’t work, she said, she has an extensive collection of dress-up clothes to fall back on.

“I could be a dead prom queen if I had to,” she said.

Tips:

— Shop early for the vital pieces that might run short as Halloween gets closer. Think wigs, accessories and other things that can make or break a costume.

— Keep it simple. Try to get too elaborate and you'll flop.

— Use what you have. Surely there's something to be made from old formals or clothes in the back of your closet.

— Go in groups. A costume on one person might be lame, but if you go as a group, it might have a greater effect.

— For ideas, search the Web for "last-minute costumes" and you'll get a huge array of sites. Some offer more original ideas than others.

Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.