My first styled wig (and photo walkthrough)
Yes, I have completed the styling of my first ever wig - the Machi wig for kuro2shiro! And I'm enormously pleased with it. I'd only ever had one bash at wig styling before and it came out looking like this:
Yeah. The most horrendous costume I've ever made, and it's almost entirely because of the wig (a better wig and some makeup and it wouldn't have been all that bad, I think - just goes to show how important such things are!). We don't talk about that cosplay anymore, except in hushed tones followed by hysterical laughter. Anyway! Since then I've done a lot of reading about how to style wigs properly since they don't behave like real hair, and when it came to styling Machi I was more than a little bit nervous about screwing it up hopelessly. But, I didn't - yay! So, partly out of my own pride and partly because it's a tricky style, here's my photo walkthrough.
First, lets start with the wigs. Yes, I used two for this. I possibly could have used loose wefts or extensions but I couldn't find any that were a suitable colour, so I bought a second, cheap wig that looked about right. The base wig is a Cosworx Wisp, with the colour code 24B:
What you may notice by comparing this photo with the one on the Cosworx site is that the fringe isn't really that long, so I cursed a bit. But never mind - following a tip-off from 4chan's cosplay board (of all places) I discovered an eBay seller called yankenshop, who sell kanekalon wigs at low prices and ship quickly - and they had a long wig that seemed to be a pretty close colour match for my wisp:
It was indeed a lovely wig and I was quite sad about the prospect of chopping it up for wefts, but needs must. So, anyway. At first I was going to just cut the wig fibre off and make my own wefts using Katie Bair's tutorial, but then I realised it'd be much less hassle if I just cut the existing wefts directly from the wig in whatever width I needed. So I did.
First you turn the wig inside-out so you can see the wig mesh (naturally):
Then you cut out the wefts. The width I needed was approximately the width from the outside of one piece of elastic to the outside of the next, so that's what I cut out (being careful to snip in between the bunches of fibre rather than through them):
I also had to liberate the wefts from the elastic, so I cut that too:
Pull gently on the freed weft to get it out. Because this was a long wig, the fibres had an unfortunate tendency to tangle, and pulling too much would have pulled some out of my weft. After the first couple I actually started putting my fingers through to the outside of the wig and lifting the wefts out from there, which proved a lot easier.
The freed weft (with the elastic bits trimmed down) looked like this:
Ooh, that's thin. Even though I'd be putting five or six layers onto the Wisp, I needed the long bit to be quite thick so it would have the right shape and size on top. So I chopped out a couple more of similar size and hand-stitched them together:
Much better. This one was three wefts, but every one I made after this was only two - three proved to be a lot of layers to stitch through and two looked reasonably thick.
Then came the process of stitching it to the Wisp. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of this stage (mainly because it was a two-handed process), but you can see more or less what I did by looking at Loki-sama's tutorial. The only differences are that I didn't really pin the wefts into the wig - they were so fine at the top that it only made things harder - and I actually had much more luck with a straight needle than I did with a curved one (which just would not go through the tops of the wefts - they were only about 5cm wide anyway). I sat on the sofa and watched a crappy DTV horror movie while I worked, the time just flew by.
This is how the wig looked when I'd stitched that first layer in:
Yay! It looks smooth and natural! This was, of course, far too thin for my needs so I added in a total of seven layers, with 15 wefts cut from the long wig in total. This is how the wig looked at the end of that:
Huzzah! At this point I took some time out to squee in delight at how good it looked and how much I wasn't failing at making the wig. But! This was the easy bit. Time to get on to the hard part - twisting the new extensions into Machi's swirl. I did a few dry runs before I started working on it properly so I knew what I was doing. Once again, I'm afraid I forgot to take photos of this bit (two-handed job again) so I'll describe everything as clearly as I can.
Firstly, I needed to ensure that the swirl would be fairly stiff at the base so it wouldn't flop down under its own weight. I lifted the lot straight up above the wig form, sprayed a couple of thin coats of Tresemme Freeze Hold hairspray on at the base, then blasted it with my hairdryer.
Next was the twisting. I took hold of the wefts near the wig mesh, pinched them together and then rotated the wig form a couple of times, making sure to keep the lengths of the wefts out of the way. A bit more hairspray and heat, and then I twisted the lengths through one full turn around the "spike" I had, gently spreading them out as it went around. Once I had the swirl looking right, it was more hairspray and heat to make the shape hold.
Then came the tricky bit: incorporating the still-hanging long bits into the rest of the wig. Machi's hair in the character art actually has a bit of an angel's wing shape to it, but I figured that a close enough match would be to sweep the lengths across the fringe and hairline and drape it down on top of the side of the base wig. This bit is tricky because that's a lot of wig fibre to manage at once, and I only have one pair of hands. So, time for the hairclips (and at this point I could start taking photos again)!
I did try clipping the bit nearest the swirl first and then clipping the long bit, but the lengths just got in the way, so I clipped it from the outside in. Another few thin coats of hairspray and some blasts with the hairdryer and the wig was basically done!
And here's a close-up of the side of the swirl if you're curious:
The lengths needed a bit of trimming to match the length of the Wisp (and they were a bit frizzy anyway), but that was simple enough. The only other thing I'd mention as part of this walkthrough is that the extensions needed to be combed constantly. It seemed like every time I did anything, however minor, with them they got tangled! I used a broad-toothed comb initially, separating the fibres out into smaller sections so I wouldn't be putting too much pressure on the stitches at the base, then went through again with a fine-toothed comb to make sure I'd gotten everything.
And there you go, done and dusted! I haven't been brave enough to put the wig on Luke's head yet so I'm hoping it won't all fall to pieces when we try, but we've still got a decent amount of time before the con so if something goes wrong now, at least I have time to fix it up.
