Wig Styling

Who knew wigs could be so easy and challenging at the same time.  So far I’ve styled one wig two different ways.  The first time I made Sheeta from Castle in the Sky only I didn’t get the bangs done because of lack of time and funds.  I still had a blast wearing the wig though and a few people noticed my character. 

Back on track, it took me three tries to make this hairstyle.  The first time I had the style perfect but the wefts showed in back waaaaay too much.  The second time it was absolutely perfect only I made the braids too tight and couldn’t get the wig on my head.  @_@  I found that out the night before the first day of the con and the cosplay was due the next morning.  The third time was done, literally, at three in the morning the night before the con while the wig was on my head because I didn’t have a wig head, my unofficial wig head was asleep, and I wanted the wig to fit.  That was fun.  Not really.  I learned a lot about what not to do when wearing a wig.  Example; trying to see the back of your head via two reflecting mirrors while one of them is in one hand and the other hand is trying to singlehandedly, literally, braid a 40” wig is not a good idea.  Neither is pulling so hard on the wig that it falls off your head in the middle of braiding because your arms are too tired to hold themselves up.  Never style a wig either late at night or just before the con unless it is an absolute emergency as you will humiliated with out that wig.  Real hair works too sometimes.

The second styling of the same wig was an attempt to pull off a Civil War era hairstyle two hours before the fashion show where I was modeling my Civil War ball gown.  Again bad idea.  Not as bad as styling a wig late at night but close.  Give yourself at least, at least three to four hours to complete a Civil War hairstyle if you are styling it yourself.  Again I had to style it by myself while trying to, somehow, see the back of my head.  I didn’t have as many, if any, disasters as I did with the Sheeta restyling, but I ran in to problems later on.  Half way through the fashion show, the long worked on hairstyle started falling out.  By the time the second fashion review was over, the hair style was practically shot and the wig had to be hastily restyled every few minutes.  I now have to work all the knots and rats out of my wig once again. 

On a lighter note, my third wig to style/ restyle is my Toph wig.  On the third day of the con a very nice experienced cosplayer/wigstylist styled my Toph wig.  The only thing is, is I didn’t put the wig on straight before she styled the wig so the bun came out lopsided.  So I have to restyle it to A) have more volume and B) not be lopsided.  I’m really looking forward to this one since the same wigstylist sold me her spare wig head so now I can use a wig head to style my wigs.