Does anyone know what kind of paint they used on the mask in the first movie? To my understanding, it was just white spray paint, but do we know anything more than just that? Was it a shiny, glossy finish, or just matte? I’m gonna paint my mask again soon and wanted to do the paint right this time.
Supposedly it was fish belly or bass belly white (as per Tommy Lee Doyle). The only versions of these I’ve found now are in taxidermy shops and they are more sandy(Lifetone paint) or golden (Polytranspar paint) in appearance than the silvery color of the hero’s paint. Your best bet is mixing pearl silver and cool white tones. You may even have to buy a bunch of different types and try to mix them to get your desired tone (I bought dozens of different paints to attempt to get my desired tone). Find a picture of a live bass and look at the tone of it’s belly scales and try to compare as reference.
In the Blu-ray commentary (I believe) Tommy stated that it was “Krylon Appliance White”. To me, this makes loads more sense. I think most of the time when he says “fish-belly-white” or “appliance-white” he’s just using descriptive terms. Krylon might even be incorrect. I believe he just grabbed a can of paint - not knowing the method wasn’t optimal for latex - masked the hair off (which he also mentioned) and went for it. Lightning in a bottle.
I tend to assume he sprayed it lightly…meaning the mask was never painted full white. The fleshtones and whatever he used gave it that pasty/fishbelly color 
I agree with that theory. Two of my favorite pictures of the Hero in all of its boring glory are below. You can see how the pain job was kind of shoddy and the only weathering was from use/handling.
If he fully did paint it white to the fullest with whatever cheap stuff he used, it would crack
It’s so crazy how we search for the perfect permanent finish on a mask to replicate what was essentially something so touchy in real life. Not to mention how one-off it was. It’s like mixing a bunch of different Kool Aid flavors together and having your friend try to match it by description. 
I’m going to guess based off Tommys interviews, and the low budget, grab and go of the movie, not knowing what an icon the mask, hero, film would be, grabbed the cheapest availiable can of gloss white, and misted it several times, as brother K stated a heavy coat would have cracked, so I’m guessing several misted layers, then the same for the hair with black paint misted. I think there is a behind the scenes pic somewhere that you can see a spray paint can with a black top on the ground. John was in it with Nick wearing the mask, both knelt down on a porch if I remember. Would be cool to super explode that pic and see what’s on the can. Been looking for it, saw it once but can’t find it now. Anyway, yeah I think cheap gloss bright white. Whatever brand was availiable in 78.
Bro K YES!!! 
I love it! 
Yep that’s the one!!
Man to be a fly on the wall, lol.
Love behind the scenes stuff like this.
I absolutely love that shot. Myers hanging with some buddies, lol.
Haha Michael shooting the breeze.
“So then, I just stood there and breathed real hard behind the bushes, then when she looked- I was no where to be found.”
Those cans of spray paint may also be to weather the tombstone or make it look granite, or even to paint the leaves.
I do think it was a pearl type of white as if you look at the scene near the end where The Shape sits up and turns his head (this is clearer on the blu-rays), the mask has a sparkle to it. Also the often blue-grey colors it exhibits (even with no blue lighting on the mask) could lend itself to a silvery tone. I don’t think TLW pulled the fish belly/bass belly identifier from the nether, that may not have been its’ official name, but it likely described the silvery/pearl tone to the white.