Working with Party Wigs Tutorial Part 1 : Working with a Pre-parted wig
O.k boys and girls here is my tutorial on how to work with party wigs. So far I want to break down certain areas about party wigs and their uses for costumes and paractice work. For starters I will like to start off by stating an obvious fact that there are some party wigs you an work with if you know the quality of the party wig. A 5.00 dollar party wig is good for cutting pratice and sewing wefts onto, but a 25 dollar wig can also work the same way however you do get what you pay for when it comes to cheap wigs. So my next tutorial will cover that and what types to stay away from and what types that have potential to almost pass for a high quality wig, for now lets look at pre-parted wigs. This is why I love pre-parted wigs:
1. No parting for ponytails they are aleady there!!!
2. I can change the wig to higer ponytails or lower ponytails.
3. The fiber quality is good for a cheap party wig.
4. You can add extensions to them or find matching extensions if they are regular human hair colors.
Now one reason why I hate working with Pre-Parted wigs is because most anime inspired colors are hard to find extension wise. In this case you have to part for ponytails. This is my opinion, but if you are hard core and you part for ponytails for any color then you have my respect, but for begginers in the wig craft like me and for some this is what worked for me and I hope it works for you. Lets get started shall we.
The wig you see here is called a "Cheerleader wig" in the color of black. This wig also comes in a light blonde as well. This is a great base for high pre-ponytails styles. I used this wig in 2 of my cosplays.
One is my Minmay wig and my Kagura from Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven. This wig is my favorite party wig and the fiber quality is excelent. I paid 20.00 bucks shipping inclued for this wig and for a cheap wig it has potential. Now lets see what we can do to give this wig a high quality look.
Materials
1. Pre-parted wig ( any color)
2. Matching extensions ( at last 8 or 10 depending on how big or thick you want your ponytails)
3. Curved needle
4. Upholsery thread that matches the color of your wig or weave thread ( weave thread comes in mostly black or brown. Use upholsery for other colors)
5. Small elastic bands or rubber ( I used small elastic srunchies since rubberbands will snap more).
6. Wide toothcomb
7. Wig brush or soft bristle brush.
8. Hair spray
9. Blow Dryer
10. Styrofaom balls in anyshapeor size you want. I recommend 3in, 4in, or 5in. If your bold you can use 6in. (If you are not doing thicker ponytails like the Minmay then disregard this)
11.Fabric paint that matchs or almost matches the wig color.
12. Hotglue
13. Oil Sheen ( anybrand) optional tohelp iwth tangles if they appear.
14. Styrofoam wig head
15. Wig head stand
16. T-Pins
17. Caulk or Gem Tack
O.k lets get started, but first I'm gonna give credit where credit is due. First credit goes to Katie Bair because of her wonderful site and tutorials. Beacuse of this I would not have a passion, bravery, and patience to work on wigs thanks Katie. www.katiebair.com
Also to Kikku-San who taught me and others how to make wefts faster on your sewing machine, make a wig from scarach, and making wig making a litle easier for this cosplayer.
Thanks ladies. O.k lets get started!!!
Place your wig on the wig head and strech it as far as you can. Or you can padd the wig. The reason for doing ths is because it will garuntee a perfect fit ans since wig heads are smaller sized than your head size the wig won't fit once you are done with it. I highly recommend doing this or if you want you can ommit this since the wig is already pre ponytailed.
O.k pinn your wig to your wig head. Try and get the pins on the nape, front, sides, and other ares of the wig so that it will definelty stay in place.
O.k if you want the ponytails the way they are then omitt this step if you want them in a certain position like a little higher or hanging farther in the back then take the ponytails down one at a time.
Optional Step: If you want extra hair or curls hanging down the side then now is the time to do so. As you can see I hand sewed some extensions to the wig cap so that when I put each section of the wig up in ponytails then it will blend in nicely with the wig.
Once you are done you can see the finish result of how it blends into the wig.
O.k back to the rest of the tutorial:
Now we are gonna discuss on what types of ponytails we wanna make. Thick ones or thin ones. Lets start off with thick first and work our way up to thin shall we.
a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/aleathiaburns/pic/0005hey3/">
First letS stubb or wig. Once you have stubbed your wig you can seal them with caulk. I used Gemtac since it was avalible at the time and works as a good substitute for caulk. I used it and it works so either one does'nt matter all we want to have is a good stubb ready to have ponytails to add too. Let them dry over night or until they are dry depending on the dry time. While our stubbs are drying lets get or foamcore (Stryorfoam) balls ready. Slightly hollow them out because you want a hole that is big enough or small enough to go around the stubbs, then paint them with fabric paint and let them dry.
