Cosplay Tutorial: Saving Wigs
Alright! SO. I used to do these little tutorials for cosplay, and ever since I did the cosplay panel for J-Fest I've been thinking about what type of information I could possibly add to the grand internet tutorial collective. I mean, just about EVERYTHING has been covered on the internet already...
Everything, I've found, except this. XD
So this is a very quick wig tutorial not on styling... but reviving dead wigs.
It is absolutely inevitable that wigs will get damaged. Wind, friction, time... you can stand around in a room without moving or running into people and your wig will find a way to make you want to cry within an hour. It happens to everyone.
What makes it worse, though, is the mistake everyone makes at one time or another to not immediately comb out your wig when you take it off. To shove a long wig in a bag thinking you can wait until the journey home from a convention to take care of it... and then Monday rolls around, you pull your wig out, and BAM. It's not hair anymore, it's just a mess of tangles.
If you're like Chris, you will dedicate a good two hours patiently trying to detangle it and find that the more tangles you remove, the more seems stuck in there. And not only that, the more you comb your wig, the more it frizzes. (No offense, Chris.)
Lesson #1: There is a good chance you can KILL your wig if you comb it too much.
The first wig I saved from the trash was Chris's poor Luka wig, which had been sitting around the house for a good month because he couldn't touch it anymore. And it was an accident that I managed to save it. It was actually because I was straightening the CC wig that I found out heat is a very good thing.
But only if you use it correctly.
The first warning you should be getting with a wig is to NEVER USE HEAT. A lot of expensive wigs nowadays are heat-resistant, meaning you can style it with a curling iron. But if you bought a wig under $70, don't expect this to be true for yours. So the first thing to learn is that certain wigs are flammable. And they melt, so you never ever want to use something like a curling iron on it.
So this tutorial is for the people who have had some experience with wigs at least. I'd probably label it firmly in the INTERMEDIATE section on dealing with wigs.
Let's take Nunnally's wig as an example, since I've been meaning to fix this wig up for several months now.
While it's a pretty thing, it was a bit too curly for Nunnally and curly is just not very fun when it comes to wigs. It tangles so much faster, and doesn't want to comb out without poofing in every direction. People will curly hair deal with this as well. So what we want to do here is not only detangle and save this wig, but to change the complete curls into slight waves.
Granted, this wasn't one of the worst wigs I've dealt with, but it makes for a good example. Frizzy, tangled, curled... a good portion of the time I couldn't figure out where the ends of the hair were as it was tangled up into itself.
But ignoring that... here are the only three items you should need to save a wig. You can even make do with just one... but that one HAS to be the wig comb.
Let it be said, though, that is IS rather nice to have a wig head and several pins to make sure the wig stays on the wig head. You can comb the wig with it flat on a table or on a friendès head, though, depending. :P
Ignoring all the other items on my desk... XD; You should see that one is a wig conditioner/detangler... easily available in wig stores for $5-10. And this thing will last a very long time, so it's definitely worth it to buy. It will make detangling so much easier and keep your hair detangled much longer.
Second is the weird metal comb on the bottom. This is a wig comb. It will not always look like this, but wig combs tend to come with metal bristles as opposed to plastic. I don't know why exactly, but apparently it makes wig hair frizz less if you use metal as opposed to plastic... not sure how, but it works. ALSO. Never use a brush. Always use the most wide tooth metal comb you can find in accordance to Lesson #1... which is? That's right, guys. Too much combing can KILL your wig. All you want to do with this comb is to take the tangles out, and nothing else.
The third item apparently not many people have. I grew up with it, so I have no idea where to get it, sorry. ^^;; It's a hair dryer in the shape of a brush. This was what my mom used to dry my hair as a kid since I hated hair dryers blowing hot wind in my face. I have the heat set on low so while it's warm, it's definitely no where as hot as a hair dryer.
You want to separate the hair into small sections... the smaller it is, the easier it is to comb through. I take a fair chunk each time mostly because I'm used to battling with wigs on a weekly basis. XD You take your wide tooth wig comb and start brushing out the tangles in that section a little at a time, starting from the very bottom. Don't pull hard! This is just like brushing your own hair, except hair doesn't grow back on wigs. There is no way that you can comb through a wig and not have a lot of hair fall out... but let's try and limit that amount by not pulling too hard.
