Wig making from scratch

Since midsummer celebration provided few extra days off work, I decided to start one of the bigger projects concerning our troll costumes. That is one more wig in crazy color scheme and wild styling. I styled two previous wigs from ones I've bought to make sure we have enough of them in case of urgent need… not like I’m a hoarder or anything. But this third one I decided to build from scratch, since it’s something that I haven’t ever done before. And I happened to find really cheap jumbo fiber, which might have affected the decision.

I started from the cap. I bought lining that is used on sportswear, pretty similar to fabric in hockey shirts. I used a wig head as a model when deciding where to make seams, keeping in mind that the Styrofoam head is smaller than normal human head. 

The basic shape contains three pieces, sides and the top. Forehead piece is double as well as the small pieces on the back of the neck, the temples and piece on forehead marking the hairline.

Then I started sewing wefts. Whole lot of them, from the three packages of fiber I had purchased. I used iron-on interfacing as the “root”. In my experience the weft is rather solid after ironing and doesn’t suffer from hair loss as much as tulle weft would. I even brushed the wefts quite heavily and only few strands came off from each.

The jumbo fiber is creped since it’s usually used in braids or dreadlocks, which actually works with my intentions. But still I wanted the top layer of the fiber to be smoother. I’ve scorched some wigs in the past, so I was extra careful when choosing the straightening method. I decided to give the iron a go, because I’m inpatient person when it comes to costume making. Waiting the wig to dry would have been a torture for me, if I had used the method of pouring hot water on the wig. 

I sprayed the weft with the iron and gave it few presses of steam to pre-heat it, not letting the iron’s bottom plate to touch the fibers. Then I placed the weft between layers of pattern paper; two layers under and two on top. Holding the weft from the root I pressed down the iron and at the same time pulled the weft under it. The trick is to keep the weft moving. If you only press the iron on the weft it will most likely start to melt. Been there, done that.

Then I repeated as many times as needed, spraying the wefts with water if they seemed too dry. And the iron was quite hot, between two and three dots.

I sew the wefts on the cap by hand. It seemed the easiest solution and didn’t mess the fibers too much. To prevent creating a tangled mess, I sprayed the wig with balsamspray from Gliss. It works with the synthetic hair almost as well as real hair. I highly recommend spraying the wig either outside or covering the floor under your working area. The spray makes the floor quite slippery and adds to the risk of cosplay casualties.

After I had sewn all the wefts, both straightened and untreated ones, I took a blow dryer, sprayed the wig again with the balsam and went through the fibers with a wig brush. This relaxed the creped fibers a bit and made the wig look bit more tamed.

Then I tried with some braiding techniques. I think I found the right one to use, but before I actually manage to fit the wig on the person who will wear it, I will keep the regular braids on it. I will report in when I have finished the green goblin. 

Making a wig from scratch isn’t actually that hard if you have styled wigs before and don’t bother sewing a whole lot of wefts. I might even give wig making a go in the future with straight fibers. The most crucial part might be making the cap, especially if you are making it to someone else. Thank goodness the head sizes don’t vary that much. I say and cross my fingers.

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Redesigning a wig

I haven’t styled too many wigs during my cosplay career. Years ago I somehow came to a conclusion that it was difficult, messy and altogether a long process. It became something I consciously avoided…until recently. After styling two wigs in one week with major style change, I can finally trash my prejudices. It’s not hard and it doesn’t take hours after hours. All that is required is some clean table space and patience. Maybe that is the trick; I might have become more patient. 

First thing was to raid our closet, which somehow has been invaded by costumes and other supplies. I grabbed one of my many second-hand wigs. (Greetings to all the Finnish cosplayers who kindly pass on their old wigs at Aniki!) The wig is nice quality, but pretty thin on the back like some long wigs tend to be. In my case it wasn’t a problem since I was making a short one. I tied the fibers on a ponytail and cut it off to be used as thickening wefts. Since I had still some burgundy fibers left, I mixed them in as highlights.
 

The wefts I made by sewing the fibers on black iron-on interfacing. I hand stitched the wefts on the wig; five rows on the back and four overlapping ones on the front. With that amount I was able to hide the base web, which was ivory. I repeat, ivory on dark purple wig. Someone’s brain has seriously farted.

The back flips and the small top crest I shaped using hairspray and a blow dryer. Following is the process in pictures. I apologize about the varying quality of the photos. I only had my old digital camera with me. But then again you can follow the day turn to night and to the next morning.

Wig in its original length.

Roughtly cut and wefts added on the back.

More wefts and styling started with feathering the ends.

First back flip in making.

Back done.

Shaping the top crest.

Styling complete.