Next comes the fun part. O.k for starters the pic that you see is of a pratice foamcore ponytail I was woking please forgive me because my camera batteries dieded and I couldn't get a pic of the constructions of the ponytails for the wig so the practice one will have to do, but you get the idea. Oh and on a side note that is human hair extensions so yeah you can get humanhair for a low price where you know where you can go ^-^.
If you have regular wefts extensions them great if not you have to make them so here is a pic of me making extensions using fabric ( tulle is better to) so get your sewing machince out get to work.
Once your wefts are ready then you can do the next step and attach them to your foamcore. O.k I will confess I used Hotglue and what I did was slowly wrap the extensions with a string of hotglue onto the weave part carefully not getting it on the fiber and doing a glue/warp technique as I went. You can hand sewin the foamcore and wrap to if you want instead of using hotglue. Either way you want your wefts wrapped around the foamcore. Once you are done with both balls gently brush the foamcore ponytails and put them to the side for now. You have a curved needle to thread.
Once your needle is ready take your glue gun and add a little of it onto the stubb. Slowly slid the foamcore ponytail and press down on it. The hot glue is a tempory place holder so that it will be easer to hand sew the foamcore to the wig. Starting at the base of the foamcore or underneath the wig cap where the needle will go though into the foamcore start sewing around the foamcore. You want to sew it so that it is atttached to the stubb. Once both foamcores are sewed into the stubb you can add rings or any bands that you want to cover your ponytails and you are done with thick ponytails
Now lets ventrue towards thiner pontails shall we. O.k Lets start off with a new Pre-ponytailed wig and let take it down.You can do one ponytail at a time or both.
Taking your blowdryer on low heat up the fibers for a minute. You want to soften them up so that you can comb them easier. This is optional, but as long as you don't have any tangles then your fine.
If you are gonna add bangs, curls, anthoer wig now is the time before you put it up in ponytails. Once your done combing and brushing put the ponytails up in the postion you want them to be.
(On a side note this is the Kagura wig.) O.k now we can do 2 things we can stubb it or not. I choose not to stubb this time and this is why. I wanted the ponytails to be thicker, and since there are lots of techniques on this subject I opt to just add the wefts to the ponytail and sew them on. This was quick and easy. (Mind you I made my wefts so I won't bother to go to that step since we covered it already so let's press on)
Extensions added I add another set of elastic srunchies to the ends since Kagura has these huge ass bells hanging from them. So now you can see how wonderful this party wig can be and how easy you can work with pre - parted wigs. I hope it helps you as it helped.
1. No parting for ponytails they are aleady there!!!
2. I can change the wig to higer ponytails or lower ponytails.
3. The fiber quality is good for a cheap party wig.
4. You can add extensions to them or find matching extensions if they are regular human hair colors.
Now one reason why I hate working with Pre-Parted wigs is because most anime inspired colors are hard to find extension wise. In this case you have to part for ponytails. This is my opinion, but if you are hard core and you part for ponytails for any color then you have my respect, but for begginers in the wig craft like me and for some this is what worked for me and I hope it works for you. Lets get started shall we.
The wig you see here is called a "Cheerleader wig" in the color of black. This wig also comes in a light blonde as well. This is a great base for high pre-ponytails styles. I used this wig in 2 of my cosplays.
One is my Minmay wig and my Kagura from Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven. This wig is my favorite party wig and the fiber quality is excelent. I paid 20.00 bucks shipping inclued for this wig and for a cheap wig it has potential. Now lets see what we can do to give this wig a high quality look.
Materials
1. Pre-parted wig ( any color)
2. Matching extensions ( at last 8 or 10 depending on how big or thick you want your ponytails)
3. Curved needle
4. Upholsery thread that matches the color of your wig or weave thread ( weave thread comes in mostly black or brown. Use upholsery for other colors)
5. Small elastic bands or rubber ( I used small elastic srunchies since rubberbands will snap more).
6. Wide toothcomb
7. Wig brush or soft bristle brush.
8. Hair spray
9. Blow Dryer
10. Styrofaom balls in anyshapeor size you want. I recommend 3in, 4in, or 5in. If your bold you can use 6in. (If you are not doing thicker ponytails like the Minmay then disregard this)
11.Fabric paint that matchs or almost matches the wig color.