Usually (but not always), the worst of the tangles will be at the bottom, so the higher you go, the easier it should get. Remember to brush the tangles out to the bottom... the same way you would with real hair. If you've never had long hair before, ask someone who has and learn from them how to properly brush hair.
Now, if it's really tangled, there are two options. One, just try to detangle as much as you can with your fingers and then give it a few strokes with the wig comb and leave it. The second option is for those people who know how to deal with wigs and heat... especially if you have the dryer brush that I do. You comb out the worst tangles with your fingers, and then slowly detangle the entire section of hair, spraying liberally with conditioner should you need to. You wig hair may frizz, and it may frizz a LOT. But as long as you get all the tangles out, that frizz can be fixed.
After you get all the tangles out, this is where you run the hair dryer brush through the hair... quickly and evenly now that there aren't any tangles in your way. After a few comb throughs, your strand should look like this.
Tie it away to the side, and repeat the process with another strand of hair.
What is the heat doing? Well, if it's at the correct setting, the heat from the hair dryer will slowly start to melt your wig strands back together from its frayed and frazzled state. When you comb too much, wig hair starts splitting like real hair when it's too long... sadly, real hair can't be melted back together like this. It's important to have the brush as well, to separate all the strands correctly as it slowly fuses back together. But remember to have the heat setting on LOW... better it take longer than to have it too hot and melt more than one strand of hair to another.
Slowly but surely, you should be going from this to this:
Always be patient and gentle. Long wigs will usually take a good hour to care for when it's in a bad condition.
In the end, you should have something beautiful like this. It should look as good as new, if not better!
If you were just trying to straighten this wig when you revived it, then this is pretty much the past step. You should be done here... but being that this is a wig for Nunnally and she has wavy hair, I just separate this and braid it into two plaits.
This should have been done with french braids, but I never really learned how to french braid so that's my fault. Once you're done braiding, though, the entire wig is to be immersed in hot water for a few seconds. The water should be hot enough that you automatically recoil from it if you were to accidentally touch it, but cool enough that you can put a finger in it for several seconds without burning yourself. Think the hottest shower you can take.
After letting it soak for several seconds, I took the wig and left it out a day to air-dry. The end result... well, it's for you to decide. 8D
It still needs to be cut and styled, but I'm afraid that's out of my department now. XD
Everything, I've found, except this. XD
So this is a very quick wig tutorial not on styling... but reviving dead wigs.
It is absolutely inevitable that wigs will get damaged. Wind, friction, time... you can stand around in a room without moving or running into people and your wig will find a way to make you want to cry within an hour. It happens to everyone.
What makes it worse, though, is the mistake everyone makes at one time or another to not immediately comb out your wig when you take it off. To shove a long wig in a bag thinking you can wait until the journey home from a convention to take care of it... and then Monday rolls around, you pull your wig out, and BAM. It's not hair anymore, it's just a mess of tangles.
If you're like Chris, you will dedicate a good two hours patiently trying to detangle it and find that the more tangles you remove, the more seems stuck in there. And not only that, the more you comb your wig, the more it frizzes. (No offense, Chris.)
Lesson #1: There is a good chance you can KILL your wig if you comb it too much.
The first wig I saved from the trash was Chris's poor Luka wig, which had been sitting around the house for a good month because he couldn't touch it anymore. And it was an accident that I managed to save it. It was actually because I was straightening the CC wig that I found out heat is a very good thing.
But only if you use it correctly.
The first warning you should be getting with a wig is to NEVER USE HEAT. A lot of expensive wigs nowadays are heat-resistant, meaning you can style it with a curling iron. But if you bought a wig under $70, don't expect this to be true for yours. So the first thing to learn is that certain wigs are flammable. And they melt, so you never ever want to use something like a curling iron on it.
So this tutorial is for the people who have had some experience with wigs at least. I'd probably label it firmly in the INTERMEDIATE section on dealing with wigs.
Let's take Nunnally's wig as an example, since I've been meaning to fix this wig up for several months now.
While it's a pretty thing, it was a bit too curly for Nunnally and curly is just not very fun when it comes to wigs. It tangles so much faster, and doesn't want to comb out without poofing in every direction. People will curly hair deal with this as well. So what we want to do here is not only detangle and save this wig, but to change the complete curls into slight waves.