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Trollolollolol

Well, I didn’t finish the red wig… But I might as well reveal that the costumes we are certainly going to make this year are female trolls from World of Warcraft. They weren’t mentioned in the post where I revolved around costume plans for this year. To be frank, I might as well delete the whole post because the content isn’t anyhow correct anymore. It seems that I’m at work for whole holiday season. So it's no for going to conventions or at least for two days, which means no competitions as they usually are held at Saturdays.

You’d think that I would be a wreck, but I’m not! I’m too excited about our trolls. They are going to be our characters for Tracon’s show competition, if that kind of contest is part of the repertory. Plans changed also on that front, because our original plan was to use characters from Star Wars universe. Not a bad switch, I’d say. Wow characters are certainly more familiar to the audience in roleplay/anime convention and show class gives nice freedom with the costume design and construction.

The construction part offers again new methods and materials. We are going to take our time and hopefully get the costumes in presentable stage in the summer. What I’ve noticed with some Wow cosplayers, the costumes are never really finished. They just keep upgrading, like in the game.

The red wig I presented in the previous entry was mine. Thanks to a nice flow I got going on yesterday evening, Yoki’s wig was finished just few hours ago. As my high tail up-do reached over my shoulders, I decided to make Yoki’s wig short.

It still needs some trimming and styling on the sides, but it has to wait because for that I need Yoki's head. The bone necklace is also something I made yesterday from leftover Das clay. The feathers were the result of an experimental dyeing process with disinfectant... Weird.

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Blended wefts and high ponytail

I didn’t remember that making wefts was so easy! I really surprised myself with them and with my old wig, which actually has been featured in our blog. Here is the link to my previous post. In short, we dropped the costumes I had planned the wig for. Over a year and a half ago I just shoved the wig into my closet and almost forgot all about it. Until this morning that is, when I looked it up thrilled and motivated to re-style it. I got free day from work and because we had discussed about our costume plans with Yoki last weekend, I decided to start on that front. And this is what I got done today.

Oh, a shovel!

I’m really, really pleased with the wig. I made some blended wefts from the long ponytail I had cut off the wig mixed with burgundy red fibers, also remnants from last decade. I’m not going to write about making wefts, there is many tutorials about them in the web, but I’m going to give a hint to those who find tulle hard to work with. Use iron-on interfacing. Stitch the fibers on the glue side and when you have trimmed the excess carefully iron the interfacing between a piece pattern paper. I fried few fibers, luckily they aren’t visible.

Wefts on base before cutting...

...and after.

Next to making and sewing wefts, I cut the wig so that the extensions blend in. I feathered the wig quite heavily, but made it look chunky, like if it had been cut with a knife. Almost nothing went to waste; what I had cut, I rolled and teased into dreadlocks, which I then attached right back where they came from. The bangs keep their shape thanks to hairspray.


I still need to attach the ponytail properly. When I’ve done that, I will come back and possibly reveal what costume I’m actually making.

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Completed: Detangling a long wig (and preparing it for future project)

There has been some time since the last post. I've been writing a long report about our experiences from Tracon and it is starting to seem like a forever project. I will try to step up and finish it on Sunday or Monday at the latest.

In May I started and experiment with silicon spray and a long wig. I had to put it aside, because we needed to work with costumes for Joxter and Muddler. Yesterday I had a day off so I went back to it. The working was a lot easier, because I had a stand for the wig head. It is actually from my fitting dummy, which I picked up from Yoki's place after... two years? I had planned to chech out the local flee markets for an cheap and old floor lamp, but then I realized that it would just take space and be somewhat unnececessary item laying around. Before I tried to use my table as a platform and my legs to keep the wig head still. Not succesful I assure.

Before, after and bundled.

I was really happy with the result after finishing the whole wig and it looked rather wearable as it was. For my purposes, I wanted to solve the fibers as well as possible. I'm going to use most of the lenght for wefts for a ridiculous ponytail. I also used pretty thich comb, which for some might sound horrible. But really, there were not too much of hair loss and with patience the fibers didn't get streched, which usually causes the wig to look messy.

The fibers doesn't get greasy looking when you take your time with the comb and remember to spray the silicon far enough. I haven't tried how the silicon will react to hairspray and other styling products so I can't guarantee that they will work normally.

After the detangling I prepared the wig for later projects, in other word cut it shorter and stored it and the material for the ponytail. Next week we are going to continue the making of the Snowtroopers and finally finish them. I hope that next week the weather would be bearable. I'm not designed for 32 Celcius for long periods of time. My productivity suffers greatly.

Because I didn't have a pair of helping hands I used yarn to make the cutting little easier.

Red rubberband marks the spot. I took off the gray yarns and cut the ponytail just over the rubberband.

Wig after the excess lenght has been cut out.

Trial for the placement of the base of the ponytail. Needs to be higher.