I still have two more wigs to style, but I feel much more confident about them for having finished Machi. And now I just need to get on with making the rest of the costumes...!
Yeah. The most horrendous costume I've ever made, and it's almost entirely because of the wig (a better wig and some makeup and it wouldn't have been all that bad, I think - just goes to show how important such things are!). We don't talk about that cosplay anymore, except in hushed tones followed by hysterical laughter. Anyway! Since then I've done a lot of reading about how to style wigs properly since they don't behave like real hair, and when it came to styling Machi I was more than a little bit nervous about screwing it up hopelessly. But, I didn't - yay! So, partly out of my own pride and partly because it's a tricky style, here's my photo walkthrough.
First, lets start with the wigs. Yes, I used two for this. I possibly could have used loose wefts or extensions but I couldn't find any that were a suitable colour, so I bought a second, cheap wig that looked about right. The base wig is a Cosworx Wisp, with the colour code 24B:
What you may notice by comparing this photo with the one on the Cosworx site is that the fringe isn't really that long, so I cursed a bit. But never mind - following a tip-off from 4chan's cosplay board (of all places) I discovered an eBay seller called yankenshop, who sell kanekalon wigs at low prices and ship quickly - and they had a long wig that seemed to be a pretty close colour match for my wisp:
It was indeed a lovely wig and I was quite sad about the prospect of chopping it up for wefts, but needs must. So, anyway. At first I was going to just cut the wig fibre off and make my own wefts using Katie Bair's tutorial, but then I realised it'd be much less hassle if I just cut the existing wefts directly from the wig in whatever width I needed. So I did.
First you turn the wig inside-out so you can see the wig mesh (naturally):
Then you cut out the wefts. The width I needed was approximately the width from the outside of one piece of elastic to the outside of the next, so that's what I cut out (being careful to snip in between the bunches of fibre rather than through them):
I also had to liberate the wefts from the elastic, so I cut that too:
Pull gently on the freed weft to get it out. Because this was a long wig, the fibres had an unfortunate tendency to tangle, and pulling too much would have pulled some out of my weft. After the first couple I actually started putting my fingers through to the outside of the wig and lifting the wefts out from there, which proved a lot easier.
The freed weft (with the elastic bits trimmed down) looked like this:
Ooh, that's thin. Even though I'd be putting five or six layers onto the Wisp, I needed the long bit to be quite thick so it would have the right shape and size on top. So I chopped out a couple more of similar size and hand-stitched them together:
Much better. This one was three wefts, but every one I made after this was only two - three proved to be a lot of layers to stitch through and two looked reasonably thick.
Then came the process of stitching it to the Wisp. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of this stage (mainly because it was a two-handed process), but you can see more or less what I did by looking at Loki-sama's tutorial. The only differences are that I didn't really pin the wefts into the wig - they were so fine at the top that it only made things harder - and I actually had much more luck with a straight needle than I did with a curved one (which just would not go through the tops of the wefts - they were only about 5cm wide anyway). I sat on the sofa and watched a crappy DTV horror movie while I worked, the time just flew by.
This is how the wig looked when I'd stitched that first layer in:
Yay! It looks smooth and natural! This was, of course, far too thin for my needs so I added in a total of seven layers, with 15 wefts cut from the long wig in total. This is how the wig looked at the end of that:
Huzzah! At this point I took some time out to squee in delight at how good it looked and how much I wasn't failing at making the wig. But! This was the easy bit. Time to get on to the hard part - twisting the new extensions into Machi's swirl. I did a few dry runs before I started working on it properly so I knew what I was doing. Once again, I'm afraid I forgot to take photos of this bit (two-handed job again) so I'll describe everything as clearly as I can.
Firstly, I needed to ensure that the swirl would be fairly stiff at the base so it wouldn't flop down under its own weight. I lifted the lot straight up above the wig form, sprayed a couple of thin coats of Tresemme Freeze Hold hairspray on at the base, then blasted it with my hairdryer.
Next was the twisting. I took hold of the wefts near the wig mesh, pinched them together and then rotated the wig form a couple of times, making sure to keep the lengths of the wefts out of the way. A bit more hairspray and heat, and then I twisted the lengths through one full turn around the "spike" I had, gently spreading them out as it went around. Once I had the swirl looking right, it was more hairspray and heat to make the shape hold.
Then came the tricky bit: incorporating the still-hanging long bits into the rest of the wig. Machi's hair in the character art actually has a bit of an angel's wing shape to it, but I figured that a close enough match would be to sweep the lengths across the fringe and hairline and drape it down on top of the side of the base wig. This bit is tricky because that's a lot of wig fibre to manage at once, and I only have one pair of hands. So, time for the hairclips (and at this point I could start taking photos again)!
I did try clipping the bit nearest the swirl first and then clipping the long bit, but the lengths just got in the way, so I clipped it from the outside in. Another few thin coats of hairspray and some blasts with the hairdryer and the wig was basically done!
And here's a close-up of the side of the swirl if you're curious:
The lengths needed a bit of trimming to match the length of the Wisp (and they were a bit frizzy anyway), but that was simple enough. The only other thing I'd mention as part of this walkthrough is that the extensions needed to be combed constantly. It seemed like every time I did anything, however minor, with them they got tangled! I used a broad-toothed comb initially, separating the fibres out into smaller sections so I wouldn't be putting too much pressure on the stitches at the base, then went through again with a fine-toothed comb to make sure I'd gotten everything.
And there you go, done and dusted! I haven't been brave enough to put the wig on Luke's head yet so I'm hoping it won't all fall to pieces when we try, but we've still got a decent amount of time before the con so if something goes wrong now, at least I have time to fix it up.
I still have two more wigs to style, but I feel much more confident about them for having finished Machi. And now I just need to get on with making the rest of the costumes...!