Granted, this wasn't one of the worst wigs I've dealt with, but it makes for a good example. Frizzy, tangled, curled... a good portion of the time I couldn't figure out where the ends of the hair were as it was tangled up into itself.
But ignoring that... here are the only three items you should need to save a wig. You can even make do with just one... but that one HAS to be the wig comb.
Let it be said, though, that is IS rather nice to have a wig head and several pins to make sure the wig stays on the wig head. You can comb the wig with it flat on a table or on a friendès head, though, depending. :P
Ignoring all the other items on my desk... XD; You should see that one is a wig conditioner/detangler... easily available in wig stores for $5-10. And this thing will last a very long time, so it's definitely worth it to buy. It will make detangling so much easier and keep your hair detangled much longer.
Second is the weird metal comb on the bottom. This is a wig comb. It will not always look like this, but wig combs tend to come with metal bristles as opposed to plastic. I don't know why exactly, but apparently it makes wig hair frizz less if you use metal as opposed to plastic... not sure how, but it works. ALSO. Never use a brush. Always use the most wide tooth metal comb you can find in accordance to Lesson #1... which is? That's right, guys. Too much combing can KILL your wig. All you want to do with this comb is to take the tangles out, and nothing else.
The third item apparently not many people have. I grew up with it, so I have no idea where to get it, sorry. ^^;; It's a hair dryer in the shape of a brush. This was what my mom used to dry my hair as a kid since I hated hair dryers blowing hot wind in my face. I have the heat set on low so while it's warm, it's definitely no where as hot as a hair dryer.
You want to separate the hair into small sections... the smaller it is, the easier it is to comb through. I take a fair chunk each time mostly because I'm used to battling with wigs on a weekly basis. XD You take your wide tooth wig comb and start brushing out the tangles in that section a little at a time, starting from the very bottom. Don't pull hard! This is just like brushing your own hair, except hair doesn't grow back on wigs. There is no way that you can comb through a wig and not have a lot of hair fall out... but let's try and limit that amount by not pulling too hard.
Usually (but not always), the worst of the tangles will be at the bottom, so the higher you go, the easier it should get. Remember to brush the tangles out to the bottom... the same way you would with real hair. If you've never had long hair before, ask someone who has and learn from them how to properly brush hair.
Now, if it's really tangled, there are two options. One, just try to detangle as much as you can with your fingers and then give it a few strokes with the wig comb and leave it. The second option is for those people who know how to deal with wigs and heat... especially if you have the dryer brush that I do. You comb out the worst tangles with your fingers, and then slowly detangle the entire section of hair, spraying liberally with conditioner should you need to. You wig hair may frizz, and it may frizz a LOT. But as long as you get all the tangles out, that frizz can be fixed.
After you get all the tangles out, this is where you run the hair dryer brush through the hair... quickly and evenly now that there aren't any tangles in your way. After a few comb throughs, your strand should look like this.
Tie it away to the side, and repeat the process with another strand of hair.
What is the heat doing? Well, if it's at the correct setting, the heat from the hair dryer will slowly start to melt your wig strands back together from its frayed and frazzled state. When you comb too much, wig hair starts splitting like real hair when it's too long... sadly, real hair can't be melted back together like this. It's important to have the brush as well, to separate all the strands correctly as it slowly fuses back together. But remember to have the heat setting on LOW... better it take longer than to have it too hot and melt more than one strand of hair to another.
Slowly but surely, you should be going from this to this:
Always be patient and gentle. Long wigs will usually take a good hour to care for when it's in a bad condition.
In the end, you should have something beautiful like this. It should look as good as new, if not better!
If you were just trying to straighten this wig when you revived it, then this is pretty much the past step. You should be done here... but being that this is a wig for Nunnally and she has wavy hair, I just separate this and braid it into two plaits.
This should have been done with french braids, but I never really learned how to french braid so that's my fault. Once you're done braiding, though, the entire wig is to be immersed in hot water for a few seconds. The water should be hot enough that you automatically recoil from it if you were to accidentally touch it, but cool enough that you can put a finger in it for several seconds without burning yourself. Think the hottest shower you can take.
After letting it soak for several seconds, I took the wig and left it out a day to air-dry. The end result... well, it's for you to decide. 8D
It still needs to be cut and styled, but I'm afraid that's out of my department now. XD