READ MORE - Completed: Detangling a long wig (and preparing it for future project)

CasualtyCosplay FAQ

Nothing much have happened on the costume front and my brains are on a summer mode, so I will take a hold of Yoki's suggestion of answering the frequently asked questions. The questions are collected from the comments on our Youtube account.

Where do you get your outfits?

This is the most popular question of all. I think I have answered this regarding most of our costumes here on the blog. But presumably, if I have not mentioned commissioners then the costumes can be labeled as our own creation. Information about the wigs or the shops we have purchased them I have seen quite pointless to share until now, because most of the queries came from other countries than Finland and we tend to buy them locally. But I know we have some Finnish readers, so this is all for them.

I might get some of those mentioned Finnish cosplayers gasp with this confession... If we buy the wigs new, we buy them from Finnish costume store Punanaamio. Now, now... Hold your horses! One error with cheap plastics wigs taught us to buy washable XTPRO-quality wigs. They are not as good as kanelon wigs, but for our purposes they have worked well. They can be dyed to some extent and styled easily. I have worked with few types and can recommend shoulder to short wigs as they are. They are thick enough not to expose the net underneath. The longest possible XTPRO needs weft add-ons for my tastes. The size of the wigs suits us pretty well, which is quite crucial, because they are not adjustable. Our head sizes are between 56-57.

Contact lenses we purchase from Cybershop. They sell lenses for cosmetic use only! I have always been really pleased with the shop, so I highly recommend their services.

How did you make Mayuri's hat and ear-chin piece/Deidara's scope, ponytail and palms/Sasori's body?

These are the questions which I usually leave to be, if they are not send trough private messages or e-mails. These inquiries for detailed information and construction tips usually consider props and costume parts which are expensive to buy, rare or they are not sold anywhere. I take pride on these particular objects, because I have found way to accomplish them. And to succeed on them I have used many working hours and my imagination, which are rather valuable for any artist. So no, I’m not going to share step by step tutorials of them publicly. I always answer the inquirer personally and try to describe the process verbally the best I can. Normally I ask them to not to share the information as it is.

Questions about clothes and patterns I answer willingly. They are the things I don’t struggle with much and have professional knowledge about. I have been thinking of making tutorials from pattern making, because it is rather popular subject on the questions I get.

Is Yoki a girl or a boy ?

Yes, this is one of the frequently asked questions. And Yoki is surely a girl.

Where are you?

This is not probably a question, but people tend to misunderstad where we are from. To make things clear, I looked out a map. And no, we don't have polar bears.

READ MORE - CasualtyCosplay FAQ

Hiron explores: Detangling a long wig

I set myself a record few months ago in fiber length, when I bought used wig from a fellow cosplayer. The price was set low, even if the wig was ridiculously long. Long wigs equals tangling, which brought down the cost. I have a cosplay in mind in which I would use the wig, but it's not likely done in near future… Unless I magically turn into well-toned bombshell overnight. Pretty please?

I had thought of trying experimental ways to detangle the wig before and today I bumped into a thread by ChilmarkGryphon on Cosplay.com forums and was like "Yeaaaah!". When we were vacuum forming we used silicone spray as a release agent on the molds. At the time I was too busy to think of anything else, but now I think I get inspired by "Detangling discovery: silicone spray lubricant" and start experimenting.

Here is the subject of the experiment. For peace of mind the design of the possible cosplay character will require the wig to be shredded to pieces. Normally I wouldn't go and try techniques I'm uncertain of in a pretty wig like this. Let's see where this ends up!

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New wig, new storage problem, new ideas

Yay, I have a new wig! Now I have a nice base to build Deidara's hairdo freshly. The previous one got partially send to where ever retired wigs go to... The part I could in anyway use have been fused with a similar one to be born as a short, boyish wig. The ponytail is from the original one and happens to be almost the right shade with the new one even though the producer isn't the same.

Not styled, only pinned to see how it would look like

After I have finished with the wig, we have planned with Yoki to do photoshoot with our crazy artists in their Akatsuki outfits. I think I will redo the undergarments also. They need some improvement and another choice in material. Current ones have uneven dye, which bothers me greatly and have suffered from seam ripping.

I don't know why, but I suddenly realized that we have some resemblance to these characters. Not only do I have long, blond hair and Yoki has short and spiky, we have some similar attributions in "art" as Deidara and Sasori. Well... I don't exacly blow up everything I have created, but Yoki is the more conscientous than me. In the series Sasori is portrayed as a teenager while Deidara looks like an young adult. I'm six years older than Yoki, but sometimes Yoki just acts more mature than I.

No wonder we picked up these guys from the bunch.

READ MORE - New wig, new storage problem, new ideas