12. Hotglue
13. Oil Sheen ( anybrand) optional tohelp iwth tangles if they appear.
14. Styrofoam wig head
15. Wig head stand
16. T-Pins
17. Caulk or Gem Tack
O.k lets get started, but first I'm gonna give credit where credit is due. First credit goes to Katie Bair because of her wonderful site and tutorials. Beacuse of this I would not have a passion, bravery, and patience to work on wigs thanks Katie. www.katiebair.com
Also to Kikku-San who taught me and others how to make wefts faster on your sewing machine, make a wig from scarach, and making wig making a litle easier for this cosplayer.
Thanks ladies. O.k lets get started!!!
Place your wig on the wig head and strech it as far as you can. Or you can padd the wig. The reason for doing ths is because it will garuntee a perfect fit ans since wig heads are smaller sized than your head size the wig won't fit once you are done with it. I highly recommend doing this or if you want you can ommit this since the wig is already pre ponytailed.
O.k pinn your wig to your wig head. Try and get the pins on the nape, front, sides, and other ares of the wig so that it will definelty stay in place.
O.k if you want the ponytails the way they are then omitt this step if you want them in a certain position like a little higher or hanging farther in the back then take the ponytails down one at a time.
Optional Step: If you want extra hair or curls hanging down the side then now is the time to do so. As you can see I hand sewed some extensions to the wig cap so that when I put each section of the wig up in ponytails then it will blend in nicely with the wig.
Once you are done you can see the finish result of how it blends into the wig.
O.k back to the rest of the tutorial:
Now we are gonna discuss on what types of ponytails we wanna make. Thick ones or thin ones. Lets start off with thick first and work our way up to thin shall we.
a href="http://pics.livejournal.com/aleathiaburns/pic/0005hey3/">
First letS stubb or wig. Once you have stubbed your wig you can seal them with caulk. I used Gemtac since it was avalible at the time and works as a good substitute for caulk. I used it and it works so either one does'nt matter all we want to have is a good stubb ready to have ponytails to add too. Let them dry over night or until they are dry depending on the dry time. While our stubbs are drying lets get or foamcore (Stryorfoam) balls ready. Slightly hollow them out because you want a hole that is big enough or small enough to go around the stubbs, then paint them with fabric paint and let them dry.
Next comes the fun part. O.k for starters the pic that you see is of a pratice foamcore ponytail I was woking please forgive me because my camera batteries dieded and I couldn't get a pic of the constructions of the ponytails for the wig so the practice one will have to do, but you get the idea. Oh and on a side note that is human hair extensions so yeah you can get humanhair for a low price where you know where you can go ^-^.
If you have regular wefts extensions them great if not you have to make them so here is a pic of me making extensions using fabric ( tulle is better to) so get your sewing machince out get to work.
Once your wefts are ready then you can do the next step and attach them to your foamcore. O.k I will confess I used Hotglue and what I did was slowly wrap the extensions with a string of hotglue onto the weave part carefully not getting it on the fiber and doing a glue/warp technique as I went. You can hand sewin the foamcore and wrap to if you want instead of using hotglue. Either way you want your wefts wrapped around the foamcore. Once you are done with both balls gently brush the foamcore ponytails and put them to the side for now. You have a curved needle to thread.
Once your needle is ready take your glue gun and add a little of it onto the stubb. Slowly slid the foamcore ponytail and press down on it. The hot glue is a tempory place holder so that it will be easer to hand sew the foamcore to the wig. Starting at the base of the foamcore or underneath the wig cap where the needle will go though into the foamcore start sewing around the foamcore. You want to sew it so that it is atttached to the stubb. Once both foamcores are sewed into the stubb you can add rings or any bands that you want to cover your ponytails and you are done with thick ponytails
Now lets ventrue towards thiner pontails shall we. O.k Lets start off with a new Pre-ponytailed wig and let take it down.You can do one ponytail at a time or both.
Taking your blowdryer on low heat up the fibers for a minute. You want to soften them up so that you can comb them easier. This is optional, but as long as you don't have any tangles then your fine.
If you are gonna add bangs, curls, anthoer wig now is the time before you put it up in ponytails. Once your done combing and brushing put the ponytails up in the postion you want them to be.
(On a side note this is the Kagura wig.) O.k now we can do 2 things we can stubb it or not. I choose not to stubb this time and this is why. I wanted the ponytails to be thicker, and since there are lots of techniques on this subject I opt to just add the wefts to the ponytail and sew them on. This was quick and easy. (Mind you I made my wefts so I won't bother to go to that step since we covered it already so let's press on)
Extensions added I add another set of elastic srunchies to the ends since Kagura has these huge ass bells hanging from them. So now you can see how wonderful this party wig can be and how easy you can work with pre - parted wigs. I hope it helps you as it helped.